Snake-Eater
T. Kingfisher
Escaping abusive moms, men, and gods
Selena has had it. After being brought up by a mother who is the kind of Christian who believes everything she doesn’t 100% approve of (including her daughter Selena) is the work of the devil, she fell into the arms of Walter, who has convinced her she’s a silly and mentally-deficient woman. Realizing that she can’t face the prospect of facing Walter once more, she got on a train and lit out to Quartz Creek, where her aunt, who invited her years ago to visit any time, lives.
Except she doesn’t. “Live,” that is. In the years since that postcard Selena’s aunt passed away. So there she is in Quartz Creek with a retriever-ish dog and $27 in cash, and a phone she doesn’t dare use, because Walter can track her if she turns it on.
Quartz Creek is a designated “Historic Town” in the Arizona desert. It’s the kind of place that has trouble hanging on to its young people. (Selena, a mere slip of 30 years old, is what Quartz Creek counts as young people.) It doesn’t have a hotel, or even an Olde Tyme Inn with rooms to let. But Selena’s aunt’s old cottage is vacant. (”Deserted” would probably capture the feeling better.) Jenny, “the mayor, you know. Also the postmaster, fire marshal, and the chief of police” of Quartz Creek suggests Selena spend the night there.
Well, she ends up staying a lot longer than one night. What’s more, she turns out to be neither a work of the devil nor a silly mentally-deficient woman, but a person capable of making a living for herself in a one-room cottage in the high desert. It slowly becomes evident that she is more than welcome in Quartz Creek.
Anyway, it transpires that her aunt had an intimate relationship with a desert god/spirit called Snake-eater. Snake-eater wants to continue the relationship with Selena. Oh, GAWD! Is there no end to the abusive jerks who want a piece of Selena? This one, it turns out, is tougher to fight off than Walter.
The fight with Snake-eater is definitely the most exciting part of the novel. But it was not the part I enjoyed most. What I enjoyed most was seeing Selena escape from the pall of gaslighting that has dimmed her past life.
T. Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon) is one of those authors who can write novels that are not just good stories, but also fun to read. Snake-Eater is such a book. Some of Vernon‘s books are very funny. This one is not laugh-out-loud funny. The feeling I have at the end is more “satisfying” than “humorous.”