Books in Conversation: The Ethics of the Fathers
Why Conviction and The Serpent King should be Book Buddies
I’ve been beating this drum for years, I know, but in case you haven’t heard it, let me beat it directly into your inbox now.
Conviction by Kelly Loy Gilbert and The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner were both Morris finalists (the award given to best debut YA novels) for 2015 and 2016 respectively (Zentner won his year; 2015’s went to Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli), so you don’t have to take my word on them, but that’s not the point anyway.
The point is that they both star boys with prominent Christian fathers (a radio host in the case of the former, and a preacher in the latter) who’ve been accused of murder, and in my opinion, they make spectacular companion reads.
In Conviction, the verdict hinges on our main character, the lone protagonist, Braden. The key witness in his father’s trial, Braden weighs both the night and the aftermath from every angle to figure out how to proceed.
In The Serpent King, Dill, the son of a snake-handling preacher, has already made the decision that he won’t lie for his father, and so we see where life goes for him and his two best friends from that point.
Both books might potentially rip out your heart, both will give you a lot to meditate on, and both examine Christianity in America (“the most famous literary father-son relationship of all time!”) through modern fathers and sons. So check ‘em out.
(Note: if I were adding one more companion read, but in adult, it’d be Yes, Daddy by Jonathan Parks-Ramage. You can see my short review on that here.)