THE LITTLE SNAKE BY A.L. KENNEDY

 

The Little Snake by A.L. Kennedy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

THE LITTLE SNAKE | A.L. KENNEDY

The snake.
This snake isn’t a scary one or a villain, but a golden little thing, barely bigger than a bangle, with two jewels for eyes that glitter and shimmer like they're moving... because, well, they are.

This book reads like a fable, but it breaks your heart so gently you don't even notice until you're already sitting in the feeling.
The story follows Mary. She’s a clever, curious, and wonderfully sensible little girl who lives in a city of inequality and kites.
And Lanmo, the snake who finds her one afternoon in her rooftop garden.
What follows is a friendship that spans her entire life.
And that's all I'll say about the plot, because this isn't a book where plot is the point. The feeling is the point.

There's a moment early on where Lanmo visits a man named Karl, someone the story doesn't let us love, and he tells him:
"I cannot take everything you have. I will only take everything you are."
I put the book down when I read that, and immediately wrote it down for safe keeping.
Because once you understand what Lanmo is—what he actually does in the world—that line becomes something else entirely.

Here's what makes this story so heartbreaking.
(view spoiler)[Lanmo is Death. (I don't think that's a spoiler? The book doesn't hide it.) He has existed for thousands of years, moved through the world doing his work, and has never once had a friend. Never had a reason to hesitate. Never had a heart that beat.
And then he meets a little girl who isn't afraid of him.
Watching Mary grow up and watching her survive a city that crumbles, a world at war, loss after loss—Lanmo watches from a distance, sending her dreams, guiding her path, crying for the first time in his existence ... it is heartbreaking. (hide spoiler)]

This is a story of two hearts. One learning to feel for the very first time. One so full of feeling she can make even a snake sneeze from the sweetness of her soul.

The Little Snake is a story of a snake's heart that learned to beat...
And I think mine did too.

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