Book cover of Serpent's Wake: a Tale for the Bitten

Book description

After twelve years trapped in the throat of a serpent, a girl escapes. She returns to her village naked with a monstrous snakeskin trailing behind her. One decision at a time, she reclaims her life. Each character she encounters by land and sea—brute, healer, orphan, mystic, lover—reflects an unhealed aspect…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Serpent's Wake as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Set in a world that is at once familiar, yet without grounding in time or space, Daniels’ fable of an anonymous girl who escapes to reclaim her life after many years in the belly of a great snake, is fanciful and spellbinding.

It is a story that guides the reader through dark themes such as loss, grief, abuse, denial, and isolation; capturing the very essence of detachment that is the uneven road to recovery from great trauma. Daniels’ prose is beautiful and eerie, and her protagonist’s journey from victim to survivor is nothing short of sublime. 

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On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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