#snake-eater

The squash god in my head (except in green):

Official Summary:

From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award–winning author T. Kingfisher comes an enthralling contemporary fantasy seeped in horror about a woman trying to escape her past by moving to the remote US desert—only to find herself beholden to the wrath of a vengeful god. With only a few dollars to her name and her beloved dog Copper by her side, Selena flees her past in the city to claim her late aunt’s house in the desert town of Quartz Creek. The scorpions and spiders are better than what she left behind. Because in Quartz Creek, there’s a strange beauty to everything, from the landscape to new friends, and more blue sky than Selena’s ever seen. But something lurks beneath the surface. Like the desert gods and spirits lingering outside Selena’s house at night, keeping watch. Mostly benevolent, says her neighbor Grandma Billy. That doesn’t ease the prickly sense that one of them watches too closely and wants something from Selena she can’t begin to imagine. And when Selena’s search for answers leads her to journal entries that her aunt left behind, she discovers a sinister truth about her new home: It’s the haunting grounds of an ancient god known simply as “Snake-Eater,” who her late aunt made a promise to that remains unfulfilled. Snake-Eater has taken a liking to Selena, an obsession of sorts that turns sinister. And now that Selena is the new owner of his home, he’s hell-bent on collecting everything he’s owed.

My Thoughts:

I adore everything I've read by T. Kingfisher, so it's no surprise that I loved Snake-Eater. It has everything I love about T. Kingfisher's novels, but this one has a stunning character arc that made me more emotional than I expected.

T. Kingfisher always has the best main characters, and Selena is no exception; I loved her immediately. She and her dog, Copper, are the heart of the story, but there are so many fantastic supporting characters, too. Grandma Billy and Father Aguirre quickly become Selena's two closest friends, and they are both seriously wonderful characters. I loved them and how kind they both are; their friendship with Selena is lovely!

The story is a fantastic blend of heartwarming, creepy, funny, and healing. Selena is escaping an emotionally abusive relationship. Seeing her slowly learn that she can be herself and still be valued is genuinely moving. She's a character that you can't help but root for.

I've seen this described as horror, but I would label this as more fantasy with light horror elements. It's similar to some of T. Kingfisher's previous horror novels, especially The Hollow Places and The Twisted Ones, but this one is much more focused on the character journey than on big scares. There were certainly a few scenes that creeped me out, though!

I loved this; I laughed, I cried, and I got really emotionally attached to all of the characters. I'd highly recommend this to anyone who loves good character arcs and stories with good dogs. Lovers of other cozy horror should really like this, too!

My Rating: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌖 (4.75/5 stars)

Pages: 267 (Kindle Edition)

Genre/Tropes/Tags: Fantasy, Cozy Horror, Paranormal, Trans Supporting Character, Has A Dog

Contains Depictions Of: Previous Emotionally Abusive Relationships (including gaslighting), Guns, Animal deaths (not the dog!), Some Injuries

Links: Storygraph | GoodReads | Pagebound | RedWombatStudio.com

Snake-Eater was released on December 1, 2025, and is available for purchase!

I received an advanced copy of this book for free, thanks to Netgalley, 47North, and Amazon Publishing. The above are my honest feelings about the provided book.

Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher: Review by Gary K. Wolfe

December 1, 2025

Followers of the popular and prolific T. Kingfisher probably noted that she settled in the American Southwest sometime last year, but her fascination with desert settings was already apparent in Hemlock and Silver earlier this year, with its fairytale king boasting of the giant agaves which helped keep the desert at bay. It struck me as a bit unusual, since deserts in fantasy have so often served simply as geographi­cal shorthand for lifeless, hazardous wastelands to be traversed as part of the hero’s challenges. (In SF, thanks largely to Frank Herbert, they’ve had a more complex history.) Now Kingfisher returns to a desert setting, much closer to home, in Snake-Eater, a more visceral and realistic portrait of the challenges and cultures of desert life. In fact, we’re more than a third of the way through before the first unambiguously super­natural figures show up. Until then, we follow the rather bleak saga of Selena, who in desperation gives up her job at a deli and spends almost her last few dollars to flee an emotionally abusive partner named Walter. Taking a train to the remote desert village of Quartz Creek, accom­panied only by her loyal dog, Copper, she plans to visit an aunt with whom she had only occa­sionally corresponded with through postcards. Finding a virtually abandoned train station, she makes her way into the tiny town only to learn that Aunt Amelia had died a year earlier. With no apparent way of getting home, she decides to stay in the aunt’s abandoned house temporarily, despite the scorpions, rattlesnakes, and various other fearful critters. Fortunately, in good found-family tradition, the locals are an agreeable and quirky bunch, especially Jenny the postmistress/mayor/police chief, a rather mysterious priest named Father Aguirre, and the delightfully cantankerous neighbor Grandma Billy.