Top ten Southern-set YA novels

Jeff Zentner lives in Nashville, Tennessee. He came to writing through music, starting his creative life as a guitarist and eventually becoming a songwriter. He’s released five albums and appeared on recordings with Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Thurston Moore, Debbie Harry, Mark Lanegan, and Lydia Lunch, among others.

Now he writes novels for young adults.

Zentner's new novel is The Serpent King.

One of the author's top ten Southern-set YA novels, as shared at the BN Teen blog:

If I Was Your Girl, by Meredith Russo

Speaking of stories that haven’t been told enough, this is the story of Amanda Hardy, the new girl in small-town Lambertville, Tennessee. She begins to spend time with a handsome, kind boy at school, but she’s petrified he’s going to learn her secret: she’s transgender. This book is a double whammy, telling a story about a transgender girl and about a girl coming of age in the rural South, two underrepresented stories in YA. Meredith Russo’s writing is elegant, poignant, and hilarious, with a pitch-perfect ear for Southern speech.

Read about the other entries on the list.

My Book, The Movie: The Serpent King.

The Page 69 Test: The Serpent King.

--Marshal Zeringue