A Snake Falls to Earth

A Snake Falls to Earth is a 2021 speculative fiction novel by Lipan Apache writer Darcie Little Badger, marketed to readers aged 12–18. It falls into the genre of Indigenous Futurism, which encompasses narratives about recovering ancestral traditions and adapting in a post-colonial world. The novel was published by Levine Querido on November 9, 2021.

Plot

The novel follows two protagonists whose stories unfold in alternating chapters. Nina is a 16-year-old Lipan Apache girl living in the human world. She is deeply engaged with traditional stories and begins learning about the Reflecting World, a land of spirits and monsters. Her grandmother inherited healing powers from Reflecting World ancestors, and her father, a bookstore owner, secretly provides books to beings from the Reflecting World who visit Earth in human form. Nina also works on dictating and translating a Spanish and Lipan Apache oral story from her great-great-grandmother.

Oli is a 15-year-old cottonmouth kid (a snake-like being) living in the Reflecting World. After being forced from his home, he settles near a bottomless lake and befriends two coyote sisters, Risk and Reign, and a frog named Ami. When Ami falls ill because his Earth-equivalent species is nearing extinction, Oli must travel to Earth to find a cure.

When Nina and Oli eventually meet, they unite to confront a trickster mockingbird, an untrustworthy internet influencer, severe weather, and the threat of violent cultish followers of a power-hungry "King" who aims to be the only immortal left on Earth. They also work to understand why Nina's grandmother's health mysteriously declines whenever she leaves the family's land.

Key themes include perceptions of space, time, identity, environmentalism, communication, and the concept of home.

Genre and Style

The novel is a work of Indigenous Futurism. Little Badger incorporates traditional Lipan Apache storytelling structure, including smaller nesting narratives and backstories for peripheral characters that branch off from the main plot lines—a technique common in oral storytelling traditions. Nina's chapters are written in third-person perspective, while Oli's chapters use first-person perspective.

Critical Reception

The novel received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly. Kirkus called it "a coming-of-age story that beautifully combines tradition and technology for modern audiences." Publishers Weekly described it as "fun, imaginative, and deeply immersive." Booklist's Mahjabeen Syed noted that "Nina's third-person perspective is beautifully ruminative compared to Oli's faster first-person point of view" and called the novel "magical, stunning, and wholly original."

Writing for Locus, Alex Brown stated, "If Elatsoe was a ten out of ten, then A Snake Falls to Earth is a solid 11."

Awards and Honors

The novel was also named one of the best books of 2021 by the Chicago Public Library, Kirkus Reviews, Locus, the New York Public Library, and Publishers Weekly. Autostraddle included it on their list of the "Best Queer Books of 2021."