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Snakebite Survivors Club
A mix of travel, history and modern fable, with the author travelling to the USA, Africa, Australia and India to meet people living amongst the world's deadliest snakes - and attempting to overcome his personal fear in the process. He weaves a tapestry of snake tales as he confronts his phobia.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2000
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162 people want to read
About the author
Jeremy Seal
11 books7 followersJeremy Seal is a writer and broadcaster. His first book, A Fez of the Heart, was shortlisted for the 1995 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award. He is also the author of The Snakebite Survivors' Club and The Wreck at Sharpnose Point, and presenter of Channel 4's ‘Wreck Detectives’. He lives in Bath with his wife and daughters.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
March 20, 2020
Originally read in June 2000. Reread in March 2020. Original review below.
Rummaging among my shelves looking for my copy of Peter Fleming's Brazilian Adventure , I happened upon my copy of The Snakebite Survivors' Club, and so spent some happy minutes paging through it once again. The book is based on a simple premise: Jeremy Seal, self-confessed herpetophobic, sets out to master his fear by going on a worldwide quest in search of those who have survived (sometimes multiple) bites of the world's deadliest snakes.
Seal's account is a felicitous blend that is part travelogue, part natural history lecture, part cultural commentary, and part wry self-examination. There's just enough of each of these elements in the cocktail to assure a lively balance. Seal is an engaging writer with an eye for the absurd and ear for pithy turn of phrase. He travels to Africa in search of survivors of the notorious Black Mamba, to India to participate in a bizarre festival involving handling cobras, to Australia, the home of many toxic snakes, including the world's deadliest, and (most chillingly) to the Appalachians in the US, where poisonous snake handling is part of Holiness Church rituals.
Some might fault the organization of the book, which shuttles back and forth between these various locales, and the squeamish should be warned that some of the descriptions of the effects of snakebites are quite graphic. Most horrific is an account of a woman whose abusive Holiness preacher husband attempted to murder her by forcing her to put her hands repeatedly into boxes containing rattlesnakes. What stands out about that account is not so much the reptilian nightmare as the loathsomeness of a chronic wife abuser and the growing horror of his victim, who doesn't expect to survive her prolonged ordeal but does.
Fear of and fascination with snakes, spiders, crocodiles, sharks, and other terrifying and mysterious creatures is deeply ingrained in us. Seal travels far into both psychological and geographical territory as he ranges the globe interviewing snakebite survivors - those who, by bad luck, foolishness, or occupational hazard have experienced what is surely one of our most primal nightmares. In the end, though, man himself is the creature we should fear most.
Rummaging among my shelves looking for my copy of Peter Fleming's Brazilian Adventure , I happened upon my copy of The Snakebite Survivors' Club, and so spent some happy minutes paging through it once again. The book is based on a simple premise: Jeremy Seal, self-confessed herpetophobic, sets out to master his fear by going on a worldwide quest in search of those who have survived (sometimes multiple) bites of the world's deadliest snakes.
Seal's account is a felicitous blend that is part travelogue, part natural history lecture, part cultural commentary, and part wry self-examination. There's just enough of each of these elements in the cocktail to assure a lively balance. Seal is an engaging writer with an eye for the absurd and ear for pithy turn of phrase. He travels to Africa in search of survivors of the notorious Black Mamba, to India to participate in a bizarre festival involving handling cobras, to Australia, the home of many toxic snakes, including the world's deadliest, and (most chillingly) to the Appalachians in the US, where poisonous snake handling is part of Holiness Church rituals.
Some might fault the organization of the book, which shuttles back and forth between these various locales, and the squeamish should be warned that some of the descriptions of the effects of snakebites are quite graphic. Most horrific is an account of a woman whose abusive Holiness preacher husband attempted to murder her by forcing her to put her hands repeatedly into boxes containing rattlesnakes. What stands out about that account is not so much the reptilian nightmare as the loathsomeness of a chronic wife abuser and the growing horror of his victim, who doesn't expect to survive her prolonged ordeal but does.
Fear of and fascination with snakes, spiders, crocodiles, sharks, and other terrifying and mysterious creatures is deeply ingrained in us. Seal travels far into both psychological and geographical territory as he ranges the globe interviewing snakebite survivors - those who, by bad luck, foolishness, or occupational hazard have experienced what is surely one of our most primal nightmares. In the end, though, man himself is the creature we should fear most.
October 16, 2020
Jeremy Seal is afraid of snakes, mainly of being bitten by one. This book was written in an attempt to face that fear. If you're facing up to a fear of being bitten by a venomous snake, you research the various species and the effects of their venom. And you research people who've survived being bitten, and interview them if at all possible.
Seal’s travels took him to America, to India, to Australia, and to Africa. The book’s structure took some getting used to. His narrative jumps around. There will be a chapter set in Australia followed by one in Africa, then America, and then back to Australia again picking right up where he left off. Once you get into it, it makes perfect sense, and winds up making for a more compelling book. One of the strongest narratives, running through the American chapters, is a minute by minute account of the ordeal undergone by a woman whose Southern preacher husband tried to murder her using a cage full of rattlesnakes.
The book is compelling and full of observed detail. I found it to be a fascinating read. Recommended!
Seal’s travels took him to America, to India, to Australia, and to Africa. The book’s structure took some getting used to. His narrative jumps around. There will be a chapter set in Australia followed by one in Africa, then America, and then back to Australia again picking right up where he left off. Once you get into it, it makes perfect sense, and winds up making for a more compelling book. One of the strongest narratives, running through the American chapters, is a minute by minute account of the ordeal undergone by a woman whose Southern preacher husband tried to murder her using a cage full of rattlesnakes.
The book is compelling and full of observed detail. I found it to be a fascinating read. Recommended!
September 23, 2016
_The Snakebite Survivors' Club_ by Jeremy Seal was an amusing and informative travelogue, an account of the author's travels to learn about four particular snake species. Journeying to India to learn about king cobras, Kenya to learn about the black mamba, Queensland, Australia for the taipan, and the southeastern United States for the rattlesnake, Seal provided interesting history, anecdotes, and interviews relating to these four types of serpent. Though there was interesting information on the biology of these animals, the focus of the book tended to be, as the title suggests, on the experiences of those who handled snakes and particularly of those who had been bitten.
Seal was clearly of mixed feelings about snakes; while not terrified of snakes perhaps, he was certainly no big fan of them either. He wrote how he was drawn to snakes even as they disgusted him, that they possessed for him "a kind of transfixing awe, an infatuation." Similarly, he was drawn to those who had survived snakebite, to that "singular clique" who "wore a badge of otherness" that made outsides shiver both with fear and a little delight, leaving many to feel a "kind of dangerous envy."
The first snakes Seal wrote about were rattlesnakes. The author attended two churches whose congregation handled snakes as part of the worship service, describing what possesses its members to handle deadly serpents (often quite casually or even recklessly) during church services, describing the history of these Holiness churches, what their beliefs were, and how neighbors and the law viewed them. Though these snake handlers were often quite lucky they could and did get bit and deaths did occur. This however did not deter the Holiness church members, who felt that they were following God's commands and the steps of St. Paul, feeling that handling them without incident confirmed their status as true believers, and if they died, well, that was God's will too, and they would soon be joining Him.
Almost without exception, the rattlesnake was associated with evil. Early settlers greatly feared them, even believing that they corrupted and made deadly the very air around them. Holiness church members believed they were defeating Satan himself when they handled snakes safely. Rattlesnake roundups (one of which Seal participated in) were undertaken as public services (though later also for amusement, bragging rights, and profit). The sole exception to this viewpoint seems to have been during the American Revolution, when for a time the rattlesnake was seized upon as a symbol for the struggle for independence and even graced the American flag for a time.
Views of the deadly cobra in India could not be more different. Far from being regarded as either deadly vermin or as an agent of the devil, cobras are worshipped in India. The cobra in Hindu myth is revered for its connection with gods such as Vishnu and with mystical beings called nagas (from nag, a word for cobra) and for its association with vitality and fertility. Even Buddhists held the cobra in high regard, as Buddha himself was aided and protected by a great cobra.
Seal viewed the performance of an old-fashioned snake charmer, relating to the reader the history of snake charming and some of the tricks of the trade. He also took part in the Nag Panchami, a festival dedicated to cobra worship, visited a clinic dedicated to treating snakebites, and visited a facility that manufactured antivenom. Throughout it all, he was struck by the reverence Indians held for this snake; despite killing thousands of children each year, childless mothers preyed to the cobra for offspring; it was a significant transgression to kill a cobra, even accidentally, and this required those involved to ceremonially bury the snake to placate its spirit; even snakes known to have killed family members and friends were still worshipped and made offerings.
I really enjoyed the chapters on the taipan. This particular snake (nearly alone he said among Australian snake names in sounding exotic, as most Australian snake names tend to be along the lines of grey snake, pale-headed snake, and the brown-banded snake) did not enter the Australian (and world) popular consciousness until the population of Queensland started to rise in the 1950s, when a rash of snakebites occurred, the victims non-responsive to available antivenoms. It turned out that the snake had been known for sometime before it seized headlines after World War II; it was known as the horse snake for all the livestock deaths it caused and as the brown cane snake for its love of sugar cane fields (when the brown cane snake became known as being the dreaded taipan, the sugar cane industry had to act fast to keep all its workers from fleeing in fear). Seal also chronicled the interesting history of the Australian snake show, the various remedies (nearly all worthless) peddled for snakebite, and discussed the "perverse pride" Australians seemed to feel for their often deadly fauna.
The fourth snake Seal looked into was the black mamba of east Africa. He provided interesting portraits of men obsessed with snakes, both white European snake men, feared by the locals, seen as "undoubted eccentrics" by other Europeans, and black African m'ganga (herbalists who treat snakebite) and mchowi (witch doctors who sent snakes to bite people as punishment). Virtually unknown to Europeans until the 1890s, the green mamba was more famous until the mid-twentieth century (in part because the London zoo received a specimen in 1954 that was said to have killed six or nine people, depending upon whom you asked). The snake later became the star of both zoos abroad and roadside snake shows in Africa (which Seal visited), even starring in two novels and a movie.
Seal interviewed throughout the book many who have been bitten by snakes, including a woman whose husband tried to kill her with rattlesnakes. He described in vivid detail what it felt like to be bitten and the effects venom had on the human body and even witnessed an accidental snakebite.
Seal was clearly of mixed feelings about snakes; while not terrified of snakes perhaps, he was certainly no big fan of them either. He wrote how he was drawn to snakes even as they disgusted him, that they possessed for him "a kind of transfixing awe, an infatuation." Similarly, he was drawn to those who had survived snakebite, to that "singular clique" who "wore a badge of otherness" that made outsides shiver both with fear and a little delight, leaving many to feel a "kind of dangerous envy."
The first snakes Seal wrote about were rattlesnakes. The author attended two churches whose congregation handled snakes as part of the worship service, describing what possesses its members to handle deadly serpents (often quite casually or even recklessly) during church services, describing the history of these Holiness churches, what their beliefs were, and how neighbors and the law viewed them. Though these snake handlers were often quite lucky they could and did get bit and deaths did occur. This however did not deter the Holiness church members, who felt that they were following God's commands and the steps of St. Paul, feeling that handling them without incident confirmed their status as true believers, and if they died, well, that was God's will too, and they would soon be joining Him.
Almost without exception, the rattlesnake was associated with evil. Early settlers greatly feared them, even believing that they corrupted and made deadly the very air around them. Holiness church members believed they were defeating Satan himself when they handled snakes safely. Rattlesnake roundups (one of which Seal participated in) were undertaken as public services (though later also for amusement, bragging rights, and profit). The sole exception to this viewpoint seems to have been during the American Revolution, when for a time the rattlesnake was seized upon as a symbol for the struggle for independence and even graced the American flag for a time.
Views of the deadly cobra in India could not be more different. Far from being regarded as either deadly vermin or as an agent of the devil, cobras are worshipped in India. The cobra in Hindu myth is revered for its connection with gods such as Vishnu and with mystical beings called nagas (from nag, a word for cobra) and for its association with vitality and fertility. Even Buddhists held the cobra in high regard, as Buddha himself was aided and protected by a great cobra.
Seal viewed the performance of an old-fashioned snake charmer, relating to the reader the history of snake charming and some of the tricks of the trade. He also took part in the Nag Panchami, a festival dedicated to cobra worship, visited a clinic dedicated to treating snakebites, and visited a facility that manufactured antivenom. Throughout it all, he was struck by the reverence Indians held for this snake; despite killing thousands of children each year, childless mothers preyed to the cobra for offspring; it was a significant transgression to kill a cobra, even accidentally, and this required those involved to ceremonially bury the snake to placate its spirit; even snakes known to have killed family members and friends were still worshipped and made offerings.
I really enjoyed the chapters on the taipan. This particular snake (nearly alone he said among Australian snake names in sounding exotic, as most Australian snake names tend to be along the lines of grey snake, pale-headed snake, and the brown-banded snake) did not enter the Australian (and world) popular consciousness until the population of Queensland started to rise in the 1950s, when a rash of snakebites occurred, the victims non-responsive to available antivenoms. It turned out that the snake had been known for sometime before it seized headlines after World War II; it was known as the horse snake for all the livestock deaths it caused and as the brown cane snake for its love of sugar cane fields (when the brown cane snake became known as being the dreaded taipan, the sugar cane industry had to act fast to keep all its workers from fleeing in fear). Seal also chronicled the interesting history of the Australian snake show, the various remedies (nearly all worthless) peddled for snakebite, and discussed the "perverse pride" Australians seemed to feel for their often deadly fauna.
The fourth snake Seal looked into was the black mamba of east Africa. He provided interesting portraits of men obsessed with snakes, both white European snake men, feared by the locals, seen as "undoubted eccentrics" by other Europeans, and black African m'ganga (herbalists who treat snakebite) and mchowi (witch doctors who sent snakes to bite people as punishment). Virtually unknown to Europeans until the 1890s, the green mamba was more famous until the mid-twentieth century (in part because the London zoo received a specimen in 1954 that was said to have killed six or nine people, depending upon whom you asked). The snake later became the star of both zoos abroad and roadside snake shows in Africa (which Seal visited), even starring in two novels and a movie.
Seal interviewed throughout the book many who have been bitten by snakes, including a woman whose husband tried to kill her with rattlesnakes. He described in vivid detail what it felt like to be bitten and the effects venom had on the human body and even witnessed an accidental snakebite.
May 17, 2023
Excellent. No surprise to anyone that I loved this: travel and snakes, two of my favorite things.
It's a focused travelogue, in that Seal's travels to India, Africa, the States, and Australia were to seek out the world's most venomous snakes. The narrative moves between the different stories on different continents, with a keen eye for observation and detail.
The American narrative (about snake-handling worshipers in the Appalachians and attempted murder by rattlesnake) had me absolutely transfixed. The Australian narrative was comfortingly familiar. Note to self: if I'm ever lucky enough to visit Africa or India, remember to read up on local snakebite first aid beforehand. The one thing that all these stories had in common were people getting bitten and hiking kilometres for assistance. I bushwalk here with an elasticated bandage on my belt, and know how to use it, but that technique apparently only works for Aussie snakes. Bless their little cotton socks.
It's a focused travelogue, in that Seal's travels to India, Africa, the States, and Australia were to seek out the world's most venomous snakes. The narrative moves between the different stories on different continents, with a keen eye for observation and detail.
The American narrative (about snake-handling worshipers in the Appalachians and attempted murder by rattlesnake) had me absolutely transfixed. The Australian narrative was comfortingly familiar. Note to self: if I'm ever lucky enough to visit Africa or India, remember to read up on local snakebite first aid beforehand. The one thing that all these stories had in common were people getting bitten and hiking kilometres for assistance. I bushwalk here with an elasticated bandage on my belt, and know how to use it, but that technique apparently only works for Aussie snakes. Bless their little cotton socks.
April 30, 2020
Years ago, after my wife's rattlesnake incident, I bought her a book called "The Snakebite Survivor's Club" as a gag gift. (She usually gets one snake related gift from me every Christmas.) On a whim, I started reading the book. I think the author must have had a page count requirement in his contract, because the interesting anecdotes are spaced out between long dull descriptive passages. (Not descriptions of snakes, mind you, but what the strip malls in Appalachia look like or the view from his airplane.) The book would be at least 50 pages shorter without the extraneous narration.
To entice readers to keep going, the book switches between geographic locations; that way the most interesting story, a woman’s attempted murder by her snake-handling pastor husband, is doled out incrementally. Learning her fate and how she escaped, is compelling reading. (It’s a Tiger King worthy mini-series waiting to happen.)
Despite my criticism with the pacing, "The Snakebite Survivor's Club" has some fascinating facts and survivor narratives. High points include: the improbable and hilarious tale of Sir Henry Browne Hayes, a tour of The King Institute which produces anti-venom in India, and a description of what it felt like to be bitten by a Taipan and live.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is fascinated by snakes or, as I do, live with a snakebite survivor. Be prepared to slog through some slow parts and wait a while to actually “meet” a snakebite survivor in the book. Even so, it’s worth the effort to anyone interested in the topic.
To entice readers to keep going, the book switches between geographic locations; that way the most interesting story, a woman’s attempted murder by her snake-handling pastor husband, is doled out incrementally. Learning her fate and how she escaped, is compelling reading. (It’s a Tiger King worthy mini-series waiting to happen.)
Despite my criticism with the pacing, "The Snakebite Survivor's Club" has some fascinating facts and survivor narratives. High points include: the improbable and hilarious tale of Sir Henry Browne Hayes, a tour of The King Institute which produces anti-venom in India, and a description of what it felt like to be bitten by a Taipan and live.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is fascinated by snakes or, as I do, live with a snakebite survivor. Be prepared to slog through some slow parts and wait a while to actually “meet” a snakebite survivor in the book. Even so, it’s worth the effort to anyone interested in the topic.
October 18, 2019
An interesting set of stories, and Seal packs in some lovely descriptions. I think it's a bit too long a book to attempt braided storytelling as he does; by the time you reach the continuation of the story you've read so much else you've forgotten it. May have worked better as a set of 4 stories. This is how I read the book, skipping ahead to find America III after America II, for example. All in all enjoyable but just a man encountering his fear without really sharing any lessons.
December 6, 2021
There's (unavoidably) fascinating snake material here, and it's well worth reading (even if some of it's simply rehashed from earlier sources - a few of them, although perhaps not enough, are a little off the beaten track). Unfortunately, though, Seal's a travel writer at heart and by instinct, and he can never quite transcend that, which isn't so compelling.
December 19, 2011
In an attempt to face his fear of snakes, and get a good story, the author travels to four countries: India, Kenya, the US and Australia in search of the world’s deadliest snakes, and the people who handle, catch and are bitten by them. Specifically, he conjures a quartet of famous venomous snakes: the cobra, the black mamba, the rattler and the taipan. (Never mind that America’s most poisonous snake is the coral, or that the krait is probably deadlier than the cobra: Seals is after myth and folklore and nightmares, not strict accuracy.)
Telling the stories of those who have survived bites with sensationalistic, but admirably thoroughly researched drama, he expounds on snake lore at the same time, from the Holiness church snake handlers of the southern US to the cobra-worshipers in south India to the mchowis, or witch doctors who send snakes as punishment, in Kenya. He tells the story in discrete chunks: each trip to each country is broken up, and even within the rubrics by country, he sometimes tells the story out of strict chronological order. What effect he wishes to evoke with this trick, I don’t know. Regardless, it’s a fascinating, entertaining and quite informative book on man’s relation to snakes across history and the globe.
Telling the stories of those who have survived bites with sensationalistic, but admirably thoroughly researched drama, he expounds on snake lore at the same time, from the Holiness church snake handlers of the southern US to the cobra-worshipers in south India to the mchowis, or witch doctors who send snakes as punishment, in Kenya. He tells the story in discrete chunks: each trip to each country is broken up, and even within the rubrics by country, he sometimes tells the story out of strict chronological order. What effect he wishes to evoke with this trick, I don’t know. Regardless, it’s a fascinating, entertaining and quite informative book on man’s relation to snakes across history and the globe.
November 20, 2017
Shows promise and then falls flat. The journey is continually hopping on a timeline from a crime scene in America, to Australia, Africa, India, which disconnects you from the story when it might get good to another exasperating encounter with maybe a snake story but first we need to meet the locals who seem to be more parody than reality. You'd think the stories would be deep, unlimited, about fatal and near-fatal human/snake encounters but it's more about Seal's journey than the snakes. A kind of travelogue. Or is it a tawdry True Crime story? We even get a story of him imagining a mamba in his tent in Africa. False alarm!
What sucks is that Seal had a great idea for a book but didn't know how to run with it. He turns a hillbilly-themed attempted murder into the book's knuckle-bite centerpiece attraction. He could have done it in a short chapter instead of hyperventilating it thru-out the entire book. The ending leaves you going ...What? Was it edited out?
I have read this book twice over the past 12 years. I ran across a reprint edition and wondered if my first opinion was perhaps alittle off. Upon second read? It wasn't, the book is a major disappointment.
What sucks is that Seal had a great idea for a book but didn't know how to run with it. He turns a hillbilly-themed attempted murder into the book's knuckle-bite centerpiece attraction. He could have done it in a short chapter instead of hyperventilating it thru-out the entire book. The ending leaves you going ...What? Was it edited out?
I have read this book twice over the past 12 years. I ran across a reprint edition and wondered if my first opinion was perhaps alittle off. Upon second read? It wasn't, the book is a major disappointment.
July 28, 2011
In my opinion this book had great potential. I had thoroughly enjoyed what Bill Bryson had done with the dangerous animals of Australia and although I had not expected Seal to be the same, I had hoped there was a theme that I could follow. From my perspective he did not make me interested in his subject material. I understand he has a fear of snakes, but I did not feel his fear.
One of the reasons I think I had trouble is that he jumped from place to place. The book does not follow one thread (except for snakes) continuously. The story goes from America to Australia to Africa to India and then all over the place again.
I suspect that others might find the travel interesting or like the way Seal tells his story. This just did not appeal to me.
One of the reasons I think I had trouble is that he jumped from place to place. The book does not follow one thread (except for snakes) continuously. The story goes from America to Australia to Africa to India and then all over the place again.
I suspect that others might find the travel interesting or like the way Seal tells his story. This just did not appeal to me.
June 16, 2019
The anecdotes were interesting. What I didn't enjoy is the jumping around of the chapters. One chapter is Africa, next is Australia , America ...but then goes back Africa and picks up on a story that I thought was finished. This is throughout the whole book. A decent travelogue but not exactly gripping. I did learn about the different snakes around the world and how many peple have deal with being bit. Some people are religious snake handlers and think God will save them. They die by the way
. Black Mambas are scary etc.... so if you want a light read about people who live among snakes pick this up but be prepared for the disconnection you may experience by the bouncing around of stories in the chapters.
. Black Mambas are scary etc.... so if you want a light read about people who live among snakes pick this up but be prepared for the disconnection you may experience by the bouncing around of stories in the chapters.
March 1, 2017
Meh. I expected more snakebite survivors, or at least more thrilling tales about close encounters between people and snakes. The writing was choppy, jumping unexpectedly from story to story and location to location. Perhaps the author thought that cutting from one story line to another is a literary technique that would add drama and suspense. Unfortunately it didn't work very well. Perhaps the author thought that the mere mention of venomous snakes would enthrall readers, particularly readers who fear snakes as much as the author claims to. My fault - snakes just don't scare me enough, and this book just didn't engage me enough.
September 11, 2016
In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
December 25, 2021
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger - supposedly! When a herpetophobe travels four continents in search of snakebite survivors the discoveries are varied and fascinating. Having lived in Australia since my mid-teens I have always been fascinated by snakes and the irrational fear of them - even in Australia where we (according to some sources) have 21 out of 25 of the world’s most deadly snakes. No wonder Australia is one of Seal's target destinations, along with India, the USA and Africa. He alternates accounts of his travels in each of these places so that the reader’s attention is constantly being challenged. The characters he meets range from snake 'healers' to venom collectors to delusional rattlesnake handling preachers - that’s the preachers who are delusional not the snakes!
This is one of my favourite books that I first read around 2004 and have re-read chapters of a couple of times. The book could be considered an alternative type of travel guide, yet it is so much more. Seal's observation skills are very evident and he writes with a good deal of humour and a level of detail that for me adds another layer to this already fascinating topic. Highly recommended reading.
This is one of my favourite books that I first read around 2004 and have re-read chapters of a couple of times. The book could be considered an alternative type of travel guide, yet it is so much more. Seal's observation skills are very evident and he writes with a good deal of humour and a level of detail that for me adds another layer to this already fascinating topic. Highly recommended reading.
January 27, 2022
This is a fascinating book, written by an author who is afraid of snakes but which treats these animals fairly and so is still an excellent read for those (like me) who love them. It has multiple layers: it functions as a travel book as the author travels about the USA, Australia, Kenya and India (though the non-snaky parts of this aren’t so interesting); it explores how snakes are viewed in the different cultures of these places; it looks at how snakes have been treated and talked about historically; it features accounts from snakebite survivors, as the title suggests; and it considers how people today tend to find snakes both frightening and mesmerising.
March 16, 2022
Pros:
-Diverse and interesting perspectives on lives around snakes through culture, history, and storytelling.
-Intriguing spins on events culminating to the moment of a snakebite.
Cons:
-More travelogue than scientific information about snakebites/venoms.
-Extremely purple prose in some passages. A chapter starts with "Let me show you where it happened," referring to a snakebite by a taipan, and then is followed by an exhaustive list of all the places it certainly didn't happen.
-Not the most open-minded voice in travelogues. There's a lot of judgement of intellectual levels or religious superstition in the areas the author visits.
-Diverse and interesting perspectives on lives around snakes through culture, history, and storytelling.
-Intriguing spins on events culminating to the moment of a snakebite.
Cons:
-More travelogue than scientific information about snakebites/venoms.
-Extremely purple prose in some passages. A chapter starts with "Let me show you where it happened," referring to a snakebite by a taipan, and then is followed by an exhaustive list of all the places it certainly didn't happen.
-Not the most open-minded voice in travelogues. There's a lot of judgement of intellectual levels or religious superstition in the areas the author visits.
May 12, 2024
Part travelogue, part modern history, part religious investigation, part horror story - but all round cracking read.
The book contains multiple historic stories of encounters with snakes around the world, interwoven around an extraordinary incident of a mid-western US minister with murder in mind.
Original, highly engaging, and thoroughly enjoyable.
The book contains multiple historic stories of encounters with snakes around the world, interwoven around an extraordinary incident of a mid-western US minister with murder in mind.
Original, highly engaging, and thoroughly enjoyable.
November 1, 2019
I love this stuff!- great history vignettes and all sorts of trivia to relish.
dnf
October 10, 2023DNF. I can't stand the narrator of the audio.
August 16, 2015
Mid 4. An absorbing account of the writer;s global pursuit of the world's deadliest snakes and those who have miraculously survived their bite. Seal, who shares a self-confessed phobia of snakes with this reader, forces us both to confront our fears but also reveal how culturally snakes have assumed an almost deific role within certain societies. This book is part personal quest, part travelogue, part social commentary, and is replete with profiles of amazing individuals, none more so than the wife of a religious snake-handler in Alabama, forced by her husband at gunpoint to place her hand in a box containing diamond-back rattlesnakes. The only quibble would concern the editing of the content, but a wonderful read.
May 25, 2010
A promising premise--a travel writer,who suffers from that fear of snakes which lives in most of us, visits the U.S., Africa, Australia, and India to see the world's most dangerous snakes and perhaps overcome his fear--is ruined by sloppy editing and bad writing. The first chapter is so stuffed with bad similes and metaphors that I should have quit right then, but I made it to the halfway point before I realized how bored I was and that I just didn't care. Maybe it would have been a better book if it was written by a herpetologist who travels, instead of a travel writer who writes about snakes. Right into the Half-Price pile with this one.
March 19, 2016
The Snakebite Survivors Club: Travels among Serpents by Jeremy Seal (Harcourt 2000) (597.96) is a book filled with stories all with one premise: that one should be terrified of venomous snakes. The book is broken down into sections about Africa, India, Australia, and North America. The sections about Africa, India, and Australia are pretty generic tales about cobras, Bushmasters, and the Taipan. The sections about North America are quite interesting and are narratives about Southern and Appalachian Holiness Church snakehandling congregations and the true believers who attend such services. I would not trade places with author Jeremy Seal. My ating: 6/10; finished 3/12/11.
November 22, 2008
I hate snakes and only picked this book up because of the title (morbid curiosity).
When I read that Seal was also a snake hater (fearer?), I knew I had to read it. I did and "loved" it.
Granted, I'm now afraid to go to Africa, India or Australia (I've been to Sand Mountain) and won't ever go to a church that looks like it might have a snake shed out back, but still...great book, great stories.
When I read that Seal was also a snake hater (fearer?), I knew I had to read it. I did and "loved" it.
Granted, I'm now afraid to go to Africa, India or Australia (I've been to Sand Mountain) and won't ever go to a church that looks like it might have a snake shed out back, but still...great book, great stories.
March 24, 2009
I have been fascinated by snakes ever since childhood and read whatever I can get me=y hands on and this definitely ranks high. A self-proclaimed phobic journeys to the heart of darkness for people like him, snake handling religious cults bith here and in India, among other places and takes you along for the ride. It is funny exciting and fascintaing .
January 3, 2011
Beautifully written descriptions make this book a pleasure to read; however, parts of it are dull and the travels to the American South, India, Australia and Kenya are chopped into segments rather than told chronologically. This makes the book hard to follow in some places. But still worth a read for the beautiful writing and interesting topic.
September 29, 2013
The title is accurate. This is about fear of snakes, snake handling, and snake bites. It's about how humans view snakes with fear and awe, especially the religious aspect. Seal is not much interested in snake biology or behavior, not even in how Southern Christian snake handlers keep their snakes alive. Read if you want to understand your own or others fear of snakes.
April 15, 2008
I can't say enough about this book. It's imaginative, scary, hilarious and full of off-beat history and lore. A must-read!
October 20, 2015
Only read Africa chapters, about 1/3 of book.
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