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michelerr55's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Body horror, Child death, and Violence
Moderate: Suicide and Torture
rinku's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
When I started reading Serpent & Dove, I was convinced that I would give it two or even one star. The beginning was so cliché and ridiculous, the characters unlikable, and the world flat. This first impression changed while reading and towards the end, I started to enjoy this novel.
Other reviews mention this as well, but the set-up for the story is so ridiculous. The witch Lou and the witch hunter Reid are forced to married because of an absurd moment: Reid is trying to catch Lou after she stole something in a theatre. Of course, it comes to a fight, and they fall in front of the curtain and the whole theatre, half-naked. For Reid to restore his honour, he’s forced by the bishop to marry Lou, just how she’s forced to this if she wants to live. There were some other moments in the story that were just over the top like this.
Other things especially annoyed me, like this overdone twist that certain characters are secretly related to each other. This is the case with Lou being the child of the witch queen(?) and the bishop and Reid being the child of Madame Labelle and the king. I really hate this kind of plot twist . I was frustrated as well by this “characters get interrupted before they can tell important things”-cliché.
But like I’ve mentioned, the story gets way more interesting and dramatic towards the end, since the fantasy aspect starts to play a bigger role: Lou’s mom is able to kidnap her daughter and wants to sacrifice her, leaving Reid and his friends with no other choice than saving her. The finale was so dramatic with Lou almost dying, Madame Labelle actually dying and the reveal that Reid can use magic as well .
I furthermore had some problems with the world. Christianity plays a huge part in the world which is a bit weird considering that this is a high fantasy novel? Besides this, there was barely any world building that we get the name of the city that the story takes place only after the first half. I generally liked the French influences in the settings, but those are rarely described, just like the magic system.
The writing style was okay, I guess. It tried too much to be “adult” aka using many swear words and making sexual references all the time but in comparison, the humour is so juvenile. This is apparently often the case with these novels that are marketed as YA but are NA in reality – looking at you, From Blood and Ash. Capslock is also used for screaming which I never like.
Talking about sexual references, those are constantly only made between men and women. It was annoying how much alleged differences between men and women are emphasized and how they say about Lou that she “fights like a man” or that she has “a name of a man”. The story acts like it’s against patriarchy but stuff like this keeps the patriarchy alive. Of course, there are only male witch hunters as well.
It took me some time to get warm with the characters, even though they are quite vividly described. Lou annoyed me at the beginning, and I hated Reid, his anger issues and possessiveness towards Lou. Later, the characters changed positively changed, and I even started to like the shipping since the romance is written well, besides this cliché question-answer-thing to get to know each other. It’s funny how she doesn’t care what others think of her, but he does so a lot. What bothered me though was this implied crush of Coco on Ansel who’s still underage.
I’m really curious to read the next book in the Serpent & Dove series because from what I’ve seen, it’s supposedly worse than the first book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Murder, and Toxic relationship
lauren_macauley's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Sexual content, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Vomit
nebulasaurus's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death of parent, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Body horror, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Blood, Physical abuse, Self harm, Gore, Grief, Child abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
nadiaherondale's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I don't even know where to start, what a ride! This had been on my TBR forever and now I'm cursing myself for not having started it before.
First of all: I love the world building, the magic system and the duality of the witches vs the Church/kingdom (a common trope, but very well done in my opinion).
Then, the characters, Lou and Reid are great protagonists but as always I'm more of a secondary type of girl: Coco and Beau absolutely have me on a chokehold, and Madame Labelle what a woman with her secrets.
And oh boy does this book have secrets, plot twist after plot twist, I loved it.
First of all: I love the world building, the magic system and the duality of the witches vs the Church/kingdom (a common trope, but very well done in my opinion).
Then, the characters, Lou and Reid are great protagonists but as always I'm more of a secondary type of girl: Coco and Beau absolutely have me on a chokehold, and Madame Labelle what a woman with her secrets.
And oh boy does this book have secrets, plot twist after plot twist, I loved it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse
cariam's review
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Self harm, and Child abuse
ajboyd_'s review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Torture, Violence, Colonisation, Death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Hate crime, Racism, and Religious bigotry
taylor_annotates's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
I had fun.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Religious bigotry
lexabrielle's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Death
Moderate: Murder, Blood, Misogyny, and Fire/Fire injury
victoriacp769's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I think this is a great book, not the best one I read, but it’s good and I love this type of stories. Something I will say is that it was really difficult for me to read at the beginning, cause I found the first part of the book really slow and not much was happening.. but then in the second part of the book all the things you where holding on to starts happening, all the spicyness, the challenges, the mistery, everything. It really starts being entertaining and captivating. Also, in the third part of the book it continues on being that way, which is good, but something I did notice is that the author started rushing everything in the last chapters. In the last chapters there is tooo many things going on and too many plot twist and in a certain way it can be good but for me it was really rushed and uneven considering all the other chapters of the book. Also, the end was wayyy too open, I know that maybe she wanted to do that so that more readers would want to reach to the sequel, but personally I think it was a really confusing ending.
Anyways, the book is good, really good, but the writing was not the best.
Anyways, the book is good, really good, but the writing was not the best.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, and Animal death