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cocoafiend's review
2.0
Really wanted to like this (and thought I would LOVE it), but it fell short for me. Insta-love, slow-moving plot, unnecessary description of every moment in the protagonist's life, and a blah protagonist. Still, huge props for the fascinating mythology, creating a vivid setting, and the great friendship between the two female main characters.
amyjoy's review
4.0
Really original and enjoyable. I loved the characters and the world Pon created, and if I hadn't just started my Stormlight Archive re-read, I'd be listening to the sequel right now.
alanaes's review
2.0
This book bored me out of my skull. There's insta-love, and nothing really happens to warrant the length of the book. BUT! Good news: Book 2, [b:Sacrifice|28537304|Sacrifice (Serpentine #2)|Cindy Pon|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1472409638s/28537304.jpg|48696988], is really enjoyable I'm just going to think of Serpentine as a drawn-out prologue for Sacrifice. That's working better for me.
lsmith36's review
3.0
I’m a sucker when it comes to folklore, so when I saw this one was pulling from Chinese folklore I hoped on the wagon really quick. Chinese folklore is a hard thing to come by in American YA, especially Chinese folklore by a Chinese American. So I walked in with high hopes that were not really met.
Let me elaborate. Serpentine had a lot going for it from the start. It has a cool setup, cool idea, cool characters, and come on now we have description of periods! That’s an awesome thing to see and have addressed. (In fact my theory is that the entire book is just one big puberty metaphor, but let’s chalk that up to me being an English major for now.) Let’s also not forget two of the greatest things! Lesbians and sex scenes. The woman who Skybright serves, Zhen Ni, falls in love with another girl named Lan. Their relationship is described with all the flourish heterosexual romances receive in other YA novels, so it was very refreshing to see. There’s even a scene between them where Skybright walks in. No don’t worry, it’s tastefully done so that you won’t be scared forever. But that isn’t the only sex scene! Skybright and her love interest Kai Sen have one as well that is handled in very much the same way. I enjoyed having both of these because not only is sex talked about in a YA book (spoiler alert, young adults/teenagers have sex) but it’s done so in a non-awkward way that presents how real sex is.
For the entire review look here: https://aggietheskeletonreads.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/review-serpentine/
Let me elaborate. Serpentine had a lot going for it from the start. It has a cool setup, cool idea, cool characters, and come on now we have description of periods! That’s an awesome thing to see and have addressed. (In fact my theory is that the entire book is just one big puberty metaphor, but let’s chalk that up to me being an English major for now.) Let’s also not forget two of the greatest things! Lesbians and sex scenes. The woman who Skybright serves, Zhen Ni, falls in love with another girl named Lan. Their relationship is described with all the flourish heterosexual romances receive in other YA novels, so it was very refreshing to see. There’s even a scene between them where Skybright walks in. No don’t worry, it’s tastefully done so that you won’t be scared forever. But that isn’t the only sex scene! Skybright and her love interest Kai Sen have one as well that is handled in very much the same way. I enjoyed having both of these because not only is sex talked about in a YA book (spoiler alert, young adults/teenagers have sex) but it’s done so in a non-awkward way that presents how real sex is.
For the entire review look here: https://aggietheskeletonreads.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/review-serpentine/
wordnerdy's review
3.0
http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2015/12/2015-book-293.html
This is one of those books that just has a few too many things going on, so it starts to feel a little bit clumsy. Our protagonist is the handmaid to a well-off girl in ancient China, and oh yeah, she's also a serpent demon. And her mistress is a lesbian. And her love interest can see ghosts and was raised by monks. And a demon dude keeps showing up to offer exposition and hit on her. And a bunch of demons/zombies are roaming around. Plus other stuff. It's all pretty interesting but the writing is definitely overly dramatic most of the time, and it just didn't quite work for me. I might check out the inevitable sequel? B.
This is one of those books that just has a few too many things going on, so it starts to feel a little bit clumsy. Our protagonist is the handmaid to a well-off girl in ancient China, and oh yeah, she's also a serpent demon. And her mistress is a lesbian. And her love interest can see ghosts and was raised by monks. And a demon dude keeps showing up to offer exposition and hit on her. And a bunch of demons/zombies are roaming around. Plus other stuff. It's all pretty interesting but the writing is definitely overly dramatic most of the time, and it just didn't quite work for me. I might check out the inevitable sequel? B.
endlessmidnight's review
2.0
I would say a pretty decent book, and the details about the world is incredibly lush and intriguing. But other than that, the plot is decent and ties up all loose ends. The only complaint is about the love story, which feels rather forced here and the characters mostly being rather flat.
The world is really the one thing which hits plenty of notes with me as I am fascinated with ancient China and it being so well explored in this setting.
But other than that, there isn't a lot which leaves to be desired from the book and needs a lot more of building and mostly being pure enjoyment and not having much depth to move me.
The world is really the one thing which hits plenty of notes with me as I am fascinated with ancient China and it being so well explored in this setting.
But other than that, there isn't a lot which leaves to be desired from the book and needs a lot more of building and mostly being pure enjoyment and not having much depth to move me.
ravencrantz's review
3.0
The most exciting thing about this book is there are girls loving girls and neither of them die. They don't get a happy ending though, so I'm not sure that's much better. And girls loving each other platonically just as much as romantically. The relationships were done really well, but world building and writing style fell flat for me.
I'm not overly interested in reading the sequel, but this was a nice read I'd recommend to people.
I'm not overly interested in reading the sequel, but this was a nice read I'd recommend to people.
mynameismarines's review against another edition
3.0
Definitely a strong 3.5 stars.
I really enjoyed my reading experience during Serpentine. It was engaging, quick, it was centered around a female friendship and is for all intents and purposes a coming of age story. Tick, tick, tick, tick on the list of things I like to read.
I had the pleasure of hearing Pon speak at NerdCon and I just fell in love with the bright and personable way she comes across. However, it was how she described this book that made me want to read it. In Serpentine, she said she created a female character whose body changes and it makes her question everything. Pon said she wrote it for her growing daughter, though in her book, her MC is less going through puberty (I promise) and more turning into half a serpent. I will say that I really enjoyed that theme throughout the story. Everyone was telling Skybright who she was or who she was supposed to be, whether serpent or human. Her roles and lots in life were pre-determined and the more she asked the questions of who and what she was, the more voices joined the mix to provide answers she wasn't fully sold on. Zhen Ni's story underlines this in a super heartbreaking way. We don't learn a ton about the context of the world these two live in, though we know it is Chinese-folklore inspired, it has gods and monsters, and it seems to pretty old-school in terms of handmaidens and marrying off womenfolk. Zhen Ni falls in love with another girl and she gets a difficult lesson on duty and those pre-determined roles for women. Zhen Ni is a little spoiled and... squeaky?... for my tastes, but she is also loyal and full of fire and I felt for her a ton by the end of the book.
All that said, I think there is definitely some room for improvement. I love description heavy writing, but if you don't, you may run into a couple problems here. I mean, when I was reading it, I didn't think, "wow! These are a lot of descriptions." If I'm honest, there were a couple times when I jumped a paragraph or two to get to the action. As I was reading through reviews on Goodreads, I saw "description heavy" come up a couple of times and went, "ooooh." If that helps at all. Basically, description level: I didn't notice it per se, but a few times I skimmed to get to the action.
Also, as much as I loved the main themes of the story, they got to a little bit repetitive toward the end. In general, the story told had lots of repetition. We find Skybright waking up as a snake a few times, she runs into the forrest a few times, she searches for Kai Sen a couple of times. What saves it all is that the story moves quickly and is relatively short so that repetition never got out of hand for me.
I really liked Skybright as a character. She's so mature and gathered and loyal. I wish we had seen a little more of her (in terms of getting to know her), but again, it was a relatively short book with a lot going on. And of course, Skybright is in flux when we meet her so we only get to know her as much as she's getting to know herself. As an aside, when I first started reading, I thought Skybright and Zhen Ni were a lot younger than they actually are. I think it might be some of the dialogue that made it seem that way. There were points I would've pegged them as young as 12 or 13. I wish I had been paying attention to if this seemed that way because 1- stilted dialogue or 2- sheltered characters or 3- me and some reading comprehension issues. Alas.
I finished this book last night and immediately bought the second book from my Kindle. Y'all know how terrible I am about series, so the fact that I even want to read the second book should convey that I'm invested in this story and these characters.
Solid, entertaining read made for a Saturday afternoon when you've got some hours to spare.
edebell's review
4.0
I normally don’t read young adult romance/mystery, but I do love fantasy, and this had so much buzz I wanted to give it a try. It was really fun - The characters were different, the setting was interesting, and I was pulled in from early on. Recommend for YA readers, but is also a lovely story that, for adult readers, can be enjoyed in one sitting. An engaging escape.
virginiaduan's review against another edition
3.0
Solid story and intriguing. I have to admit, I far prefer Stone to Kai Sen. However, I do like how the focus is more on the relationship between Skybright and Zhen Ni. Also, something about the language usage skews this book younger than YA to me despite the more mature content. Not sure why.
Looking forward to the next book.
Looking forward to the next book.