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A review by nivis
Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin
2.0
This book hooked me so fast with its initial chapters that I finished the entire thing in a night, but after I got to the end, I realized I didn't really like 85% of what I read and it was probably just to procrastinate doing my work LOL
-- spoilers --
Ok so first off, we start off pretty strong with the main character. I know people don't like Lou, the MC, because she's the stereotypical YA idgaf crass female lead. But I won't lie, I'm kind of a sucker for that. And she was cool (only for a little bit). I also LOVED Coco, and Ansel was pretty great. As for Reid, I feel like he could have benefitted from a personality...but whatever.
Now we have the romance, since that was pretty much the biggest part of this book. I do unapologetically love the enemies to lovers trope so I was intrigued by the whole witch x witch hunter thing. I mean, Reid (the ML) literally believes all of Lou's kind deserves death sooo how is this going to work?
Would Reid, throughout the story, eventually come around to realizing that witches are people with feelings and a right to live? And he eventually falls in love with her because of that? And will Lou, through seeing that humanity, also love him in turn?
Well, no. They just randomly fall in love with each other for no reason. It's like a switch flipped. But more than just disappointing, it was really jarring. Reid doesn't really ever come around when it comes to witches (maybe just barely in the last 10 pages). He continues to burn witches at the stake IN FRONT of Lou and she just...forgives him? Still loves him somehow? Because he's hot, or something? Meanwhile he thinks her entire species should die and personally sees to that end?
Huh?? What do you mean by that like actually what do you mean by that...he's literally the captain of the Chausseurs and has personally executed witches and is currently hunting your friend, he's the worst blue pig of them all lmfao. The whole thing about forgiving Reid, falling in love with him despite him not showing growth or empathy for witches EVER, and excusing it with "this is all he ever knew, it's not his fault." He's a grown man. He can take accountability for his actions. It lowkey also had a blue lives matter/not all cops undertone when I applied it to real life and I didn't enjoy that at all.
The worst part is bro didn't even care about whether she lived or died for a hot second after she revealed that she was a witch. Ansel, a side character, cared more about her than her literal love interest. And she still immediately forgave him after reuniting at the end of the book because she loves him? Have some fucking shame and dignity this man literally wants your entire race dead. And you're clinging to him talking about "he's different." Reminder that this book is touted as feminist...bruh.
Also we just ended any chance for future growth with Reid's relationship with witches because he was revealed to be one at the end. Now it's less about him recognizing that witches are still people and deserve the right to live and more about a self-acceptance journey. It's a lot easier to recognize witches are human when you turn into one. Boring.
More importantly I think "omg men can be witches too!" is weird as hell to write because it vastly took away from the power of the witches' lore and Angelica's story (they were hunted, tortured, oppressed by men because men were jealous and wanted witches' powers for themselves, but to no avail as only women could wield magic and thus held their own). Now some random dude can wield it because of the power of love. Reminder that this book is touted as feminist...bruh.
There are also a bunch of plot holes and generally things that didn't make sense. How did they not suspect Labelle was a witch? She is literally the WITCHIEST LOOKING PERSON in the book and was also EXTREMELY SUS like be serious. Why didn't Andre and Grue rat Lou out as a witch? Why wasn't Coco recognized as Brie? And the way Lou's confession to Reid (about being a witch) kept getting cut off by random occurrences was just so cliche and unrealistic. There's more but this is too long and I'm sleepy.
-- spoilers --
Ok so first off, we start off pretty strong with the main character. I know people don't like Lou, the MC, because she's the stereotypical YA idgaf crass female lead. But I won't lie, I'm kind of a sucker for that. And she was cool (only for a little bit). I also LOVED Coco, and Ansel was pretty great. As for Reid, I feel like he could have benefitted from a personality...but whatever.
Now we have the romance, since that was pretty much the biggest part of this book. I do unapologetically love the enemies to lovers trope so I was intrigued by the whole witch x witch hunter thing. I mean, Reid (the ML) literally believes all of Lou's kind deserves death sooo how is this going to work?
Would Reid, throughout the story, eventually come around to realizing that witches are people with feelings and a right to live? And he eventually falls in love with her because of that? And will Lou, through seeing that humanity, also love him in turn?
Well, no. They just randomly fall in love with each other for no reason. It's like a switch flipped. But more than just disappointing, it was really jarring. Reid doesn't really ever come around when it comes to witches (maybe just barely in the last 10 pages). He continues to burn witches at the stake IN FRONT of Lou and she just...forgives him? Still loves him somehow? Because he's hot, or something? Meanwhile he thinks her entire species should die and personally sees to that end?
Marrying a blue pig. I didn't think even you could stoop that low. Whatever Reid was, he wasn't a blue pig.
Huh?? What do you mean by that like actually what do you mean by that...he's literally the captain of the Chausseurs and has personally executed witches and is currently hunting your friend, he's the worst blue pig of them all lmfao. The whole thing about forgiving Reid, falling in love with him despite him not showing growth or empathy for witches EVER, and excusing it with "this is all he ever knew, it's not his fault." He's a grown man. He can take accountability for his actions. It lowkey also had a blue lives matter/not all cops undertone when I applied it to real life and I didn't enjoy that at all.
The worst part is bro didn't even care about whether she lived or died for a hot second after she revealed that she was a witch. Ansel, a side character, cared more about her than her literal love interest. And she still immediately forgave him after reuniting at the end of the book because she loves him? Have some fucking shame and dignity this man literally wants your entire race dead. And you're clinging to him talking about "he's different." Reminder that this book is touted as feminist...bruh.
Also we just ended any chance for future growth with Reid's relationship with witches because he was revealed to be one at the end. Now it's less about him recognizing that witches are still people and deserve the right to live and more about a self-acceptance journey. It's a lot easier to recognize witches are human when you turn into one. Boring.
More importantly I think "omg men can be witches too!" is weird as hell to write because it vastly took away from the power of the witches' lore and Angelica's story (they were hunted, tortured, oppressed by men because men were jealous and wanted witches' powers for themselves, but to no avail as only women could wield magic and thus held their own). Now some random dude can wield it because of the power of love. Reminder that this book is touted as feminist...bruh.
There are also a bunch of plot holes and generally things that didn't make sense. How did they not suspect Labelle was a witch? She is literally the WITCHIEST LOOKING PERSON in the book and was also EXTREMELY SUS like be serious. Why didn't Andre and Grue rat Lou out as a witch? Why wasn't Coco recognized as Brie? And the way Lou's confession to Reid (about being a witch) kept getting cut off by random occurrences was just so cliche and unrealistic. There's more but this is too long and I'm sleepy.