Reviews

4- man I hate the mother in this, really really hate her. The father isn't much better, so prepare yourself for some crappy parent figures. I had to get that out, i was that mad at them when I finished this book. This was an unexpected enjoyable read. Great characters with deep dark secrets, danger, and challenges in beliefs, it all made for a great read. Now i need book 2, there was a cliffhanger ending and I need to see one character go down !

idahobekah's review against another edition

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2.0

I was enjoying this book until the last 25-30 pages of the book. I really didn’t find the climax or resolution to be particularly interesting, or even remotely satisfying They drew out the action to make the book longer than 500 pages and it just felt unnecessary to shoehorn characters in where they didn’t need to. It was fun while it lasted, but I can’t put myself through “Big Titty Liddy” again.

mariahistryingtoread's review against another edition

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2.0

Serpent and Dove conceptually had merit. Two factions operating on faulty information about the other suddenly about to have their worlds rocked by two opposing members who realize all that they've been taught is a lie is a popular set-up for a reason. Throw in enemies to lovers, magic, and themes of female empowerment and you've got what should be a perfect recipe for a great YA fantasy story.

Instead what I got was Serpent and Dove.

Let's start with my first major grievance - one of the two protagonists Lou.

Bear with me now, I have to go on a bit of a tangent to explain. The very foundation of her character is what I hate about a lot of 'strong female characters' these days. This type of feminist character relies entirely on a girl being presented in a way that still appeals to men. She's mouthy, takes no shit from anyone, crude, sexually free and willing to weaponize her body to get out of scrapes. She's the perfect woman: non-threatening to men because she acts like one of the guys but you can still sexualize her since she’s hot.

She's the embodiment of what guys want in a strong female character not a strong female character. The female part is important as being a woman does have a massive influence on a character's outlook, but it should not be a defining trait. For example, I'm Black. I love being Black. I consider it a core part of my personality. Nevertheless, I am more than just Black. I am not solely defined by this one part of me regardless of its predominance in my life.

With strong female characters everything inevitably comes back to proving how strong they are for an imaginary male audience. This unconscious bid for male approval reveals the internalized misogyny underneath. You're a strong woman simply for existing as a woman. If you feel the need to constantly do things to show that despite being a woman you're strong instead of because of being a woman then you need to reexamine your deeper biases.

Women are inherently devalued by a substantial amount of people in the world so striving to prove that being a woman is not some sort of weakness is second nature to most of us.

However, I want to clarify: We should already know we are valuable and be fighting against their erroneous preconceptions of us. We merely are looking for the opportunity to make our strengths known, not prove that it is possible for women to have strengths. It should be a given that we do. It’s a very similar line of reasoning, but the difference is important: one is operating on the desire to win male acceptance, the other sees male acceptance as an incidental outcome.

In the case of the strong female character, the issue is that in the execution it is clear that the creator does believe on some level that women are inferior and they seek to remove all those inferiorities. They fail to realize said 'inferiorities' are only inferior if you allow conservatist male standards of behavior to deem it so.

In the confines of the story Lou is meant to be a bold antidote to the sexist, patriarchal hierarchy she finds herself embroiled in after marrying Reid. She is meant to challenge Reid's ideas of what a woman is supposed to be like as dictated by some frivolous metric defined by men. Looking at Lou as a character outside of her narrative function she actually only serves to implicitly reinforce the same systems as there is a misplaced superiority assigned to her for eschewing ‘girly’ things.

She thinks she’s so special for wearing pants, hanging out in bars and having noncommittal sex because girls don’t typically do that. Of course, they don’t. Many of the other women are boxed in by overwhelming cultural conditioning. So it’s particularly callous to look down upon them for a situation they didn’t ask to be in nor can change without great personal sacrifice. On the other side of the coin, many women take great pride in being the prettiest girl at the party and there’s no shame in that because it's a choice.

The book fails to realize that in a society dictated by such narrow, overbearing parameters any action undertaken by a woman can be revolutionary - whether that be something seemingly innocuous like putting on makeup or cursing a blue streak.

Apparently taking place in 15th century France, Serpent and Dove does not at all read like it takes place in that time or place. It has a distinctly modern feel that gave the impression that Mahurin was attempting to write a historically fictitious account on the fly. There was absolutely nothing to date this book to the 15th century other than the surface - like the specific brand of misogyny, lack of technology and the outfits. If you were to place this book in 2022, there is very little that would need to change for that change to make sense. It barely feels like France, let alone the 15th century.

There are a sprinkling of French words thrown in for taste, but nothing that would take actual effort to maintain. No pivotal French locations are used. No French history is alluded to. No French culture is referenced. You can argue that in an alternate universe France would develop a lot differently. Except then I would then have to ask what the point of singling out France as the location would be if none of its background would have any relevance. Also, even if that were the reason French customs were not more pertinent, that still would not be good writing. If the justification really is that alternate France isn’t the same evolutionarily as real France, then why didn’t Mahurin bother to develop her version more to make the distinction readily apparent? You can’t use France as a backdrop and simultaneously claim it’s a different France while falling back on France being a well known place as an explanation for not establishing the universe.

Following that train of thought, the witch vs Chasseurs (ie the witch hunters) battle becomes increasingly more flimsy as the story goes on.

In the beginning it's fairly well built up. The Chasseurs are largely backed by the Church and much of Christianity, regardless of sect, is foundationally oppressive to women. Their fanatical hatred of witches makes sense - a woman with power is a threat to a lot of Christian doctrine since much of the rhetoric is built on men being the head of every aspect of life outside of household domestic work or active child rearing. I also had no problem with the catalyst for the story. The fact that marriage was the only way out of their present circumstances, to me, revealed the absurdity at the core of militant Christianity.

(Note I want to make it clear I do not mean all Christianity is bad, I'm speaking strictly about the close-minded 'Christianity' that discourages critical thinking and promotes backhanded or purposeful bigotry over genuine respect for all people)

The fact that the Archbishop pushes Lou to marry Reid because his reputation would be hurt by assaulting a random woman, but he'd be in the clear as long as it's his wife is funny in a tragic sort of way. Yes, it’s absurd yet I found its absurdity a rather clever way of examining the irrationality inherent to misogyny.

The moment the two are married all the potential the book had goes up in flames.

The characters have absolutely nothing to do until it’s time for the third act conflict. They are married on page 108. Nothing of substance happens until page 360. So for over 200 pages the two basically twiddle their thumbs. Most of this time is spent at the Tower the Chasseurs live in which wouldn’t have been a bad thing if there was even a lick of worldbuilding done to make the Tower an interesting place.

The Tower could have been a wealth of knowledge and insight into the repressive, seedy underbelly to the supposedly honorable, valorous Chasseur name. Instead, it’s little more than a glorified combination clinic/library because Mahurin has not thought enough about the construction of this society to have anything deeper to expand on. Lou is forced to stay inside as the wife of Reid - a captain - she is expected to be his dutiful little wife keeping house in his room. She also is under his protection as there is an ongoing case involving her related to why the two had to wed in the first place.

Lou, obviously, chafes under said restriction. This does not amount to more than her griping. She sneaks out once to get the aforementioned pants so she can show off once again how cool and edgy she is. Outside of that she mostly stays in. The two or three other occasions she leaves are with Reid’s permission.

Back to the Tower itself. Lou makes a point to explore, but there is nothing to explore because their inner workings are paper thin.

What exactly do the Chasseurs do all day? A sentry assigned to her, Ansel, is supposed to be prepping to move up in the ranks but his assignment to Lou gets in the way of his normal duties. So when exactly is he supposed to study or train in the meantime? Do they have patrols? If so, when and how do those work? How many Chasseurs to a team? What are the other ranks other than Captain and Archbishop? What does training actually entail? They have to memorize a bunch of Bible passages from my understanding, but what about other topics? We do at least know reading anything else is heavily frowned upon.

Still, do the other Chasseurs have issues sticking to this kind of regimented lifestyle? We know some marry and leave the Chasseury, is that used as an escape? How do they even meet women when their lifestyle is said to be so strict? Again, what is their schedule? Can you be kicked out of the Chasseury? If so, how? What are the punishments for disobedience? Reid is an orphan raised in the Church. Where are the kids like him kept? Who raises them? Women are often implied to be around on the periphery, but like where do they seriously fit into the greater framework of the Chasseur hierarchy? What even is the hierarchy?

It gets worse when it’s revealed the Chasseurs don’t solely hunt witches.

One, the revelation itself is a poor one as you’re led to believe the witches are the only magical beings as no others are mentioned until over a hundred fifty pages in. Two, now there’s double the questions without answers about how the Chasseury functions. It’s casually dropped that Reid is out on an extermination mission for this random magical creature - lutins - witches create.

Why do witches create them? Is their purpose to cause mischief? Are they pets? Lou insists they're harmless which I believe but like what's the story there? Do witches create all magical creatures? If not then is this just a magical world and the Chasseurs don't realize witches aren't in charge of everything? What kind of other creatures are roaming about?

This circles back around to the lack of development for the Chasseurs - what do the Chasseurs actually do to combat anything? Since there are other magical creatures, what's the difference in taking down a witch to a Lutin to a, let's say, unicorn? They have a magical 'balisarda' to make them immune to enchantment, but how does that keep them safe from something that is made of magic not wielding it? What about other special weaponry? Chasseurs shouldn't be witch haters, they really should be magic haters because the two are not mutually exclusive.

Plus their status as the best witch defense force around was extremely contradictory when the Chasseurs are proven to be so ludicrously ineffectual several times over.

First off, they don’t even know that a different category of witches exists. Like how can they be the strongest barrier to nefarious witchy intentions for the past several hundred years only to be unaware of an entire branch of the species? Who knows though, maybe I’d be able to believe it if the Chassuery was explored in a capacity that explained how this blind spot could occur.

There is this awful bar song ‘Big Tiddy Liddy’ that Lou insists on singing to make it abundantly clear that she is not like other girls because she’s willing to say ‘tiddy’ out loud. How scandalous.

Anyways the point is, Mahurin is adamant about treating this childish song as a serious means of moving the story along. Ansel is supposed to be guarding Lou in her room. Leaving the room is totally against the rules. Lou wants to look around the Tower so she begins to sing ‘Big Tiddy Liddy’ to make him so uncomfortable he’ll let her leave to make her stop. And it works.

The Chasseurs are intended to be unrepentant killers yet Ansel can’t handle a prurient pub banger? What’s worse is that by doing it this way Mahurin misses the opportunity to bolster her assertion that Lou is street smart. Singing a dumb song doesn’t exactly scream strategy.

All we ever get on that front is religious imagery - which admittedly I liked a lot - but it's smoke and mirrors designed to distract from the lack of concrete answers for anything else.

Similar questions can be posed about witch society, which is equally as underdeveloped. The magical system barely has any logic allowing Mahurin to manipulate it at her leisure. When Lou begins to practice in preparation for her epic faceoff it’s not in the least bit compelling because her magic is a simplistic trade system: an even give and take of whatever the witch has be it immaterial or corporeal based on how much effort it would be to do said magical act. While I found the basic idea good, it leaves no room for growth as there isn’t actually anything tangible you can do to get better at it. There are no spells to learn, no potions to create, no talismans to gather. Lou’s ‘practicing’ mostly means trying to tighten up her reaction times, but even then it’s largely glossed over.

Though I talked a lot about Lou before she is not the one exception to the rule. She falls right in step with the rest of the weak, paper thin cast.

Coco is the token black friend. She exists purely to subliminally encourage the idea that Lou is a progressive warrior via her proximity to a minority.

A lot of stories do this and honestly it’s not a big deal to me because I don’t think an author should bite off more than they can chew when it comes to inclusivity. I think overall more representation needs to be included in stories especially in regards to white authors who often cite a lack of experience as an excuse to not even try. Still, I’d rather an author write a genuinely good story in their lane than an offensive or problematic or transpicously unenthused depiction otherwise.

Contributing to this feeling of faux diversity, is that she doesn’t feel Black. She feels like a white character reskinned. It’s difficult to pin down exactly what makes a character Black exactly as Black people differ so much. But, I absolutely can tell when a character is little more than a racial placeholder. In this case it’s directly related to poor worldbuilding. The world feels shallow so there is no background to make the fact that Coco is Black have any impact. I’m all for making POC inclusion casual. I don’t need Coco’s Blackness to be a major part of the story. I’m only pointing out that in a world that is attempting to be critical of antiquated, dangerous social norms it is painfully obvious that race is being ignored. I refuse to believe a world so purportedly sexist would evolve to not include racism. Even if it somehow did, that should be communicated somehow in-story.

All of this is to say, while Coco does fit this archetype I am not overly bothered by it. I’m merely pointing it out on principle.

The Archbishop is propped up as the human embodiment of evil itself by Lou. He doesn’t do anything that bad. Sure, he burns witches. And? Reid does that too. What’s the big difference? What specifically is the Archbishop doing that is so abhorrent? We never find out.

Madame Labelle ends up being essential to the story. Too bad she only shows up twice before the important part over a four hundred fifty page period thereby undercutting all significance to her character.

Ansel is there to imply there’s hope for Reid to accept Lou eventually. He’s supposed to be different from the other Chasseurs, but without any insight into the Chasseur make-up his decision to support her is entirely arbitrary. It doesn’t help that I can count on one hand the amount of times the two speak before he pledges his allegiance.

Saving the worst for last - Reid is a major drag.

He and Lou are set up like fanfiction characters. By this I mean, there is an assumption that you will already be attached to the characters and as such will accept the rushed relationship milestones as you are reading for the express purpose of witnessing these two get together. The only problem here is that these are original characters who I need actual on page proof for their interest in one another - especially for enemies to lovers which is a very difficult trope to do justice.

There is none of that delicious tension or witty banter or grudging passion underscoring any of their interactions. It becomes dull and repetitive reading about the two dance around one another. Lou never falls back on her wits when challenged, she always decides to be crude or obnoxious instead. Reid is a cavalcade of empty threats.

So everytime Lou does something to bother him it's boring because it follows the same pattern: Reid accuses her of being a heathen, Lou acts more heathen like to enrage him further, Reid attempts to intimidate her, Lou laughs it off, Reid inevitably does nothing, rinse repeat.

Reid is all hot air. He has literally nothing on her to 'keep her in line' and the narrative suffers for it. The book keeps trying to tell us Lou is shackled in this marriage. She’s not. She can do anything she wants without any consequences any time.

Other miscellaneous things I took issue with:

One of the earliest things Lou does to upset Reid is flaunt her naked body around. I found this to be particularly egregious because she acted as if he was a prude for not wanting to see her nude. And it verged very close to encouraging the harmful idea that men who aren’t always raring to go sexually have something wrong with them.

Reid has this great love, Celie, he wanted to marry before being forced to marry Lou. He randomly stops caring about her for no reason. He was so dedicated he wrote this girl long sappy notes. He was heartbroken over her refusal to marry him. He gives it all up for Lou when she's barely even nice to him at the time.

Lou makes this gross comment about now ‘witches are female because they give birth’. From feminist icon Lou this was a pretty ignorant comment. Last time I checked, women who can’t give birth or don’t want to are still women.

The book is unnecessarily dual point of view. It is so skewed in Lou’s favor. There are 41 chapters. Lou has 26 out of them to Reid’s 15. And Reid’s are often shorter and spaced apart until the last 75 or so pages when Lou is indisposed. Plus, the important things happen almost exclusively in Lou’s chapters anyways. We rarely get Reid’s perspective on anything that matters in the moment, totally defeating the purpose of having his point of view in the first place.

While it may seem like I hated Serpent and Dove it really did not bother me all that deeply outside of a few instances. It isn't good, but it’s certainly entertaining. It gave me a sense of nostalgia for when I was younger and didn’t have any preferences when reading fanfiction. It has that same rough, early writing authenticity to it where you can tell the author doesn’t have the most skill or talent but makes up for it with their unabashed love for their concept. If that won't bother you when you read it, then I think you'll have a pretty good time.

shes_book_obsessed's review against another edition

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5.0

How am I supposed to wait for the second book a year!

dabutkus's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

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