Hello everyone! I’m back with another review, this time of the Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi. This was one of my most anticipated reads this year, and whew! It was something.
Shoutout to NetGalley for making the e-Arc of the Silvered Serpents available to everyone for 72 hours, and shoutout to whoever posted that information on Twitter. I owe you my life.
Also don’t read this if you haven’t read The Gilded Wolves yet.
The Silvered Serpents
By Roshani Chokshi
Published 22 September 2020 by Wednesday Booksfantasy | young adult | heists & treasure hunting
My rating: ★★★★★
They are each other’s fiercest love, greatest danger, and only hope.
Séverin and his team members might have successfully thwarted the Fallen House, but victory came at a terrible cost ― one that still haunts all of them. Desperate to make amends, Séverin pursues a dangerous lead to find a long lost artifact rumoured to grant its possessor the power of God.
Their hunt lures them far from Paris, and into icy heart of Russia where crystalline ice animals stalk forgotten mansions, broken goddesses carry deadly secrets, and a string of unsolved murders makes the crew question whether an ancient myth is a myth after all.
As hidden secrets come to the light and the ghosts of the past catch up to them, the crew will discover new dimensions of themselves. But what they find out may lead them down paths they never imagined.
A tale of love and betrayal as the crew risks their lives for one last job.
What I Liked
Uhm, what didn’t I like? I rated this book five stars, so as usual this review is more me gushing than actually saying anything constructive. But I’ll do my best to get a little technical anyway.
Our favorite crew is still feeling the aftermath of Tristan’s death, and the story starts three weeks before the Winter Conclave takes place. Like the blurb says, the crew has to follow a lead to the mythical Divine Lyrics, a book that would grant the reader God-like powers. If there’s anyone who needs this object most, it’s Laila, who will die if she doesn’t find a solution to her forging problem.
But first, let’s talk a little about Séverin. Have y’all read Queen of Air and Darkness? Remember when Julian went full emotionless? So Séverin is kind of like that here, except for some reason it’s worse. He’s just so darn cold, and he wants to protect his crew so bad, but he doesn’t see that the way he’s doing it is never going to work.
We see a lot more from the other characters, too. We learn more about the fears and their dreams, and I honestly felt for all of them. All the main characters have their own POV chapters, and never once did I dread reading about a certain character. What this means is that all characters are so well-developed, I like reading about all of them in equal measure. There area also two new important side characters, who are…. interesting, to say the least.
Let’s talk a little about world and pace. I think Chokshi has a genuine talent for making scenes come to life in my head, because I could perfectly see everything that happened in this book. Additionally, the pacing of this book was really good. It’s medium to fast paced, and never slows down. To hammer down on that point a little more, I read this book nearly in one sitting. I just had to find out more, and know what would happen next.
Lastly, I will say that if you absolutely hate cliffhanger endings, don’t read this one yet. I personally enjoy a good cliffhanger, and this one definitely has me already yearning for the third book.
What I Liked Less
I honestly can’t think of anything technical that I didn’t like in this book. I didn’t like certain side characters, but that’s not enough to dock points over. The only thing I can say is that since this is an e-Arc, there were still some mistakes. Tiny errors, but still noticeable. Obviously I won’t dock points over that either, since the book still has to go through final edits, but I do hope all the mistakes will be resolved in the final version.
And that’s my review of The Silvered Serpents! I really loved this book, and I think it’ll make my top 10 (maybe top 15) of best books read this year.
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