Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - Serpentine Valentine

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Serpentine Valentine by Giana Darling

11 reviews

moxiemin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

This book will be living rent free in my head for a while!

A Medusa retelling, set on the campus of a Ivy League School, where Medusa is queer. Seriously maybe I should just have taken this book as a IV drug.

Please before you take this book on check the trigger warnings, bc there are a lot. And your mental health matters!

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rachelrae1046's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad 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

It's a quick but emotional read that will have you invested. One of the FMC's Lex, was assaulted, and the book shows how that changed her personality, and the emotional journey she goes through to overcome what happened. Along the way she meets Luna, who's a bright light in her dark world. She helps Lex realize that finding someone to care about can help you heal. Now Lex has to decide if her plan to use Luna to get her revenge is worth losing the one person who brings her any kind of happiness anymore. Or if it's too late, and more than one heart will be broken.💔

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evie_24's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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tpsebast92's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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mountainfox's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

3.75

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caitlinemccann's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I enjoyed the dark academic setting and the overall twist on the Medusa mythos. If anything, I just wanted more of this--the pacing in particular felt rushed and I would have loved to see the tension stretched out. But this was a quick and compelling read and I'm excited to try more from Giana Darling in the future.

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thebookishb's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

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colorcrystals's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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queerafictionado's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring 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

Serpentine Valentine was poetry in prose. Words strung together that paint pictures in your mind and dance around in your soul. Captivating. Alluring. It will take you on a journey through the whole range of human emotions. It will rip your heart out, smash it to pieces, and string it back together. Broken. Bruised. Changed. Just like the characters on the pages. I have so many highlights in my ebook - sometimes entire paragraphs! I devoured this book, just like the twin snakes in the ouroboros devouring themselves.

This story wrenched itself in my heart and gave me words for feelings I hadn’t yet been able to name for myself. And Lex and Luna’s bond - the way the light and darkness in them commingled and pulled pieces of themselves out that might have otherwise remained hidden in the shadows of darkness or been blinded by the light of other’s expectations. Their story was tragic and beautiful and raw. And I found bits of myself in each of them. But especially Lex as she struggled to see anything good as real, instead waiting for the ticking time bomb to explode in her face. As she grappled with the darkness inside her and what it meant about who she was and her worthiness for love. As she clawed her way out of that darkness and slowly let the light that was Luna seep into her weary soul.

This was a narrative about feminism, and female empowerment. But also female rage. And the lengths women identified people must go to in order to be heard and seen and taken seriously. About why silence is so often the answer in a world that vilifies victims and parades them around as pariahs, while the real monsters wander free- their crimes covered, their reputations protected. It was powerful and heart wrenching and it will burn the fires of rage within your soul. Because the truth is…this might be a fictional story, but it is rife with truth and there are far too many real stories like this in our world.

I wanted to be able to give this book 5 stars. But there were just some parts that were problematic for me. The Harry Potter references for one. I would be engrossed in some part of the story and then an HP reference would jar me and pull me out of my reverie. They just weren’t needed, and I wish people (especially writers of queer books) would stop referencing the works of a blatant transphobe. The other big one was the whole premise of Lex using Luna as a pawn in her revenge while simultaneously claiming to be protecting women. It was contradictory to everything she stood for. I think the story could have been just as powerful if that part of the story had been written differently. There were some other cringy things but they were minor and didn’t impact my feelings on the book as a whole in the same way these two things did.

TRIGGER WARNINGS! Please read the trigger warnings. This book is a Medusa retelling and as such involves rape and sexual assault. There are some on page (not a lot of graphic details) and some off page accounts, but it is also an overarching theme of the whole book. Read with caution and check the other trigger warnings as well.

🏳️‍🌈Rep: Lesbian FMC, Bi FMC, queer and POC SCs

📝Tropes/Themes: Dark Academia, Medusa Retelling, Revenge, Found Family, Coming Out, Sapphic Romance, Feminism, Female Empowerment

Content Warnings

readingwith_kelsey's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad 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

🐍🖤 𝐀𝐑𝐂 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖: 𝑺𝒆𝒓𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝑽𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒃𝒚 Giana Darling

“𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘸𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘩”

🐍 ᴍᴇᴅᴜꜱᴀ ʀᴇᴛᴇʟʟɪɴɢ
✨ ᴅᴀʀᴋ ᴀᴄᴀᴅᴇᴍɪᴀ
🐍 ꜱᴀᴘᴘʜɪᴄ ʀᴏᴍᴀɴᴄᴇ
✨ ꜰᴇᴍɪɴɪɴᴇ ʀᴀɢᴇ
🐍 ᴛʀᴀᴜᴍᴀ ꜱᴜʀᴠɪᴠᴏʀꜱ
✨ ꜰᴏᴜɴᴅ ꜰᴀᴍɪʟʏ
🐍 ʀᴇᴠᴇɴɢᴇ ᴘʟᴏᴛ
✨ ᴏᴘᴘᴏꜱɪᴛᴇꜱ ᴀᴛᴛʀᴀᴄᴛ

What a way to start my Giana Darling journey, omg. This was my first read by her and let’s just say she has a new fan. This Medusa retelling was everything I didn’t know my feminist heart needed.

Serpentine Valentine was the most raw and beautiful depiction of feminine rage. If you don’t know the story of Medusa, make sure you do your research on that before picking this up because *𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔*. Giana was able to hit all of my emotions with her poetic-like writing style.

Lex has easily become a new all time favorite FMC for me. Her resilience, strength, and feminine power left me in awe multiple times throughout this story. Her transformation into darkness was tragically beautiful. Lex’s revenge plan brought Luna into her rage filled atmosphere but the way Luna’s light and kindness softened Lex was incredible. The chemistry between these two dichotomies was truly addicting. I can’t skip over my love for 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒂𝒏 𝑬𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑪𝒓𝒆𝒘 turned all woman wolf pack. The found family amongst these badass women was undeniable.

𝐈 𝐚𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐚’𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

tw: this story contains topics which may be sensitive to some readers.

Content Warnings

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