Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Serpentine Valentine

Edit: Re-writing review for clarity. I initially wrote it after throwing down my Kindle in a fit of rage and disgust.

DNF at 33%. I don’t usually write reviews but man, this book is so full of cringe. I was excited for a Sapphic DA Medusa re-telling but this one was disappointing and was a disservice to Medusa herself.

Spoilers ahead.

I do not think I will finish this book, though I may return to it out of sheer curiosity.

First, let's talk about Lex. I didn't like her from the start as she was a total NLOG. She's different from the other girls as she's more interested in the classics than partying and getting drunk, which nobody has ever heard of before! You can tell just how different she is when she's describing herself in her Athena Halloween costume.

'Regardless of feeling sexy or not, I felt strong and right as I passed the other costume-clad students in the commons. Amid a sea of sexy nurses, Targaryens, and Star Wars characters, I felt uniquely me.' Sigh.

She then has a very uncomfortable discussion with her homophobic professor where they throw classical quotes back and forth at each other for way too long, I guess to build up their short-lived relationship, but it was painful to read. It was almost as bad as Donna Tartt's overuse of Latin in The Secret History.

'You've never had a man treat you right, have you, sweet Lex?' CRINGE

Second, the way the author describes Lex's body made me uncomfortable. I could have sworn the author was male before checking and it reads like some man's WLW fantasy, especially from the professor's POV which would have made sense if it was in his POV, but it wasn't.

'Her breasts were obvious beneath her conservatively buttoned black blouse, but they would have been obvious in anything she wore, heavy, but high with youth.'

As someone who is LGBTQ+, Lex does not read like a lesbian at all, but what a man thinks a lesbian would talk and act like. And the way she acted after the incident? Disgusting. You would think she would be more careful with her actions after what she went through, but instead, she forces herself onto Luna, who is straight (though Lex says she isn't), SA's her, and exposes herself to her all in a cheap act of revenge against Luna's mother, the president of the school.

'Lex,' she breathed, and it was there, both the protest and the longing for more. 'Don't.'
'Don't what? Don't stop? I won't,' I promised darkly, tossing the hem of my short skirt up and over my belly to reveal my underwear-clad groin to her hungry gaze.'

Hello? 911?? This is SA! Luna has a boyfriend, which she makes clear to Lex, but that doesn't stop Lex from getting off in front of Luna without consent. I don't understand how someone who was SA'd could put someone else in this position knowing how they may feel afterward. Even if Luna seemed 'hungry,' she clearly said stop.

Lex also forces herself onto Luna in the library, without consent, and kisses her also knowing then that she has a boyfriend, all for the sake of revenge.

I was on Lex's side before and during the incident, and I was hoping she would come back and seek her revenge cleverly, but from what it seems where I left off, she doesn't.

Briefly talking about Luna, I liked her. Sure, she had a few NLOG qualities too, but she had to be attractive to Lex, I guess. She genuinely feels herself falling for Lex and starts to question her sexuality, which would have been a great subject to write about in this book but it's lost in Lex's gross advances. Luna loves her boyfriend and doesn't want to cheat on him but finds herself torn between loving her boyfriend and having feelings for Lex. I felt bad for her and may never know what happens later since I probably won't finish the book. The one thing that made me uncomfortable when describing Luna was when the author put her in a Slytherin sweater. I don't understand why the author would mention a TERF when (attempting) to write an LGBTQ+ fantasy. Make it make sense.

Now, about the 'Man Eaters,' Lex's group with her sisters where they torture boys on campus who have assaulted women. Again, I stopped at 33% so I was only able to read about their first act of revenge, but it didn't make sense to me at all. I understand wanting to call out boys on campus who have SA'd before, but the whole idea was messy and anyone with a brain would have known it was Lex who did it. Lex, the girl who was SA'd, came back to school wearing all black with snake tattoos and chose a 'disguise' of all-black clothing and a snake mask. Yet she got away with it because she changed her voice. I wasn't convinced at all. When the girl who was SA'd by their victim decided to finally say something, it was Luna and her team that comforted her, not Lex, but were supposed to feel good about it anyway.

Other things that didn't make sense to me:
If Mina (the president of the school and Luna's mother) knew Lex and her foster family for a long time and knew her character, why would she not believe Lex when she admitted she was SA'd? Because she loves her work so much?
If Lex knew Mina and her family, how has she never met Luna before?
Why did Lex choose Luna as her 'tool' for revenge when she, herself went through something so traumatic where she felt the same?
Why is Lex, a lesbian, so insistent that Luna isn't straight? LGBTQ+ people get told all the time that we aren't what we say we are, and it's frustrating. I don't see why she would put someone else through that.
TikTok??
Why did the author mention a TERF in a (supposedly) LGBTQ+ book?!

Also, salted pasta water.

Content Warnings

always_reading_rachel's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

There's something about going into a book blind and being just so pleasantly surprised that you end up finishing it in less than 24 hours. It's one of my favorite things. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of retellings, but if they were all written like this one was, they would move their way up my list of favorites. This was such a heart breaking, all too relevant, modern, dark academia retelling of Medusa. I really appreciated the way Giana was able to respectfully portray the very real issue that is the suppression of sexual assault survivors on college campuses and in the world at large, and the way she was able to weave that into a Medusa retelling and a wonderful romance was perfect. There are some parts that are tough to get through, Giana does a great job of laying out the trigger warnings at the beginning of the book, but the complete journey from the beginning of Lex's story, through the addition of Luna's story, to both of their conclusions was such a gripping read that I just couldn't put down and would recommend in a heart beat.

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