Serpentine
Thomas F. Monteleone
Borderlands Press
ISBN: 978-1880325766
Dark Fantasy, Paranormal
Reviewed by Shannon Frost

Sophia Rousseau is a creature as old as time.  She has seen history as it’s been made and kept company with the greatest minds of the past.  Yet wherever she goes, death follows.  Now after a century of confinement, she’s been released into the modern age and she finds her way to a country that had been only in its early stages when she last roamed the world, America.  As a creature that feeds on the creativity of others, drawing it out of their bodies along with their life essence through sexual acts, she finds America to be an endless supply of sustenance for her.  But when she encounters a man her powers are useless against, Sophia meets a match that is as deadly as herself.  

Sophia is without a doubt the heart of Serpentine.  She may be the figure of evil in the book, yet it’s hard to look at her as wholly evil.  While she’s often cold and calculating in handling her victims, many times there’s a spark of humanity in her feeling remorse for some of her lovers.  She has the feel of a creature of nature, doing what she must in order to survive, and during one of her encounters with a not very gentlemanly man, her power and actions make her feel almost heroic.  She is, in fact, a far more sympathetic and likeable figure than either of the two “heroes” of the story.

The book balances on the edge of being a soft erotica with the numerous sexual scenes it contains, as that is how Sophia draws her power.  The dialogue of the characters can be a bit choppy at times, and the male characters’ constant referring to Sophia as “baby” or other less than kind words, gets tiresome.  The sections of the book that diverge into Sophia’s past and her interactions with famous men such as Mozart and Van Gogh are very interesting, and with being the ancient creature she is, Sophia and her encounters could produce other works delving into her history.  With its strong female lead in Sophia, not-quite-good versus not-quite-evil theme, and unique supernatural premise, Serpentine makes for a solid reading experience.