Unmagical Gorgon’s Journey: Descendant of the Serpent Queen by Niki Livingston

Book Review: Descendant of the Serpent Queen

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Summary:

Magical gorgons do not exist anymore.

Only deformed ones. That’s me. An unmagical, deformed gorgon.

While the world’s alchemy progression advanced without me, and the enchanters became the dominant rulers of land and sea, my meager status as a vapid allowed me to fly under the radar. That is, if my sleepy serpent remained tucked underneath my long locks.

All that changed when a faerie buzzed into my life and brought Huxley slithering from his cocoon. Now I have caught the eye of a fearsome Nephilim, who is the Director over my new work position, an angry but dangerously attractive werewolf, who shows up nearly everywhere I go, and the resistance group, whose arrival to the city aligns with the murder of another gorgon.

Who am I to trust when even my best friend, Freya, is keeping secrets?

My only solace is Ian, an unmagical gorgeous man. We bond over our absent powers, and he enraptured me with his piercing attention and heated touch.

It’s a shame all great things must end, including my life. A war is on the horizon, and my coveted blood is the prize.

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First Paragraphs (Chapter 1) –

In a world full of enchanters, I am a zero. A nobody.

Scratch that. I’m a hot mess, living among magical people who would never think twice about their communication device.

I sighed, a smidgen of self-pity sliding down the back of my skull as I squinted in the dark abyss before me.

The voices and laughter of the morning coffee drinkers filled the space around me. No one paid me any attention, which was nothing new, considering I had nothing to offer them. And that was a relief. I didn’t mind staying invisible to the magical world. Less trouble.

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My Thoughts:

Descendant of the Serpent Queen is the first book in the Infernal Crystals Series. It follows the story of Audrey, a young woman who has been raised to believe she is deformed because of the snake she has growing out of her head.

This is a world where magical beings have taken over society, land and sea. In this book, you’ll find shape-shifters, fairies, Nephilim, werewolves, elves, vampires, and now and then, a gorgon.

These gorgons do not, however, possess the full glory of the ancient Greek gorgon, Medusa. They have no magic or special abilities. Most don’t even have a single fully developed snake on their head. Audrey is the exception, as she has her beloved Huxley, who remains asleep and out of sight when Audrey is in public.

Audrey is an outcast with no self-esteem or confidence. She has a tendency to whine and drown in her own self-loathing, but in her defense, she’s been raised to believe she is less than what she truly is, by her overprotective family, and not having any special abilities makes it difficult to thrive in a world full of supernatural beings.

When Audrey starts a new job at a prestigious company of scientific research, all of that starts to change, as it is revealed to one of the higher-ups that she is a gorgon, and her job description is immediately changed to studying gorgons. Strange. What’s so special about gorgons, after all? As Aubrey begins to find out, gorgons are, in fact, tremendously special, so special that the blood of a gorgon is highly sought after.

Aubrey finds herself in a situation she never dreams she would be in, as she discovers more about herself, her family secrets and the hush-hush plans the company she works for are developing. She doesn’t know who to trust, and she finds herself becoming the target of something dangerous and deadly.

Aubrey’s tendency to lust after every attractive man she meets annoyed me a little. She is literally being carried away to her supposed doom in one chapter by a Nephilim and she somehow has a passing thought about how gorgeous the guy’s bulging muscles are. Come on now, seriously? She has at least one, maybe two (or three), potential love interest in this book, but they feel a bit rushed, perhaps even forced in some cases.

Despite that annoyance, I did enjoy the story overall, as more was revealed about gorgons and what makes them so special. I’ve always been a big fan of Greek mythology, and Medusa was one of my favorites.

The world building was a little lacking for me, as I was hoping to fully understand how each of the supernatural classes came to be, how they came into power, how their society works, etc.

While these things were touched upon, I felt I still had more questions than answers, as it all seemed too gneral and vague. The whole point of a set up novel in a series is to typically answer a lot of these questions, but this one fell a little short. Hopefully things will become more clear by book two, which is supposed to be much darker and adult themed than this setup novel.

My favorite character in the series so far is Aunt Fawn. She doesn’t appear much in this book, which is disappointing, but after reading the prequel, I want to know even more about her!

The other characters are okay, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel particularly moved by any of them. Freya didn’t appear to be much of a best friend. Ian was okay, but just okay. The others are just sort of there.

The villains though? Damn! They live up to the title! I promise! The villains are absolutely deplorable and it was satisfying to read their fate before the story ended in one doozie of a cliffhanger.

Descendant of the Serpent Queen is a good dark urban fantasy to sit down to on a rainy day, despite its shortcomings. I just hope that book two will explain more of the world mechanics, reveal more of Fawn’s story, and allow Audrey to grow into a powerful main character, rather than keep her in her pitiful victim mentality.

I continue to follow this series because I love gorgons! I have no doubt that the rest of this series will deliver fantastically on that fandom, as it has already given me a small preview of just how amazing gorgons actually are! Here’s hoping it doesn’t let me down!

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