The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi

Reviewed by Lauren M.
Grade 11

What would you do to absolve guilt? What would you do for power? These two questions go hand in hand in Roshani Chokshi’s The Silvered Serpents. Her latest masterpiece snatches the reader and plunges them into a vivid world that will stay with you long after the last page.

The Silvered Serpents picks up in the aftermath of The Gilded Wolves, and is set in 1889. Haunted by tragedy, Laila, Enrique, Zofia and Séverin try to piece their lives back together, but the guilt is too much for Séverin to bear. He reassembles the team to go hunt for a mythical object that is believed to grant the power of God. Each member has their suspicions about the nature of this quest but they go along into a dangerous and fantastical Russia, where their secrets and fears wear the faces of beloved and feared memories.

The book has four narrators, and the secrets and fears each character battled with fleshed them out and made them easy to empathize with, even if you don’t agree with their actions. Each narrator has their own scars that they are battling with, yet I loved how they were able to function as a team regardless of their personal struggles. The entire theme of the book is grief, and I loved how it was portrayed through the settings which were cold and confounding and reflected the nuanced emotions of each narrator. The characters had to journey not only though an external unforgiving climate, but also an internal one. The fantasy aspect is most certainly there, with forgotten palaces, ice animals, and goddesses. Another thing that drew me in was the diversity in the book. Everyone was different from the others, and that melded the team together because everyone brought something unique to the table.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves historical fantasy but cannot commit to a long novel. A relatively quick read, it is enjoyable and immersive. However, if you are looking for a lighthearted story, this may not be for you because there are solemn and weighty emotions running throughout the novel. All in all, I would rate this as a four out of five stars, because I would have liked to see a bit more character development.