The Serpent Awakens by Luna Saint Claire – Review by Maryn Belling
The Serpent Awakens by Luna Saint Claire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Serpent Awakens by Luna Saint Claire – Review by Maryn Belling
Luna Saint Claire is a gifted author. She’s clearly well-read, skilled at developing characters, familiar with deep archetypal sagas, and adept at keeping a story line moving. What she accomplishes in less than 300 pages is truly remarkable. Whether you’re a devotee of psychological thrillers or a first-time reader, this story and its adherence to excellent story-craft will set the bar by which you judge other books.
Ms. Saint Claire begins by setting up our main character as someone we don’t want to like. She gets right into the reader’s moral conscience – we want the devil to get his due as the saying goes.
Nico is a user and abuser of women and drugs. As a teacher of Kundalini Yoga, he’s supposed to be a caretaker of others’ spiritualities so they can heal through the practice.Despite his best intentions, Nico couldn’t be farther from a true yogi than if he were on a vintage Cartoon Network episode with a side-kick named BooBoo and a jaunty little hat. He’s exerting a vampire-like compulsion on his students. Women who are otherwise strong, talented, independent, resourceful, and successful are falling under Nico’s spell
When Nico’s reality brings him back to his roots, we still want to dislike him. But we also start to see that he’s not 100% a monster. He seeks freedom from his affliction.As if Sisyphus’ boulder were one’s spirituality.
Redemption and psychological terror intertwine in The Serpent Awakens.
The Serpent Awakens, Luna Saint Claire, Review, Itsy Bitsy Book Bits, Psychological Fiction
