Status Updates From Among Serpents

To read a book that I know is going to be tragic, I have to spend a lot of time building up the courage to have horrible things happen to the characters. When I am reading a book like Among Serpents, I don’t do that. It is just a basic YA book were everything will be fine. I feel the death of a book character more deeply when I am not expecting it. That is why I almost threw this book across the room last night.

This book is simultaneously worse and better then the first book. It is worse because it has decided that there doesn’t need to be anymore character development for Conrad’s crew. Basically they are all best friends. This book is better because the things that actually matter to the world are happening, it is not just Conrad figuring out his life. There is still a lot of that but a little less.

This book is so… I can’t quite find the right word to describe it, because it is generic but also isn’t. I like this book more then I should. Recently Conrad’s uncle tried to take his ship away. This lead to Conrad having to duel with him to win it back. I think what happened here was the author decided that there had not been enough duels in this book so he made up a situation that “needed” one.