The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi (review)

Months after his brother’s brutal death at the hands of the Fallen House in Chokshi’s Gilded Wolves (BCCB 12/18), Séverin has drastically shifted his goal from merely earning a place among the magical elite of Europe to earning godhood. A long-lost book, the Divine Lyrics, promises such divinity, and Séverin once again assembles his team—all of who were nearly killed during Severin’s attempt to con a powerful French family—to discover the artifact. Each member has their own motivations to follow him, but Laila, Séverin’s sometime mistress, has the most to win or lose here, as the Book might be the only thing that can stop her magically created body from failing on her next birthday. The previous book had all the trappings of a great heist book, and this one hits the notes of a thrilling treasure hunt with similar aplomb, from clues coded in myth to death defying escapes from ancient vaults to breathtaking betrayals and reveals. While the tensions of the group’s various dynamics require knowledge of prior events to appreciate the full emotional context, each of the characters is given a richly nuanced development as the narrative focus shifts among them. The freezing terrain of nineteenth-century Russia and a literal ice palace provide the backdrop, but Chokshi keeps the action front and center, leaning into the taut pace of time-ticking adventure. The ending will elicit more than a few shocked gasps and leave fans anxiously awaiting the series’ next installment.