New Book Alert: The Serpent Queen by Tyler M. Mathis; Odd, Weird, and Shallow Dark Comic Horror About A Serpent Goddess

 New Book Alert: The Serpent Queen by Tyler M. Mathis; Odd, Weird, and Shallow Dark Comic Horror About A Serpent Goddess

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: You know that Tyler M. Mathis' novella, The Serpent Queen, is going to be a fun and interesting ride when you read the dedication, or lack thereof: "This book is dedicated to no one." It's a darkly comic touch in a book that is brimming with them. (Sure hope Mathis' friends and family weren't too hurt by that. I mean, rude.)

The Serpent Queen is similar to a Tales from the Crypt comic or episode, a dark, weird, and erotic horror novella that involves a serpent goddess wrapping herself around a married couple.

Jenn and Jeff are married but not exactly faithful to each other. They have an open marriage and have had multiple affairs. When they aren't sleeping with other people, they are fantasizing about them. In Jenn's case, she fantasizes about men and women. However, the Smiling Swingers have reached the age where partying and open affairs are not as fun anymore. So they are leaving Chicago to New York City to have one last hurrah before they settle into comfortable middle age. So they do what any hot blooded sex crazed couple would do: go to a reptile show.

However this reptile show is not your standard program for the public library and the herpetologist, Dr. Natalia Manasa is not your usual snake whisperer. The show starts out innocently enough with her showing non poisonous reptiles and mentioning their origins. Then things get weird when her little pets take vengeance on a heckler by brutally attacking him. Even better, the audience seems to delight in the cruelty so much that they are salivating for the heckler's blood and posting videos of his humiliation on YouTube. Jenn is even more embarrassed that Jeff is one of the followers as though he were hypnotized. When it comes to animal experts, Natalia Manasa is no Steve Irwin.

Things get even weirder when Manasa appears to be attracted to Jeff and Jenn and invites them both to a strange party so she could get to know them better.

This book isn't really deep in characterization. Jeff and Jenn are the prototypical argumentative couple and alternate between annoying and pathetic. Jenn is extremely whiny and Jeff is immature so it's hard to take either of them seriously or care much about what really happens to them beyond the creepy weirdness factor.

Manasa herself is a scene stealer of the highest order. She enchants and seduces both couples and seems to have a whole cult, as well as her beloved serpents, at her beck and call. She is a sexually fascinating character but after a while she starts to wear thin. She lacks the subtle nuances and characterization of other similar seductresses like Lilith in R.E. Wood's Succubus Affair. Her sexual magnetism begins to run into self parody especially at the end when she is confronted and somehow she still seems to get her way, even coming off in a better situation than before.

There are some pretty graphic parts that are the highlight of the book, particularly when Jeff and Jenn go to the party. Manasa knows what the couple's erotic desires are and she provides it in many ways. There are some servants of Manasa's that appear to not only satisfy her needs but to give her guests a good kinky time.

There are plenty of moments that are hallucinatory and terrifying, not surprisingly, involving snakes. Jenn receives a very shocking operation that puts her up close and personal with the cuddly critters. It becomes clear that Manasa is just as cold blooded as her pets with an almost hypnotic way of catching her prey before she feasts on them (and in some cases, that may not be a metaphor.)

The Serpent Queen has a way of drawing the Reader in and fascinating them with the erotica, suspense, and weirdness but after a while the lasting impact feels flat. It's more like a non-lethal snake, gruesome when you look at it but easily forgettable once you walk away from it.