Review: Well-written and settings are beautifully described but needlessly elaborate...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 3, 2013
Whatever else could be said about Betrayal by Serpent, it cannot be called a poorly written novel. I don't think I've read a technically better written novel. If there are errors, this reader didn't see them. I do think that the end result of the exhaustive exposition is that we know Anna as a character very well and yet there are moments that still rung a little false to the ear. People are unpredictable and so are characters. Could she do it is rather a different question from is she likely to do it.I have heard much about the new genre of fiction known as "emotofiction" and wondered if Kerrigan's novel fit into that category. There is a constant weight of emotion about the book. When Anna goes to the lawyers office at the start of the novel there is a trepidation that is palpable to the reader. Are we on this ride with Anna and if she were someone more suited to me would I have been emotionally soaring with her until the end?  With her in the ups and downs and crawling on the jungle floor?In the end, this was not a novel for me. There was always a sense that an editor with a machete could have made it into something more palatable. There were few points where I didn't think the narrative could use some pruning but I am not the author and this novel was not my vision. Well written though it was this reader found it to be trying at points and had to push ahead to keep reading. If you like epic sagas, Betrayal by Serpent may be the book for you.