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Book Review of The Serpent Never Sleeps

The Serpent Never Sleeps
The Serpent Never Sleeps
Author: Scott O'Dell
Genre: Children's Books
Book Type: Paperback
k00kaburra avatar reviewed on + 62 more book reviews


Compared to books like Island of the Blue Dolphins, this is a weak novel. It is somewhat interesting, and it intrigues a lot of curiousity about the time period and the Jamestown colonies that I would like to further research. But the characters are not engaging - the main character, Serena Lynn, forms deep attachment to people but her motivation from whence the attachments spring are never clearly explained. She just suddenly bonds!
I think that more depth was required of everyone in the novel - the vast majority of the people were names and descriptions tossed in to say a few words before being pitched into the background. If we are greeting Jamestown and the New World through Serena Lynn's eyes, she certainly wasn't very observant, and missed much that we would have very much liked to see.