Serpentine, I’m Not Mad, Just Disappointed

I’m making a conscious effort this year to read books by authors of color, and so one of the first places I turned to find new ones was the Diversity in YA blog. I was excited to see that Cindy Pon, one of the co-founders of the site, had just published a new book called Serpentine. I’d read and enjoyed Pon’s Phoenix duology several years ago, and I was eager to read another installment set in Pon’s China-based fantasy land of Xia.

Unfortunately, Serpentine ended up being an object lesson in the idea that a book can be everything you hope for from a diversity standpoint and still remain unsatisfying.

Spoilers for Serpentine below the jump.