“I never said it was your god. Your god hates women. We were an afterthought.”
Shelby Mahurin’s Serpent and Dove is set in 17th Century France, ruled over by the Church. The Archbishop and the Chasseurs (sort of like a royal police force), maintain law and order in the city. This all sounds like an excellent setting for a historical fiction novel, but there’s one key detail to be noted. The Church spends most of its time, in an almost genocidal crusade against witches, burning them at the stake. In the mind of the Church, witches are hideous anomalies and are a serious threat to the French people. The magic that witches possess is, in the eyes of the Chasseurs, solely used for ill will.
The protagonist of the book is Louise (Lou), a pickpocket. She doesn’t stay put, in her attempts to evade capture from her mother, the leader of the witches, who wants to kill Lou. A series of unfortunate events causes Lou to be forcibly married off to a Chasseur, Reid, in order for the Church to save face. The book revolves around Lou’s stay at Church, where she would be burned at the stake if her true identity was ever revealed. The book also highlights the life of women, in the 17th century. What’s interesting is that Reid, Lou’s husband, also has the values of the Church ingrained into him- not that all his values are wrong, but some definitely would raise some eyebrows in the 21st century. The Church expects wives to be treated as property, and as nothing more. Lou was brought up in a setting, that had values that couldn’t be farther from what the Church expects, which makes for a very interesting dynamic between her and Reid.
Lou experiences first-hand the horrors that the Chasseurs perpetuate, often privy to their attacks on witches, which only serves to intensify her loathing towards them. Lou’s refusal to be a prim and proper woman is quite entertaining. Though Reid is morally very uptight, he slowly begins to understand Lou’s point of view, though simultaneously questioning why Lou is so protective of witches. This is also a book where the side characters shine- Ansel and Coco add so much flavour to the entire story, sometimes saving the reader from Reid and Lou’s not-so-friendly conversations.
Serpent and Dove is definitely not a light read, it’s a whopping 500+ pages, and deals with themes like oppression, and hiding behind the lines of black and white. Subtle feminist themes are embedded into the story, with Lou’s and Coco’s attitudes, and their refusal to be smothered by the patriarchy. The story expertly weaves French society and culture, and the overarching theme of a city ruled by the Church, into the lives of the protagonists- Lou and Reid. Though Serpent and Dove is not as much of an epic fantasy like Throne of Glass or A Court of Thorns and Roses, it’s a much more realistic plot of faith, survival and resilience.