Review Detail

Among Serpents by Marc J. Gregson delivers one of the coolest fantasy settings I’ve read in a long time: floating islands suspended above a deadly, unknown force lurking beneath the clouds.

And this world does not feel safe for a single second.

The island civilization exists in this constant state of tension, balancing survival against collapse while something horrifying stirs below them. The people living above the abyss have built kingdoms, political systems, military structures, and entire social hierarchies around staying alive, but underneath all the elegance and power is pure fear.

You can feel it in every chapter.

The floating cities themselves are vivid and haunting. They’re beautiful in the way abandoned cathedrals are beautiful: grand, ancient, but carrying the sense that something terrible happened there long before you arrived. The higher society climbs into luxury and political games, the more unstable everything beneath them feels.

And below it all?The unknown force.

Not fully understood. Not fully controlled. Just waiting.

That looming threat gives the story this incredible pressure-cooker atmosphere because everyone knows survival is temporary if the system fails, which makes the betrayals in this book absolutely lethal.

Nobody betrays anyone casually here. Every deception feels tangled in ambition, desperation, survival, or revenge. Alliances shift constantly, and Marc J. Gregson is ruthless about making sure trust always comes with consequences. When you think certain relationships are solid, the story pulls the floor out from under you like the world itself is collapsing.

The plot twists genuinely got me.

Not random twists thrown in for shock value, either. These are the kind that quietly plant clues before detonating your emotional stability three chapters later. Several moments completely reframed characters and motivations in ways that made me want to immediately flip back through previous scenes, screaming, “YOU SNEAKY LITTLE MENACE.”

And because the world itself is already so unstable, every twist feels even bigger. Secrets aren’t just personal here. They threaten entire kingdoms. One revelation can destabilize political alliances, destroy trust, or push characters into impossible choices.

Then there’s the romance simmering underneath all the chaos.

It never overpowers the story, which honestly makes it stronger. The romantic tension grows in stolen moments between danger, betrayal, and survival. In a world where everyone is hiding something, vulnerability becomes terrifying. Every soft moment feels risky because this book trains you to expect emotional devastation at all times.

The romance works so well because it’s wrapped tightly into the paranoia of the setting. Attraction and suspicion coexist. Characters want connection while simultaneously wondering if trusting someone will destroy them.

Honestly? That emotional instability tasted incredible.

By the end, the entire story feels like standing on a crumbling balcony suspended above a storm while the kingdom tears itself apart from the inside. The worldbuilding is immersive, the twists are vicious, the betrayals cut deep, and the constant threat below the islands gives everything this heavy feeling of inevitable catastrophe.

Among Serpents isn’t just fantasy. It’s survival wrapped in political venom and falling sky kingdoms.

5 stars. I trust absolutely nobody now.