The Green Girl and the Serum (Mini-Review)

The Green Girl and the Serum is the first book of a series by S.T.L. Armstrong. Awhile back a serum was created to turn people into Mega Humans. In the present there are two main factions of Mega Humans with two wildly different views of how to treat humanity. Ben Fox's faction in Haven seek to co-exist with humanity while the Outcasts seek to rule the world. In the wake of various losses and revelations, Ben must find a way to defeat the Outcasts before it's too late.

I like when books, shows, and movies have LGBTQ+ representation. This due to the fact I'm in the community myself (bisexual and agender) and like to see the world progressing past archaic ideas. It makes me hopeful that younger readers, like those this book is aimed for, will see that there's nothing wrong with being part of the LGBTQ+ community. However...this book proves that sometimes no representation is the better option. Mist and Greena are presented as a lesbian couple but there are so many problems with them.

The first problem is that Mist seems to better fit the profile of a bisexual as she's loved men in the past but is now more open to sleeping with women. As sexual orientations are more guidelines than anything else, I wouldn't hold that against the book except for the other mistakes made. The second problem is that Mist's sexuality is front and center in situations where that shouldn't be the case. Such as an ex returning could be a complicated situation but the first thing that's mentioned is her sexuality. The third problem is that Mist not being straight is referred to by characters as her being different than them. Good representation needs to reassure those in the LGBTQ+ community that there is nothing wrong with them and they are worthy of love. The fourth problem is that Mist and her girlfriend change their looks to match Stacey's (who is straight) as she's just so awesome. The fifth problem is minor but...Mist and her girlfriend are caught in an intimate moment in bed. To showcase how intimate the moment is the author has them hugging. Because hugging is super intimate. The author could have easily made the moment more intimate by having the pair lightly kissing which would have also kept it safe for teens.

So is the bad LGBTQ+ representation the only problem with the book? If only that was the case.

The world building is extremely lackluster. I've read the entire book and I still am not certain of the world of the book. I know that the Outcasts are the bad guys, there's a serum that gives people powers, and Ben Fox leads the good guys. But that's really it. In a fanfiction you don't have to focus so much on world building as, depending on the kind of fic you're writing, the world is already set up. Which gives you an easier time to focus on the characters and situations. One of the most glaring problems of this book is that Haven doesn't seem to be well structured. Basically characters will run into other characters to learn important plot points instead of meetings being held.

There isn't much to talk about the characters as they can change on a dime. Chris is shown to be a good guy, then he's really mean, and then he's back to normal. Stacey goes between angry at people and soon after apologizes to them. Ben is at one moment a loving boyfriend but then he objectives Stacey by not considering her opinions and looking at her in a sexual manner when he should be listening to her.

At a number of points in the book there seems to be conflict. Yet every conflict tends to be easily resolved. If you're worried about Chris' love life just wait a page or two as a woman will show romantic interest in him out of the blue. If the book wasn't so painful to get through, I'd consider it boring. Even the first Fifty Shades of Grey book had more tension in it.

I would recommend The Green Girl and the Serum by S.T.L. Armstrong to those desperate for a science fiction book.