Zoya Reads

Kiss of the Basilisk is an unapologetically unhinged erotic fantasy novel that is not only capable of entertaining, but also providing a potent lens in the exploration of female sexuality and the politics of desire. In contrast to traditional power dynamics of Gothic and folkloric narratives, the female protagonist is positioned in direct negotiation with the mythic predator, hence crafting a story that challenges norms, and centers on ideas like consent, autonomy, and reclaiming taboo desires.

The novel follows twenty-year-old Tem (short for Temperance), who is summoned to compete against thirteen other women for the hand of the prince. To win his affection, and the chance to be queen of the land, these women must undergo rigorous training in the art of pleasure, overseen by the kingdom’s most reviled creatures, the defeated basilisk shapeshifters conscripted into servitude. In a provocative subversion of traditional fairy tale tropes, this victory will not be granted to the purest or most obedient woman, but to the most skilled, confident, and experienced. A direction that ultimately reorients feminine value away from passivity and toward action.

In many ways, it is a coming-of-age story, tracing Tem’s transformation from an inexperienced and uncertain, virginal girl into a worldly, self-possessed woman. Under the guidance of Caspen, the Serpent King, Tem learns to see her own beauty, and understand her worth as deriving from within, rather than a judgement ascribed by others. As she navigates the court’s perilous world, she quickly learns to wield her intellect, desire, and body as strategic instruments of influence, while her evolution is never framed as loss of innocence, but as the deliberate claiming of agency in a world designed to strip it from her.

“You are not meant to be tamed, Tem”, Caspen informs her. Her basilisk instructor and lover senses something in her, familiar and primal, that she has yet to recognize. Something that is not to be silenced or controlled. Long linked to power and danger, the figure of the basilisk, phallic in nature, stands as a symbol of raw, untamed sexuality. Tem does not run from what he represents, nor does she give in fully. She meets him with openness and curiosity, all the while claiming her pleasure as her own, proving herself a worthy match and kindred spirit to this mythic beast.

As shapeshifters, the basilisks are more than the sheer embodiment of unbridled lust, representing fluidity, queerness, and transformation. Ostracized to the outskirts of the very kingdom they are forced to serve, the basilisks become an allegory for the misunderstood other. Their forced servitude reflects how marginalized identities are exploited by dominant systems that seek to suppress and commodify what they fear. The basilisk’s monstrous body becomes a symbol for non-normative desire, dangerously capable of destabilizing fixed categories of gender and form. Tem’s encounter with the monster proves that it is not a threat to be eliminated, but a partner in reimagining the terms of erotic and emotional connection. Monstrosity is but another form of freedom, opening space for expressions of self and desire that resist patriarchal and heteronormative expectations.

Similarly, Tem’s journey embodies this refusal to be bound by such binaries. She choses not to choose between the prince, who stands for tradition and stability, and Caspen, who embodies liberation and transformation. Instead, she embraces both, insisting on being accepted as a whole. Her love for the two men expresses different aspects of herself, which she ultimately brings into balance. In doing so, Tem shows that desire and identity do not need to be singular or widely approved to be true.

In Kiss of the Basilisk, erotic fantasy becomes a space of resistance and re-imagination. Through Tem’s journey, the novel dismantles inherited notions of feminine virtue, monogamous love, and creates space for transgressive desire. It reclaims the monstrous, the erotic, and the excessive as sites of power rather than shame, and what begins as a competition for a prince becomes a story of self-authorship.