History YMMV / SergeStorms

** Rachael from ''Atomic Lobster'' is portrayed as the second coming of TokenEvilTeammate Sharon Rhodes and has an "obnoxious and morally reprehensible" characterization, but can still feel like a JerkassWoobie at the very least. She is living in dreary circumstances (she is a drug addict and mentions she sometimes does sex work to pay her electric bill) and otherwise minding her own business until she threatens Serge in an argument over an {{Asshole Victim}}'s money and ends up cajoled into becoming Serge's companion. Not once in 2-5 months does Serge seriously try to intervene with her pitifully desperate cocaine addiction. He only keeps her around for hate-fueled sex while [[DomesticAbuse giving her no respect and constantly twisting her arm behind her back during arguments (although she is just as vitriolic to him, if not more so and sometimes slaps him as well as the book progresses)]]. She shows [[EveryoneHasStandards some standards]] by slapping groom-to-be Trevor for propositioning her on his wedding night. Finally, [[spoiler:she only snaps and attacks her companions with a knife after she discovers that the people she's been having such a toxic relationship with killed her beloved sister Sharon ten years earlier, with Serge not showing any willingness to go easy on her despite the justifiable trauma of that revelation and how she is clearly "wired out of her head" at the time]].

*** Shortly after meeting Rachael, Serge unilaterally announces that they're going to have sex because she is dancing erotically and he is such a ChickMagnet. He twists Rachael's arm when she initially ignores him to keep dancing (although a GilliganCut makes it possible that she did consent before the actual sex), and "thrust[s] violently" to deliberately hurt her when she annoys him as they copulate (something which he repeats during a later scene). While [[NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization Rachael ultimately turns out to enjoy having sex with Serge]], being [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence hurt in the middle of sex, and hurting Serge back]], many fans still find Serge's actions throughout that subplot to be worse than plenty of things Serge has killed {{Asshole Victim}}s over.

** In ''The Stingray Shuffle'', entertainment troupe members Andy, Frankie, Dave, Jeff, Saul, and Spider are portrayed as downtrodden, amiable underdogs who (minus Saul, who dies of a stroke) get a happy change in circumstances in the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue. This is despite how (unlike one or two of their friends) they are completely indifferent toward their hypnotist Preston's penchant for using his craft to subject women and teenaged girls to a BedTrick ploy (although Spider has the excuse of being under hypnosis himself, causing him to fixate on other stuff throughout most of his page time).
** Even some people who love Serge throughout the series as a whole and/or dislike rude and self-centered GirlOfTheWeek Rachael from ''Atomic Lobster'' admit that Serge's treatment of Rachael (and a few other characters) can get very creepy and unpleasant.
*** Shortly after meeting Rachael, Serge unilaterally announces that they're going to have sex because she is dancing erotically and he is such a ChickMagnet. He twists Rachael's arm when she initially ignores him to keep dancing (although a GilliganCut makes it possible that she did consent before the actual sex), and "thrust[s] violently" to deliberately hurt her when she annoys him as they copulate (something which he repeats during a later scene). While [[NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization Rachael ultimately turns out to enjoy having sex with Serge]], being [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence hurt in the middle of sex and hurting Serge back]], many fans still find Serge's actions throughout that subplot to be worse than plenty of things Serge has killed {{Asshole Victim}}s over.

* TheUnTwist: In ''Shark Skin Suite'', [[spoiler:there are constant mentions about how Brook and Shelby's bosses inexplicably assigned inexperienced rookies (albeit talented ones) and a BunnyEarsLawyer to the case and keep failng to secure important information, while the defense attorney keeps making sinister phone calls to an unseen confederate. All of this makes it blatantly obvious that the two law firms are working together and setting up Brook, Shelby, and Ziggy in a SpringtimeForHitler ploy long before this is confirmed.]]

*** The climax reveals that [[spoiler:Rachael is the younger sister of Serge's early victim Sharon Rhodes, and both are cocaine-addicted strippers with poor social skills and little empathy for others. Are their unpleasant traits InTheBlood, or did Rachael turn out like Sharon due to having a case of [[BigSisterWorship big sister worship]] while being too young to understand the negative aspects and impacts of Sharon's lifestyle?]]

* EnsembleDarkHorse:
** Suburban couple Jim and Martha Davenport only appear in a handful of books but are fan favorite recurring characters due to their constant CringeComedy humor, BewareTheNiceOnes, and gradual ProperlyParanoid wariness of being around their self-proclaimed friend Serge.
** InspectorJavert Mahoney has fairly small roles in most of his appearances, but his humorous obsession with FilmNoir and gradual CharacterDevelopment made him popular enough that, at one point, he was the only character besides Serge with a page on Website/{{Wikipedia}}.
** Bold but unlucky IntrepidReporter Reevis Tome and Brook Campanella (a CrusadingLawyer who takes to her job LikeADuckTakesToWater and has a few brilliant RefugeInAudacity moments) don't appear until the seventeenth and eighteenth books, respectively, but quickly became much-loved members of the recurring cast.
** Sly "The Gentleman Bandit" [=McGraw=] only appears in four chapters of ''The Triggerfish Twist'' and only talks in one of them, but his intelligent, AffablyEvil personality and odd quasi-bonding with Serge make him one of the best-liked antagonists in the series.
** Serge and Coleman's temporary traveling companion Rachael is only in ''Atomic Lobster'', but is a particularly entertaining and well-remembered guest character for some humorous [[ManChild womanchild]] moments related to her AddledAddict status and SitComArchnemesis bickering with Coleman, frequent MsFanservice scenes, and UnintentionallySympathetic moments in her interactions with Serge.
** Of the many {{Real Person Cameo}}s in the series, former Florida governor Claude Kirk might be the most iconic despite only being in two chapters of ''Nuclear Jellyfish''.
** Story Long from ''Nuclear Jellyfish'' is one of the best-liked [[GirlOfTheWeek girls of the week]] for combining the best of both [[HasAType primary types of women Serge is attracted to]] ({{Femme Fatale}}s and {{Hot Librarian}}s). She does this by being a sometimes hot-headed stripper with hidden motives who is also taking college courses, tutors her friends in complex subjects, and shares Serge's fondness for Florida, trivia, and View-Masters.
** Kenny and Darby, supporting characters from ''The Pope of Palm Beach'', are a pair of well-read surfers with a moving InterGenerationalFriendship. Some reviewers think they could have carried the book without Serge.
** Chris from ''Naked Came the Florida Man'' is a pretty well-liked side character for her YouGoGirl subplot, despite it being largely devoid of the humor and violence that draws many readers to the series.
** Some good TheChessmaster moments make one shot villains [[spoiler:Doug]] from ''Cadillac Beach'' and Salenca from''The Pope of Palm Beach'' decently distinguishable and memorable to the fans.

** Even some people who love Serge throughout the series as a whole and/or dislike rude and self-centered GirlOfTheWeek Rachael from ''Atomic Lobster'' admit that Serge's treatment of Rachael (and a few other characters) can get very creepy and unpleasant. Shortly after meeting her, Serge unilaterally announces that they're going to have sex because she is dancing erotically and he is such a ChickMagnet. He twists Rachael’s arm when she initially ignores him to keep dancing (although a GilliganCut makes it possible that she did consent before the actual sex), and “thrust[s] violently” to deliberately hurt her when she annoys him as they copulate (something which he repeats during a later scene). While [[NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization Rachael ultimately turns out to enjoy having sex with Serge]], being [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence hurt in the middle of sex and hurting Serge back]], many fans still find Serge's actions throughout that subplot to be worse than plenty of things Serge has killed {{Asshole Victim}}s over. It doesn't help that Serge [[spoiler:is openly happy at finally having an excuse to kill Rachael in the climax after she turns out to be the sister of his old accomplice turned victim Sharon and tries to kill him and Coleman]]. Serge also tells another woman he sleeps with (he and Rachael are seemingly polyamorous) that NoMeansYes when she initially asks him to stop his advances. Finally, while Serge is unusually heroic in the book's A-plot, protecting his friends the Davenports from killers, he also gets a KickTheDog moment when he and Rachael roleplay as the Davenports during sex. Serge's Jim impression is noticeably more insulting and crude than Rachael's Martha impression, and he knows that Jim is within earshot. In the very next book, Serge assumes his new GirlOfTheWeek will have sex with him again because they did the previous night, but drops the issue when she refutes this notion, but whether this mitigates his previous actions or makes their wrongness more pronounced is debatable.

** [[spoiler:FemmeFatale Rachael Rhodes]] from ''Atomic Lobster'' is one of the few people whose killing be Serge doesn’t really sit right with many fans due to her not doing much worse than [[spoiler:doing drugs, or attacking Serge and Coleman in justifiable anger at learning they killed her sister in an earlier book]]. Since her NeverFoundTheBody death involves falling off a cruise ship while suffocating on fire extinguisher foam, it can be nice to hope that she somehow survived. Temporarily inhaling some water could have even saved her life (assuming she coughed it up) by potentially cleansing out the foam.

** Serge occasionally brings out the better in unpleasant characters (or happens to be around when something else does) who he counts as friends and helps them along the way. Consequently, it can feel annoying that this never happens with certain interesting characters he has more antagonistic relationships with.
*** Sly [=McGraw=] from ''Triggerfish Twist''. While the rest of the [=McGraw=] family seem to largely be [[TheBrute more brawn than brains]] Sly is [[AffablyEvil able to have a polite conversation with Serge while holding him hostage]] and even matches Serge beat for beat when Serge starts going on one of his rambling diatribes about what's wrong with modern society, with the two debating if it's unique to Florida or happening all over the country. He promptly gets gunned down by Jim Davenport shortly there after, sadly making it impossible for him to show up again in ''Atomic Lobster'' which saw the return of the [=McGraw=] family.
*** Doug from ''Cadillac Beach'' spends the book being dragged into dangerous misadventures by Serge and surviving due to a being a decent ActionSurvivor, before the final act has him [[spoiler:reveal himself as an AffablyEvil PunchClockVillain hitman who has been manipulating Serge the whole time]]. His personality and his besting Serge that way could have made him an interesting {{Foil}} or [[spoiler:EvilCounterpart]] to Jim Davenport if he had continued to occasionally show up in future books, but [[spoiler:he is shot within three pages of the reveal about his true nature]].
*** AddledAddict Rachael (while she is the GirlOfTheWeek, she and Serge spend 90% of their time fighting) from ''Atomic Lobster'' is a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute for Sharon Rhodes besides being more of a HotBlooded hedonist and TheLoad rather than a calculating grifter, killer, and HoneyTrap like Sharon. [[spoiler:She is also Sharon's sister and mourns her death at the hands of Serge. This could have been used to explore how Serge's actions can hurt people, add a layer of tension and complexity to Serge and Rachael's future interactions for a while to come, and have given Rachael a reason to reflect on how her own self-destructive lifestyle reflects Sharon's. Instead, she immediately tries to attack Serge and Coleman with a knife after learning the truth and learns the meaning of BullyingADragon]]. She also shows some signs of recognizing the toxicity of her SlapSlapKiss relationship with Serge by suggesting roleplaying to get past their normal anger-filled sex, but this doesn’t lead to any visible CharacterDevelopment in other parts of her life.

* TheUnTwist: In ''Shark Skin Suite'', [[spoiler:there are constant mentions about how Brook and Shelby's bosses inexplicably assigned inexperienced rookies (albeit talented ones) and a BunnyEarsLawyer to the case and keep failng to secure important information, while the defense attorney keeps making sinsiter phone calls to an unseen confederate. All of this makes it blatantly obvious that the two law firms are working together and setting up Brook, Shelby, and Ziggy in a SpringtimeForHitler ploy long before this is confirmed.]]

** In ''The Stingray Shuffle'', entertainment troupe members Andy, Frankie, Dave, Jeff, Saul, and Spider are portrayed as downtrodden, amiable underdogs who (minus Saul, who dies of a stroke) get a happy change in circumstances in the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue. This is in spite of how (unlike one or two of their friends) they are completely indifferent toward their hypnotist Preston's penchant for using his craft to subject women and teenaged girls to a BedTrick ploy (although Spider has the excuse of being under hypnosis himself, causing him to fixate on other stuff throughout most of his page time).

** In ''The Triggerfish Twist'', [[spoiler:Sly "The Gentleman Bandit/The Courteous Crook" [=McGraw=]]] is shot by Jim Davenport and falls to the ground while looking in shock at the blood on his shirt. However, no one is described as checking his pulse and while scenes in later books mention Jim has killed multiple [[spoiler: [=McGraws=]]], no one actually mentions a number. This makes it possible to wonder if [[spoiler:Sly might have just been injured and sent to prison]], especially after his AffablyEvil dialogue during his sole meeting with Serge.