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deerlybeloved's review against another edition
dark
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Girl, Serpent, Thorn is a beautiful take on finding oneself and embracing what hurts us as much as it makes us who we are. It takes a girl with a horrid curse, and shows us what happens when you dissect that curse and how one can claim their own tragedies and make them into what they want; something miraculous.
Sapphic, chilling, and wonderful, I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to see a beautiful cast of Persian-inspired mythos, and feel a tension and edge-of-your-seat suspense that is rarely found.
Sapphic, chilling, and wonderful, I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to see a beautiful cast of Persian-inspired mythos, and feel a tension and edge-of-your-seat suspense that is rarely found.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Confinement, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Blood, Sexism, Violence, War, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent
Themes of murder, imprisonment, forced confinement, torture, and so much more are used in this book to express the lengths of cruelty of some of the characters.queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
5 ⭐ CW: violence descriptions of blood and corpses, parental neglect, isolation, murder, relationship abuse
"He must have already known what Soraya hardly understood--that the price of humanity was vulnerability."
Girl, Serpent, Thorn is the second book I've read by Melissa Bashardoust, and this one did not disappoint. Bashardoust has a knack for making you feel like you're in a fairytale and the relationships are so real and complex. Plus she always finds a way to subvert a trope.
I loved everything about this book. The cover, the descriptions and imagery, the fact that the emotions are relatable AF. Bashardoust based her story on the the Persian story the Shahnameh, and was nice to see the incorporation of how oral storytelling is told, for example starting a story with "there was and there was not," similar to the "once upon a time."
Soraya is beautifully complex, and has some really great growth (*cough* pun. IYKYK) throughout the novel. At first it starts off with your typical cursed princess forced into isolation, but that is where it stops.
I really appreciated the way Bashardoust handled the complicated feelings Soraya had for her family. She had a right to be angry and hurt, but her actions had consequences. I also liked how she handled the abusive nature of the Shamar toward Soraya. I could see this being one of those things where people might like the idea of this villain, who is relatable (to an extent), but make no mistake, he is abusive.
The twist at the end! I didn't see that coming at all!!! It was beautiful.
We have Bisexual representation here! Which makes this a great start to my Pride Month. Anyway, read this book.
"He must have already known what Soraya hardly understood--that the price of humanity was vulnerability."
Girl, Serpent, Thorn is the second book I've read by Melissa Bashardoust, and this one did not disappoint. Bashardoust has a knack for making you feel like you're in a fairytale and the relationships are so real and complex. Plus she always finds a way to subvert a trope.
I loved everything about this book. The cover, the descriptions and imagery, the fact that the emotions are relatable AF. Bashardoust based her story on the the Persian story the Shahnameh, and was nice to see the incorporation of how oral storytelling is told, for example starting a story with "there was and there was not," similar to the "once upon a time."
Soraya is beautifully complex, and has some really great growth (*cough* pun. IYKYK) throughout the novel. At first it starts off with your typical cursed princess forced into isolation, but that is where it stops.
I really appreciated the way Bashardoust handled the complicated feelings Soraya had for her family. She had a right to be angry and hurt, but her actions had consequences. I also liked how she handled the abusive nature of the Shamar toward Soraya. I could see this being one of those things where people might like the idea of this villain, who is relatable (to an extent), but make no mistake, he is abusive.
The twist at the end! I didn't see that coming at all!!! It was beautiful.
We have Bisexual representation here! Which makes this a great start to my Pride Month. Anyway, read this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse
Moderate: Violence, Blood, and Murder
descriptions of corpses, parental neglect, isolation
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