Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust Published by Flatiron Books on September 5, 2017
Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Fairy Tales & Folklore, General, Girls & Women, Fantasy, Romance, LGBT
Pages: 400
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
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Frozen meets The Bloody Chamber in this feminist fantasy reimagining of the Snow White fairytale “Utterly superb.” —ALA Booklist, starred review“Dark, fantastical, hauntingly evocative.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review“An empowering and progressive original retelling.” —SLJ, starred reviewSixteen-year-old Mina is motherless, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone—has never beat at all, in fact, but she’d always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, Mina forms a plan: win the king’s heart with her beauty, become queen, and finally know love. The only catch is that she’ll have to become a stepmother.
Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen’s image, at her father’s order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do—and who to be—to win back the only mother she’s ever known...or else defeat her once and for all.
Entwining the stories of both Lynet and Mina in the past and present, Girls Made of Snow and Glass traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything—unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Why Did I Read?
I love fairy tale retellings. Every time that’s in a blurb, I’m like I need it!
My Thoughts:
I really loved the first half of this book! This Snow White retelling was super original and had some really fascinating aspects and twists on the classic Snow White fairytale. That’s my favorite part about retellings — seeing the unique twists that authors come up with and how they fit into this brand new story and still seeing the bones of the fairytale underneath it all.
I really enjoyed the different POVs and dual timeline flashing back to Mina (the stepmother) as a child and then present time with her as the queen and Lynet, her daughter. There was just so much good backstory with Mina. I also really enjoyed her relationship with Lynet and how things unfurled to follow the fairytale.
I actually think I liked the past timeline POVs much better — it just was so interesting to get insight on why people were the way they are now and how things came to be. Present time began to bore me and unfortunately there was a good chunk between 60-80% where the pace dropped drastically and the plot was thin and my interest waned. I wish the plot had been a little bit stronger because there was such a good foundation and I really did love the first half quite a bit. The romance between Nadia and Lynet could’ve been developed more in my opinion but they were definitely cute.
In Short…
This one started off really strong with riveting dual timeline POVs, original twists on a classic fairytale, and such an amazing mother-daughter relationship — plus exciting magic and just this great magical atmosphere. However the second half disappointed me with a dragging pace. This still presents such a great retelling though that I’d have to recommend especially if you are a fan of fairytale retellings!
1/2
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