Release + Review: GIRLS MADE OF SNOW AND GLASS by
Frozen meets The Bloody Chamber in this feminist fantasy reimagining of the Snow White fairytale
At sixteen, Mina's mother is dead, 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.
At sixteen, Mina's mother is dead, 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 am a huge fan of fairytale retellings, even though I’ve
only read a few of them. So when I saw the synopsis for GIRLS MADE OF SNOW AND
GLASS it became an instant must read! I was lucky enough to win an advanced
copy from Flatiron Books. I ended up buddy reading the book with 3 other ladies
I met on #Bookstagram. Do you love buddy reads? They’re my favorite because I
have people to chat, fangirl or vent to while reading a book.
“Death was everywhere
in that castle, in each day that was just like the last, but life – life was
what happened next, life was the rush of air in her lungs when she made a jump
she wasn’t sure she could make.”
GIRLS MADE OF SNOW AND GLASS is a Snow White retelling and
is told from dual points of view. The first POV is from Lynet the princess of
Whitespring and the second is from Mina the stepmother and magician’s daughter,
born in the south. Although there were many parallels to the classic Snow White
fairytale I found this story to be unique and wholly it’s own. I absolutely
loved the creativity and writing in this book. The back-stories for both of the
main characters blew my mind.
“There are worse
things in the world to be than delicate. If you’re delicate, it means no one
has tried to break you.”
Lynet has been pampered and overprotected her whole life. The
king, fearful that he will lose her like he lost her mother, hasn’t let her live. She’s never stepped foot outside
the walls of Whitespring and knows nothing beyond her small world inside the
castle. Mine has been raised to believe that she is incapable of love. Unable
to love or be loved, that her only asset is her unstoppable beauty. Mina believes that if she can become
queen she can gain the people’s love through status. Because who doesn’t love
the queen.
“… the mirror gave no
indication of what lay beneath. With her beauty as a distraction, no one would
ever know that she was, deep down, hollow.”
Watching both of these characters grow simultaneously throughout
this book and seeing things from both sides was such a joy to experience. I
wasn’t sure how this story would ultimately end up, whether good or evil would
win out. Melissa Bashardoust is a master of storytelling and I look forward to
reading more of her work.
“The cracks in her
family that had been spreading for so many years were finally starting to break
open, creating a rift that was becoming to wide for her to hold together
anymore.”
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