Title: Girls Made of Snow and Glass
Author: Melissa Bashardoust
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Source: NetGalley
Release Date: September 5, 2017
Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
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.
Review:
I loved this fairy tale retelling!
One of my favourite things about this story, is that even though you can tell that it’s a retelling of Snow White, the story also has many original points. The story didn’t follow the typical plot of the Snow White story. I don’t want to give away any spoilers so I won’t name them, but I liked that the story was unpredictable.
This is a modern, feminist story. The two main characters are Lynet and Mina, stepdaughter and stepmother. Again, if I say too much about the women in this story it would spoil it, but let’s just say there is a lack of a prince here (which enhances Lynet’s power and independence).
The chapters alternated between Lynet and Mina. At the beginning, it followed both of them through their teen years, jumping back in time to when Mina arrived at Whitespring. But halfway through, Mina’s story suddenly jumped many years and continued in the present along with Lynet. I liked the way it showed the ways these two different women acted during the same point in their lives at the beginning. But it was also important to give Mina’s perspective of the current events.
I loved this story! It definitely lived up to the hype for me.
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