Hello everyone!
I am back with another book review, today it is Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust. Thanks so much to Flatiron Books for providing me with an ARC of this book for an honest review, as always, all opinions are my own.
The story follows two women, Lynet, the princess of the Northern kingdom. Her mother died in childbirth and she has lived with her father and stepmother, Mina, for many years. But the king and queen have been keeping a secret - Lynet is actually magically made out of snow in her mother's image by Mina's father. Mina has a secret of her own, she has a heart made of glass and cannot love or be loved. As Lynet grows older, the king gives her more control, including taking over Mina's duties in the South. Soon Mina begins to look at Lynet a little less kindly and begins to wonder what is ahead for her as a queen with Lynet coming of age.
This book is told in a third person narrative which usually doesn't bother me too much but I think really affected my enjoyment of the book. It wasn't so much that the characters sounded the same but that I found myself unable to connect with either Lynet or Mina, the main two characters the narration follows.
Additionally, there are two main timelines that merge together: the present day with Lynet and years ago when Mina was Lynet's age. This just kind of felt weird reading and was a little bit hard to follow at times. I found myself more invested in Mina's storyline but it was the one we say less of. I found the present day dragged on a bit at times, I felt like I was waiting for something to finally happen.
I did really enjoy the concept of being made of snow and glass and the magical powers that come with that, I just felt like it was a little heavy handed in this story. We had two characters created out of something they weren't naturally a part of, two characters with magic over some element, two characters created by a crazy magician, it just felt like it was too much. The idea was original enough, to begin with, but as soon as there was more than one character that was similar, the appeal was lost for me.
I also liked the feminist elements throughout the book, there was very little reliance on the king or other men, both Lynet and Mina were strong female characters and there are the makings of a lesbian romance as well. These aspects I really loved, but unfortunately, I don't think they can make up for the fundamental issues I had with this book on narration and timelines.
In terms of calling this a Snow White retelling, I'm not sure I would. I've heard that it is similar to the original Snow White fairy tale, something I am not too familiar with, so I can't say for sure. But there are no dwarves or a poison apple - although there is some poison. There was a huntsman too, so I think that fits in there somewhere. But I don't know if I would be confident discussing this book with other retellings.
Overall, I think this book had potential but it was just too character driven to entice me enough to thoroughly enjoy it.