Scan barcode
A review by millennial_dandy
Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
<b>3.5 rounded up to 4</b>
With all the recent retellings of Greek mythological stories and Western fairy tails, I was happy to see a mythological/fairytale coming from a different perspective, in this case, one twining together Persian mythology and a few Germanic fairytales.
Is Girl, Serpent, Thorn a departure from the traditional fairytale format in the sense that anything that happens in it will surprise you? No. This is not a novel trying to dazzle with plot twists meant to shock anyone but the protagonist. But that didn't make Soraya's story any less interesting or enjoyable.
As someone who has heard of but never read the Persian work, <i>Shahnameh</i> from which 'Girl, Serpent, Thorn' takes much of its inspiration, I was really invested in the world-building, and in being introduced to mythological creatures inspired by a culture relatively unfamiliar to me.
It's the kind of work that, because it has its roots (if you'll pardon the joke) in two folklore backgrounds, gives a reader a lot of places to go after finishing it. Being that I'm pretty well versed in stories like Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel, my interest would be in picking up the <i>Shahnameh</i>. And helpfully, at least in this edition, author Melissa Bashardoust includes a list and breakdown of the pieces of Persian mythology she borrows from and how she changed them for her novel.
As for the story itself, a tale of a cursed princess hidden away from her family until a series of events lead her to becoming the seeming undoing of the world as she knows it, isn't particularly new. However, I was happy that Bashardoust avoided the typical YA trap of making Soraya a Mary Sue character. At first, I'm not going to lie, I was afraid she would be more of a plot device than a real character, but she becomes more three-dimensional as the plot goes on so that by the end, she's actually been given the space for a satisfying character arc.
And even though I wasn't exactly on the edge of my seat, wondering if she was really going to go over to the dark side, as it were, the moments where she is tempted by power or gives into an understandable thirst for vengeance show that there is a little something something bubbling under the surface of the narrative. And I'm always for a YA author who is willing to confront their characters with genuine temptations borne out of genuine character flaws.
The villain is also very well conceived; a compelling blend of human monstrousness borne out of a believable tragic backstory, but who is never truly allowed to use events in his past for justification of the bloody path he chooses to go down as a result.
Again, is any of this as tied up in knots and deeper questions of ethics or morality? No. But that isn't what this is for. This is a fairytale, and as such the lesson it has to teach is one that is simple in essence, but that could act as a seed in the mind of a reader willing to be receptive to what it has to say about strength, about revenge, about loyalty.
Honestly, my biggest gripe with 'Girl, Serpent, Thorn' was the element that made it the pick for the queer book club I read it for. As much as I liked all of the characters individually, when Soraya 'falls in love' with her ultimate love interest, I did not care for them together, nor was it a particularly well-crafted romance. Enemies to friends, sure. But that's about all that was within the reasonable scope of this novel. But because the romance was the destination Bashardoust wanted those two characters to arrive at and the novel was only so long, we had to do a speed-run to get there. Like, sure, I'm glad they ultimately have each other and whatnot, but when they finally kiss, I didn't exactly squee and kick my feet in glee over the edge of the bed the way I think you're supposed to.
In contrast, the relationship between Soraya and the story's villain was given room to breathe and develop in a more believable way so that the mixed feelings she ultimately has about him for most of the climax makes sense, and even the uncertainty of his feelings for her felt layered.
So, all in all, not an incredibly successful queer love story, but an enchanting and exciting and intriguing story that has inspired me to push the <i>Shahnameh</i> a little higher up my TBR.
I would be incredibly curious to know what someone who grew up with some of the source material would make of this retelling, so I can certainly see why this makes a good book club read.
With all the recent retellings of Greek mythological stories and Western fairy tails, I was happy to see a mythological/fairytale coming from a different perspective, in this case, one twining together Persian mythology and a few Germanic fairytales.
Is Girl, Serpent, Thorn a departure from the traditional fairytale format in the sense that anything that happens in it will surprise you? No. This is not a novel trying to dazzle with plot twists meant to shock anyone but the protagonist. But that didn't make Soraya's story any less interesting or enjoyable.
As someone who has heard of but never read the Persian work, <i>Shahnameh</i> from which 'Girl, Serpent, Thorn' takes much of its inspiration, I was really invested in the world-building, and in being introduced to mythological creatures inspired by a culture relatively unfamiliar to me.
It's the kind of work that, because it has its roots (if you'll pardon the joke) in two folklore backgrounds, gives a reader a lot of places to go after finishing it. Being that I'm pretty well versed in stories like Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel, my interest would be in picking up the <i>Shahnameh</i>. And helpfully, at least in this edition, author Melissa Bashardoust includes a list and breakdown of the pieces of Persian mythology she borrows from and how she changed them for her novel.
As for the story itself, a tale of a cursed princess hidden away from her family until a series of events lead her to becoming the seeming undoing of the world as she knows it, isn't particularly new. However, I was happy that Bashardoust avoided the typical YA trap of making Soraya a Mary Sue character. At first, I'm not going to lie, I was afraid she would be more of a plot device than a real character, but she becomes more three-dimensional as the plot goes on so that by the end, she's actually been given the space for a satisfying character arc.
And even though I wasn't exactly on the edge of my seat, wondering if she was really going to go over to the dark side, as it were, the moments where she is tempted by power or gives into an understandable thirst for vengeance show that there is a little something something bubbling under the surface of the narrative. And I'm always for a YA author who is willing to confront their characters with genuine temptations borne out of genuine character flaws.
The villain is also very well conceived; a compelling blend of human monstrousness borne out of a believable tragic backstory, but who is never truly allowed to use events in his past for justification of the bloody path he chooses to go down as a result.
Again, is any of this as tied up in knots and deeper questions of ethics or morality? No. But that isn't what this is for. This is a fairytale, and as such the lesson it has to teach is one that is simple in essence, but that could act as a seed in the mind of a reader willing to be receptive to what it has to say about strength, about revenge, about loyalty.
Honestly, my biggest gripe with 'Girl, Serpent, Thorn' was the element that made it the pick for the queer book club I read it for. As much as I liked all of the characters individually, when Soraya 'falls in love' with her ultimate love interest, I did not care for them together, nor was it a particularly well-crafted romance. Enemies to friends, sure. But that's about all that was within the reasonable scope of this novel. But because the romance was the destination Bashardoust wanted those two characters to arrive at and the novel was only so long, we had to do a speed-run to get there. Like, sure, I'm glad they ultimately have each other and whatnot, but when they finally kiss, I didn't exactly squee and kick my feet in glee over the edge of the bed the way I think you're supposed to.
In contrast, the relationship between Soraya and the story's villain was given room to breathe and develop in a more believable way so that the mixed feelings she ultimately has about him for most of the climax makes sense, and even the uncertainty of his feelings for her felt layered.
So, all in all, not an incredibly successful queer love story, but an enchanting and exciting and intriguing story that has inspired me to push the <i>Shahnameh</i> a little higher up my TBR.
I would be incredibly curious to know what someone who grew up with some of the source material would make of this retelling, so I can certainly see why this makes a good book club read.