Girls Made of Snow and Glass

by Melissa Bashardoust

Hardcover, 384 pages

English language

Published Jan. 6, 2017

ISBN:: 978-1-250-07773-8
OCLC Number:: 961001872

(7 reviews)

Frozen meets The Bloody Chamber in this feminist fantasy reimagining of the Snow White fairytale.

Sixteen-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.

Frozen meets The Bloody Chamber in this feminist fantasy reimagining of the Snow White fairytale.

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.

1 edition

WardenRed reviewed Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

None

4 stars

There are worse things in the world to be than delicate. If you’re delicate, it means no one has tried to break you.

I remember really, really loving this book when I first read it, back when it just came out. Now that I've re-read it, I can't say I've disliked it, but there wasn't the same overwhelmingly good impression. I suppose it might be the kind of book that really calls for a certain mood. I wasn't in that mood during the re-read, so I felt less caught up in the character arcs and the whole emotional side of it all. That made me notice some flaws I overlooked the first time around, mostly related to pacing. There are sections here that simply move too fast, especially the earlier part of Linett's storyline with that big reveal dumped on her and the reader's head without sufficient build-up, and absolutely everything toward the ending. At the same time, there were considerable sections of the book that sort of dragged on.
Still, those complaints aside, I think it's a nice story. The author's prose is beautiful, the entire angle of the retelling is pretty unique, and the characters really shine. I felt like Mina's arc was better constructed from start to finish, while Linett's had a few hiccups at the start, but as the story unfolded, Linett's journey got just as engaging. I really love the entire concept of these two girls being sort of placed on the stage to play certain parts in this tale, dictated to them by the powerful men, and then they started making their own choices and made it end so differently and so strongly.

In other words, there are some flaws in how the story is told, but what this story is is beautiful.

mirrorwitch reviewed Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

Review of 'Girls Made of Snow and Glass' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The blurb sells this as a take on Snow White and the Snow Queen. I started it out of my childhood crush on the latter, but I don’t think the novel is at all close to these tales, in characters or themes. Rather, it deals with topics one sees more often in sci-fi: What it feels like for your body to be artificial, constructed; what it feels like to be dehumanised for it; being built differently; being told that because of your nature, you're unable to love; being a mother but just a substitute. Probably the most accidentally trans novel I’ve read in quite a while.

One fairy-tale archetype that is explored in depth is that of the social-climber stepmother, of the world pushing women against one another. I came for the lesbians, stayed for the mother-daughter relationship.

It was a quick, light read and I enjoyed it.