REVIEW: ‘Girl, Serpent, Thorn’ by Maria Bashardoust

If you’ve seen ‘Girl, Serpent, Thorn’ by Maria Bashardoust around on booktok or bookstagram then you know that the cover alone is enough to make you salivate. It’s a absolute stunner, and the design team deserve a gold star for it.

I actually picked it up more by accident. It was sitting innocently on the shelf when I went to pick up my library holds and in the words of TikTok I was very much like ‘uh, you’re coming home with me.’

In case you’re not in the know, here’s the summary:

There was and there was not, as all stories begin, a princess cursed to be poisonous to the touch. But for Soraya, who has lived her life hidden away from everyone, apart from her family, safe only in her gardens, it's not just a story.

As the day of her twin brother's wedding approaches, Soraya must decide if she's willing to step outside of the shadows for the first time. Below in the dungeon is a demon who holds knowledge that she craves, the answer to her freedom. And above is a young man who isn't afraid of her, whose eyes linger not with fear, but with an understanding of who she is beneath the poison.

Soraya thought she knew her place in the world, but when her choices lead to consequences she never imagined, she begins to question who she is and who she is becoming . . . human or demon.

Princess or monster.

INITIAL THOUGHTS

The writing style was accessible and I easily plodded through the text. That said, I did find it took me a long while to finish it. There wasn’t enough punch to hold my attention. I liked the characters and there was enough world building to create a full picture in my mind’s eye.

I WISH IT WAS LONGER

I think where I got stuck was that the story felt like it was squashed into one relatively short book, when I could easily see this sprawled across a duology, at least.

There wasn’t enough space to fully appreciate the depth of the characters and their motivations, and I felt like that lead to some of the plot points falling a bit flat. I needed and wanted more.

Whereas I enjoyed the flip on the usual trope of the enemies-to-lovers style romance, I found myself not fully believing the blossoming relationship(s). Again, I felt like I needed more time with the characters to allow them to grab hold of my heart with full grip.

A CLASSIC FAIRYTALE

‘Girl, Serpent, Thorn’ definitely has a classic fairytale vibe, which is the point, and I liked the way we see Soraya nod at this tradition of storytelling and how these tales are supposed to go. It’s Persian inspired, and I particularly enjoyed the author’s added notes at the end detailing their inspiration and further reading.

OVERALL

I liked it. For me, I think it was too simple and I struggled to completely suspend my disbelief for some of the plot points. But I enjoyed the cast of characters and I especially appreciated how the mother-daughter relationhip was presented. On the whole, I felt like it could have gone further. I wanted my heart to flutter like moth’s wings (IFKYK) and I wanted to feel something about the main antagonist.

It is easy to read, and I liked exploring this uniquely imagined world, but for a book with so much hype, I guess I expected more.

In the end I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads. See a list of all of our book reviews here!

Written by Sarah