Synopsis:
From the author of Girls Made of Snow and Glass, Girl, Serpent, Thorn is a captivating and utterly original Persian-inspired fairy tale about a girl cursed to be poisonous to the touch.
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, 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.
Review:
Girl, Serpent, Thorn is one of those books that I’ve put off reading for so long and now that I’ve read it, I don’t know what I thought of it. My expectations were probably a little too high considering I’ve never seen anyone talk about this book online. I did enjoy this though. I wouldn’t say it was bad by any means, the story was interesting and I really liked the Persian inspired folklore, but there was something missing. I’m just not sure what.
So, demons in this book are called ‘divs’, however, ‘div’ is a little hard to take seriously as a British person that grew up during the 2000s. However, I am aware that this is a word used in modern Persian dialect, so I’m not being disrespectful. It’s just a little funny as British people would use ‘div’ to call someone an idiot. I haven’t heard it used since I was a kid though.
It felt like the romantic relationships in Girl, Serpent, Thorn were severely underdeveloped. I’m glad that Soraya didn’t decide to pursue a murderous psychopath but the relationship she does end up in felt like it came from nowhere. I think building their friendship first would have made it more believable. Not that I didn’t like them together, it’s great that they liked Soraya for who she is, poisonous or not.
One thing I really liked were the subtle links to Sleeping Beauty. As soon as Soraya’s garden was mentioned I knew it would play a similar role to the thorns in Sleeping Beauty. But this version is way cooler. I don’t want to give too much away as this is something that happens late in Girl, Serpent, Thorn, but Soraya can control the plants in her garden and it’s a cool twist on the original tale.
I actually think I would have preferred to see Soraya be more ‘monstrous’. She never does anything that warrants the ‘monster’ title given to her. The only time she kills someone is in self defence. It would have been a lot more interesting to see her side with the more dangerous divs to flip the story on its head. If anything the only monstrous thing about her was her indecision.
The pacing was fairly decent but the first half of the book is pretty slow. You spend most of it experiencing Soraya’s turmoil about her curse rather than the rich worldbuilding that this story deserved. I know next to nothing about Persian folklore so I would have really enjoyed learning more about this world and how the divs play into its dynamics. You do get a little of this but you don’t learn anything about where the divs come from until over halfway through.
I’d say I enjoyed this book overall but it wasn’t as great as I was hoping. The world and its characters were a little too underdeveloped for my liking but they were all still pretty interesting.
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