Girl, Serpent, Thorn ~ Melissa Bashardoust

Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust is a young adult fantasy inspired by Persian Mythology. Soraya is cursed with poison running through her veins so all that touch her die. She has spent her life hidden away, the reclusive princess. But, her twin brother’s wedding approaches and Soraya has to decide whether she wants to leave the familiarity of the shadows. In the dungeons resides a demon who may know how she can rid herself of this curse and above there is a boy who isn’t afraid of her and understands who she is beneath the poison.

This book has a pretty cover and it instantly caught my eye whilst I was browsing in the library. It was also on the table for pride month, so I was definitely interested. Unfortunately, the book seemed a lot more promising than reality. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it, just that my expectations were very high and it didn’t meet them.

The character of Soraya did not have a great development arc. I can see what Bashardoust was trying to achieve but Soraya kept going backwards and forwards on decisions and whether she should trust those that are helping her and often betraying them. It just got a bit repetitive and made her final decisions a little weak.

I enjoyed the cursed princess aspect, the backstory to how the curse came about and the isolation the curse caused were interesting reads and were well-written. However, there was too much importance placed on the curse that it overshadowed Soraya’s development and her budding relationships.

I did enjoy the LGBTQ+ parts of this book but they were very subtle and were missing some development. 

Overall, I did enjoy this book as it was unique, I just thought it could’ve been better. I gave it three and a half stars.

C🌙