Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust
Actual Rating: 3.5
*Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for an e-copy.*
This is actually everything I’ve ever wanted in a retelling, but for some reason not all of it worked for me. Still, to be honest, as someone who never really loved Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, I actually thought Girls made of Snow and Glass was actually a delightful book.
It definitely is very character-centric though, and without Mina and Lynet’s relationship it wouldn’t have been nearly as heart-wrenching. I thought the world-building was mildly good, as that too seem to be centered around the characters. The setting itself was a bit thin.
Although the book included aspects from the original fairy tale, there were still several twists that made the story its own. The plot, unfortunately, was probably the weakest part of the story. It did feel like a fairytale, with some of the atmosphere of the original, but my biggest problem with this book was probably the pacing. Usually fairytales are shorter, and because this was a fully fleshed out book, it was really slow and it felt dragged out.
I actually enjoyed how the perspective switched between Lynet and Mina and how their stories actually took place on different timelines, but it seems like most of the book was actually background knowledge about how they got to where they were. The climax was not only underwhelming, but also felt too simplistic compared to how long and detailed the setup was.
This has been described as a feminist and queer book, and although there are several aspects of the latter, I liked that it was quite subtle. However, I felt like Lynet’s romantic plotline was a bit unexplored and though I like the characters separately we didn’t get to see enough of them together. Mina was probably my favorite character of the entire book because she was understandably flawed, and yet she had that aura about her that made her almost similar to an antihero.
Overall I did really enjoy the characters and the premise of this book, but because of the slow pacing and the fact that the twists weren’t all that “twisty” I felt like I didn’t quite enjoy it as much as I wanted to. Still this was quite an enjoyable quick read, and I would definitely tell anyone who enjoys retellings to add this to their tbr!
Girls Made of Snow and Glass is coming out on September 5th, 2017: click here to pre-order!
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