Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust

67 reviews

chloeschapters's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5


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samusc's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is one of the best fairy-tales I think I've ever read. I might just have to pick up Girls Made of Snow and Glass after this.

Pros: 
  • Soraya's motivations make sense. She is a touch starved isolated teenager, which makes her an easy target for manipulation.
  • I love the design for Parvaneh, but maybe I'm just a sucker for powerful Sapphic women with wings.
  • I really connected with how Bashardoust describes Soraya's crush on Laleh as a child. Soraya is a lovely bi/pan protagonist.
  • This book handles that archetype of an antagonist claiming that the hero is just like them really well.
  • I'm genuinely surprised, but thankful, that Tahmineh is not killed during the conclusion . I like how much the story relied on a mothers' choices impacting the trajectory of the current story.
     

Cons:
  • Other reviewers have noticed this as well, that being the pacing in the beginning is a bit slow. It took me some time (a few days) to get invested into this story, but once I was, it was highly enjoyable.

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herk's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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reading_between_the_trees's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Soraya is born with a curse. Poison flows in her veins so that anything she touches dies. Her poison could be her greatest strength or her greatest weakness. It could make her fold inward or stand tall in power. I mean, what a premise. I was drawn into this story immediately, and every bit of wonderful literary potential was pulled out of this incredible set-up.

In a sea of patriarchal fantasy and heteronormative romance, this book was a breath of fresh air. Everything about it was feminist in the best way. The female bi protagonist drove the story with her flaws center stage right next to her self-reckoning and strength. But her moments of weakness were just as exquisitely written. It is just so hard to put the perfection of this book into words. Where is the sequel? I need more of Bashardoust's writing.

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eternalparadox's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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iviarelle's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Do you want soft tender sapphic vibes? Embracing the monster within to accomplish your goals? A story that doesn't linger over failure to communicate as a plot device? This story may be for you!

I got pulled back, forth, and in every other direction by this story, in a good way. The main character's decisions could be seen as quite flip-flop-y, if you really don't like that kind of behaviour, but I saw it as learning the game of manipulation as she went, myself. 

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