i loved being a passenger on soraya’s journey of morality, power, and self-acceptance. the world-building was absolutely wonderful, would love (and could totally see) an on-screen adaptation! such a feministic, empowering fantasy read. and the romance was very sweet and very quote-worthy.

really liked the last third, but the beginning felt a bit too much like acotar to me, or like a bit too cliche? idk, but I liked that the author included a note on Persian mythology in the end, that was pretty interesting 

Beautiful fantasy world based on ancient Persia. Story feels like a classic fairytale in the format of a novel, almost Romantic in style. Good character development from the main character, satisfying ending.

thank god that’s over. 

on the whole, it wasn’t entirely awful and towards the end, the plot made more sense. but it was an absolute slog to get through and i will never pick up this book again, i’m so sorry. 

soraya, the protagonist annoyed me to no end. i’m all for a good bad decision, but she just consistently made several bad decisions even when it would mean the potential death of her own family / potential friends (which she consciously considered and STILL made the decisions). her character arc is, i suppose, a little well fleshed out, but for a good 80% of this, she was absolutely insufferable to me. 

not sure how i feel about the fact that soraya was implied to once be in love with her brother’s wife but the last line to her is “i’m so glad we’re sisters.”

forbidden touch trope, i have previously adored. in this? no. for one reason - she falls for someone the moment they touch her (after she’s no longer poisonous) and the weird love triangle between her, parvaneh and azad? no. azad was so clearly AWFUL, i don’t know why she entertained him at all (other than the threats on her family, because that just about deterred her) 

also, the “plot twists”? barely any were executed properly. i think maybe two took me by surprise? everything was so predictable and underwhelming. 

parvaneh, however, is responsible for a boost in star rating, my girl is an icon. glad she ended up with soraya but girl, you could do better. 

what, genuinely, was the point of having soraya have thorns in her skin at the end? i do not understand. cool, whatever, but why? 
(admittedly makes for a circular character arc but i just do not get it.)

and there’s certain parts of her skin that don’t have thorns on (e.g. neck and part of her hands) so she can be touched? hmm, real convenient that. 

last chapter was cute, i’ll admit but other than that, i am so happy this book is over.

This was a new type of demonology for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Influenced by the Middle East- both ancient and modern- we follow the cursed princess Soraya who is doomed to kill anyone she touches as she discovers not everyone and everything is how it seems. 

Some of the twists are easily predicted but I didn’t feel cheated in figuring them out. In fact, I felt they were justified because Melissa Bashardoust did an exceptional job of capturing our heroine’s choices throughout her evolution. 

this was a perfectly average YA fantasy. i enjoyed it but wouldn't consider it to be particularly special. i liked the Persian mythology elements. i think certain aspects of Soraya & Parvaneh's relationship were rushed which made it feel sort of inauthentic to me.