I started this book as a buddy read but finished it before everyone else. It was just captivating. The story, the characters. It was not what I imagined, but it was really really great. Don’t stop at the blurb. It’s much more than that. 

Three people who have their fates tangled together. Victims or monster? You’ll discover more by reading it 

It took me so long to get into this but I think thats because I don’t read a lot of fantasy. By the last third of the story I was really engaged. 

Honestly, this book was okay. It’s a really interesting premise and I was totally hooked on this accidentally murderous shut-in cursed girl until the “plot twist” halfway through and then I was. Just kind of bored. It’s predictable and the writing is okay; very run of the mill fantasy cursed princess book. That being said there’s nothing wrong with it! I enjoyed it enough. Cool premise, interesting magic rules, main character has morals. There’s a big scary lizard man thing. There’s some politics. One of the characters turns into a moth which like, if ur gonna turn into a bug u could’ve picked a better one smh. I give it three stars for being exactly what you expect for this kind of court fantasy book. But also, maybe I’ve just read so many cursed court fantasy books (oh my god I never realized how many were in this specific genre) that I’m desensitized or can easily predict what happens. U might have a better time!

A wonderful mashup of Persian legends and mythology with elements of Rapunzel and Beauty and the Beast European fairytales.  I enjoyed the complexity of the characters and the way that you knew each thread would come together and yet it still felt earned.  The imagery was very strong and the voices of the various characters were easy to tell apart just through their dialog cadence and words choice.

 5 ⭐ CW: violence descriptions of blood and corpses, parental neglect, isolation, murder, relationship abuse

"He must have already known what Soraya hardly understood--that the price of humanity was vulnerability."

Girl, Serpent, Thorn is the second book I've read by Melissa Bashardoust, and this one did not disappoint. Bashardoust has a knack for making you feel like you're in a fairytale and the relationships are so real and complex. Plus she always finds a way to subvert a trope.

I loved everything about this book. The cover, the descriptions and imagery, the fact that the emotions are relatable AF. Bashardoust based her story on the the Persian story the Shahnameh, and was nice to see the incorporation of how oral storytelling is told, for example starting a story with "there was and there was not," similar to the "once upon a time."

Soraya is beautifully complex, and has some really great growth (*cough* pun. IYKYK) throughout the novel. At first it starts off with your typical cursed princess forced into isolation, but that is where it stops.

I really appreciated the way Bashardoust handled the complicated feelings Soraya had for her family. She had a right to be angry and hurt, but her actions had consequences. I also liked how she handled the abusive nature of the Shamar toward Soraya. I could see this being one of those things where people might like the idea of this villain, who is relatable (to an extent), but make no mistake, he is abusive.

The twist at the end! I didn't see that coming at all!!! It was beautiful.

We have Bisexual representation here! Which makes this a great start to my Pride Month. Anyway, read this book.