4.5/5

This book... is SO. GOOD. I first saw this floating around book Twitter a month or two ago and initially was like "yes I need this book" purely because of the cover because it is GORGEOUS. And then after looking it up, I was immediately interested in the story. The book tells the story of Soraya, a girl cursed with poison in her veins, unable to touch living things without causing them to die. She's hidden away in a palace, and through a series of events finds herself questioning the story behind her curse and how she could break it and be free.

The story is based off of Persian mythology, something I'm incredibly unfamiliar with, but it is so fascinating and I'm really excited to look for some more Persian mythology stories! I found the storytelling and writing to be absolutely beautiful and I loved every second. There were so many points where my jaw hit the floor from shock, and others where my heart absolutely broke. The struggle between good and evil within Soraya was so interesting to watch play out, as was watching her come to terms with her own power and become accepting of herself. The main character in the book is also bisexual which was refreshing to see in a fantasy for me personally, I haven't read a lot of LGBT+ fantasy, so this was great! The only thing I wished was that we got more of that romance side of things in the book, because I am primarily a romance reader, but I still absolutely adored the relationship explored here.

Overall, I HIGHLY recommend you read this, it was dark, magical, beautiful and just incredible. Thank you so so much to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for sending me this ARC!