Hello and happy March!
We’ve almost made it to spring, but the setting in the book I want to share with you today is as frigid and wintry as they come. You may want to bundle up before reading on!
GIRLS MADE OF SNOW AND GLASS by Melissa Bashardoust
9781250077738
Also available in audio.
This is the feminist SNOW WHITE retelling I’ve always wanted. I’ve been waiting for this book without even knowing it. If you also find yourself rolling your eyes at some of the more traditional, damsel-in-distress tales, this is the fairy tale for you.
Melissa Bashardoust’s debut novel tells the story of two young women. Sixteen-year-old Mina lives with her magician father and has no concrete memory of the mother who died when Mina was just a child. Mina longs to be loved and to be able to show love, but the glass heart inside her chest won’t allow it. When Mina and her father move to the castle, Mina decides that she will get the newly-widowed king to fall in love with her and become queen.
Lynet is the daughter of the king and has never known her mother, though she is the spitting image of the former queen. Lynet’s whole world is turned upside down when she discovers that she was formed from snow and was created to look just like her mother. Her father has certain expectations for how she lives her life, but Lynet has other plans. She wants to be less like the mother she never met and more like her beloved stepmother, Mina. But when the king ousts Mina and gives her role to Lynet instead, a rivalry for the throne is ignited between the two women.
Alternating chapters tell the stories of Mina’s past and Lynet’s present, while completely shattering the traditional fairy tale tropes. Prince Charming is nowhere to be found (and Lynet has no need for him, anyway) and Mina is a much more complicated character than your run-of-the-mill evil stepmother. Perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer’s CINDER, Angela Carter’s THE BLOODY CHAMBER, or Amanda Lovelace’s THE PRINCESS SAVES HERSELF IN THIS ONE, Bashardoust’s novel is Frozen meets Robin McKinley and it is even more delightful than you could ever imagine.
And to top it off, GIRLS MADE OF SNOW AND GLASS was recently named to ALA’s Amelia Bloomer List for feminist literature!
Happy reading!
<3 Emily
Day’s YA Archives:
IN SIGHT OF STARS by Gae Polisner (posted 2/15/2018)
BRING ME THEIR HEARTS by Sara Wolf (posted 2/1/2018)
CARAVAL by Stephanie Garber (posted 1/18/2018)
HOW I RESIST by Tim Federle and Maureen Johnson (posted 1/4/2018)
13 MINUTES by Sarah Pinborough (posted 12/21/2017)
I HATE EVERYONE BUT YOU by Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin (posted 12/6/2017)