Girl, Serpent, Thorn

 

Hi! I finished reading Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardhoust last week, and I really liked it! I will summarize the plot of the book, and then share some things I especially enjoyed about it. 

The book takes place in a fantastical place called Golvahar. It follows the life of a princess named Soraya, who is cursed to the touch. If anyone touches her, they will be poisoned and die. In fact, Soraya often describes how her veins turn green with poison every time someone touches her. She got her curse three days after birth, by a parik. This story has humans and magical creatures living side by side. The magical creatures inhabit a mountain in the woods near the city. Her mother ran into a magical creature called a div as a child, who promised to take her daughter as his bride. So, Soraya’s mother, Tahmineh, takes her infant daughter to the pariks to put a protection spell on her. But the ways of the pariks are mysterious, and they end up making Soraya deadly to the touch. 

So, her mother hides Soraya away for her whole life. As a child, Soraya had a friend and her twin brother, but as they grew up, her brother ended up becoming the ruler and her friend left Soraya to become more active in the royal court. Although neither one intended to hurt her, Soryaya feels abandoned and keeps to herself a lot. When she isn’t reading in her room or gardening, she travels through the castle through the passageways so she won’t harm anyone. Soraya often feels inferior to her brother, Sorush, and when she learns that he is marrying her best friend Laleh, Soraya realizes how left out she is. 

But then, Soraya meets two very important people: a parik and a soldier named Azad. As she spends more time with them, she gets more entangled with the magical world beyond the forest, and learns more about herself and who she is. In a moment of selfish desperation to live a “normal” life, Soraya decides to do whatever it takes to get rid of her curse, regardless of the consequences it will have on her family’s safety. She instantly regrets this decision she made and has to fix the problems she made. 

One thing I liked about this book was the message. The obvious theme is to be yourself. Through Soraya’s relationships and mistakes, the reader can often find the times they felt left out through her experiences. The plot encourages you to nurture your own qualities and see the positive aspects of your flaws. A deeper meaning is what it means to be poisonous. People usually think that poisonous or monstrous people are bad, and are usually the antagonists. But by having the “monster” as the protagonist, the reader has to redefine their definition of a “good” character/person. Like, is someone really a bad person if they don’t have the sweetest personality or are constantly smiling? Soraya’s experiences as a literal poisonous person shares the exact opposite idea: It’s fine if someone doesn’t always feel like being nice, and sometimes, it is a good thing to stab someone (verbally). 

Another thing I enjoyed about Girl, Serpent, Thorn is that it has a lot of good worldbuilding and describes the scene really well. From the dark passageways to the crowded city to the enchanted forest, the reader can often feel like they are actually in the world, alongside Soraya and her companions. Between the realities of Soraya’s experiences and the vivid imagery, this book is really relatable!  

Overall, I think that this is a great book for anyone who loves fantasy novels. But really, I think that this book has a great message and reading experience for everyone!

Thanks for reading! 

~ Sarah T.