Girls Made of Snow and Glass
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Melissa Bashardoust’s acclaimed debut novel Girls Made of Snow and Glass is “Snow White as it’s never been told before...a feminist fantasy fairy tale not to be missed” (BookPage)!
“Utterly superb.” —ALA Booklist, starred review
“Dark, fantastical, hauntingly evocative.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“An empowering and progressive original retelling.” —SLJ, starred review
Sixteen-year-old Mina is motherless, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone—has never beat at all, in fact, but she’d always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, Mina forms a plan: win the king’s heart with her beauty, become queen, and finally know love. The only catch is that she’ll have to become a stepmother.
Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen’s image, at her father’s order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do—and who to be—to win back the only mother she’s ever known…or else defeat her once and for all.
Entwining the stories of both Lynet and Mina in the past and present, Girls Made of Snow and Glass traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything—unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Bashardoust's debut, a richly written rethinking of Snow White, Princess Lynet and her stepmother, Queen Mina, fight the fates imposed by their fathers. When Mina was small, her sorcerer father, Gregory, replaced her failing heart with a glass one. Gregory claims that without a heartbeat, Mina is unlovable; to disprove him, she marries the widowed King Nicholas and earns the adoration of a kingdom. Her reign as queen is only temporary, though: when Nicholas's daughter, Lynet, turns 16, Nicholas grants her rule over Mina's territory. Lynet ponders declining the power transfer, but then overhears Mina plotting against her. Further complicating matters is Lynet's discovery that she wasn't born but was conjured from snow in the late Queen Emilia's image at her father's request, leading a horrified Lynet to flee the castle. A romantic subplot involving Lynet and a young surgeon named Nadia adds further drama and tension as Bashardoust thoughtfully reflects on the complicated nature of the stepdaughter/stepmother relationship while exploring agency, individuality, love, and free will. Ages 12 up.
Customer Reviews
Fabulous retelling of Snow White
This was such a good read, it was a hard to put down fantastic fairytale with a better message and ending than the original.
Everything you could ever want from a happy ending
Centered around females.