Spoiler Free Review:
Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa BashardoustMy rating: ❤❤❤❤
Melissa Bashardoust hit the ball out the park with the fantastic, feminist fairy tale that is Girls Made of Snow and Glass. All Lynet has ever wanted is to be like her stepmother Mina, but she is constantly compared to the late mother she resembles so greatly. Mina just wants to love and be loved, but the unbeating, glass heart in her chest won't allow her to. Lynet has no desire to rule, so when her father takes away Mina's control of the Southern lands and gives them to her, she wants nothing more than to refuse. When a turn of events cause Mina to hate Lynet, she must go on her own journey to save the only mother she has ever known. This book was so adorable! I am always a fan of feminist fiction, especially when it's fairy tale related. The story felt like a mixture of frozen and Snow White, but still very original. I love how the story was from both Mina and Lynet's point of view, giving the reader different perspectives. Because it was a mixture of both of their stories the characters didn't feel extremely well developed until the very end, but I still felt connected to the them and able to relate to their feelings. The plot felt kind of slow at the beginning and then kind of rushed at the end, but the well done story totally made up for it. As a romance lover, I of course wish there was more of a love story, but it was really well done and a heavy influence of romance might have ruined the message. One thing I felt there was a lack of was comedy. There are very few places that made me laugh and I think it would have been improved if there was just a little more humor. Overall this book was really really good and I would highly recommend this to fantasy and feminist fiction lovers! Disclaimer: I was sent this book for review from the publisher, but it did not effect my review at all. My thoughts are my own and my reviews are always 100% honest.
Recommended Mindset For Reading
This book is perfect for anyone looking for a fairy tale without all of the men doing the saving. It has very light romance so if you are not into the hot and heavy stuff (unlike me) then this book is perfect for you! I didn't binge this book. I ended up splitting up my reading into a couple of days because it just wasn't the kind of book where you have to read everything all at once. This book is perfect for the start of the school year because you can read a little bit in your free time and spread it out over a couple of weeks. If you are the kind of person who needs humor in everything you read then this is not the book for you as there is very little comedy. I would highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a nice story that fits a more modern perspective with age old fairy tales!
Full Review:
Initial Reaction
My initial reaction with this book was actually boredom. The beginning is kind of slow and I did not immediately connect with Lynet. I found myself really wanting Mina's story and getting annoyed with Lynet. I then set the book down and didn't pick it up for a couple of days. Once I started reading again I ended up loving the story. I spent four hours reading the majority of the book and then I put it down again with 100 pages left. I started reading again the next day and read all but the last five pages (this was because I was exhausted and had to go to sleep) and then I finished it finally this morning and felt the immediate need to start writing my review! This book will hold a special place in my heart forever as it is my first in print advanced reader copy that has been sent to me for review! I have a bunch of arcs that my library at school gave away, but it is a completely different feeling to be sought out and asked to review a book. I want to thank Flatiron publishing for giving me this amazing feeling and for hitting a bulls eye with sending me a book that is exactly like something I would pick up on my own! With the huge presence on Instagram this book is gaining, I probably would have ending up reading it anyways, so its great that I get to read it before everyone else! (That's right people I am cool now!)Character Analysis
As I said before, I did not feel an immediate connection with Lynet. (I need to repeat this because I feel like a lot of you totally skip my initial reactions because it is full of rambling. Don't worry I forgive you if you do!) I have absolutely nothing in common with her, because I fit the nerdy stereotype of not being very outdoorsy or adventurous. I think the last time I climbed a tree was like seven years ago. I am also not a princess and I do not have any problems with my mother and I sadly have no power over snow. I wish I did though, because that would be super awesome! (Okay tangent here that is not related to the book. When I was younger I really liked Avatar The Last Airbender. I liked it so much that I convinced myself that I was a waterbender and for like a whole month I thought I could control water. My parents thought it was hilarious and encouraged me to keep trying to harness my power, but I eventually realized that every time I had controlled the water, I had actually bumped the faucet with my elbow!) Lynet felt kind of immature to me, which makes sense because her father has been trying to protect her for her entire life. I didn't start to feel that Lynet's character became interesting until she runs away. Until that point it felt like the story was from the perspective of a child and I didn't find that entertaining. Once Lynet goes south, she starts to get really interesting and her goals start to really change. Her meeting with Gregory was one of my favorite parts because Lynet shows her true colors and has great growth.
Mina was my favorite character and I could honestly read a whole other book about her. From the start of the book she has spunk and a clear personality. Her struggle with not being able to love or be loved reminded me of Will Herondale from The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare.(This might be why I liked her so much as we all know how much I love the Herondale men!) I wish we had gotten more scenes with Mina and Felix because they had such an interesting dynamic that makes for really engrossing scenes. I also wished we could have gotten more romance from them because I felt very deprived throughout the whole book. (I'm sorry I am a romance nut!) I loved the manipulative nature of Mina's character because it created this great contrast to all her insecurities making a really round character! I really liked when she was courting the King because she showed so many different sides of herself. Mina definitely had the best growth out of all the characters and I am really craving more about her story with her mother!
My least favorite character was the King. He was weird and had no growth. I understand that books have to have a mixture of static and dynamic (flat and round or 2D and 3D, whatever you want to call them) characters. There are a lot of reasons why static characters need to exist, but I felt that the King should not have been one of them. He was present for a very large part of the book and he needed to either have a consistent attitude (which he did not) or have some sort of emotional development. He did not feel real because he made so many conflicting decisions. He made it clear that he didn't want a mother for Lynet (which was confusing because no realistic person really acts like this) and at first it seems like he is falling in love with Mina, but then he isn't. The issue is that he still marries her. This makes no sense and unless he really loved her, he had no reason to marry her and if he really loved her, he had no reason to not treat their marriage like it was real. His character was part of the reason why this is not a 5 star book.
Nadia was a great character. I would have liked a little bit more of a story for her, but overall she was well put together. My only gripe about her is the same as my only gripe about Gregory. The way they told Lynet and Mina about being made of glass and snow was extremely awkward. The whole thing felt forced, choppy and completely unrealistic. I know it's crazy to be asking for a real scene where someone is told they were created from snow, but it could be done in the same vain as other important things that people tell each other. (for example telling a child that their parents are getting divorced or that they were adopted) Also Mina finding out should not have felt the same as Lynet finding out. When Gregory tells Mina it is to hurt her and remind her who is in power. When Lynet finds out, it is from a stranger who is just preforming a job and finds her interesting. These scenes are important to the story and should not have happened like this. Other than that I really like the relationship between Lynet and Nadia and the author did a great job wrapping things up with them.
Gregory is the perfect example of a well done minor character. He has no growth and remains constant in every single scene. He really added to the story and I loved what the author did with him! Overall the characters were pretty good, but I really wish we could have had another 100 pages of Mina!
Feminism and Fairy Tales
Obviously this book is based on fairy tales as it has a magical kingdom, an evil stepmother, a dead king, a princess put to sleep, and a curse. I really like the direction the author took with this story in that instead of a princess being saved by prince she is saving her mother. (Fair warning I am about to go on a rant about people mislabeling feminism. This is not about the book, as the book is great, this is just about how people react to feminist books and say misinformed things about them.) I am finding that a lot of books are being labeled as feminist books because the main female character is a lesbian or is bisexual. While it is awesome that we are having LGBTQIA+ people as main characters (because it is about damn time we started writing books that reflect everyone because the world is not just full of heterosexual people!), that isn't required for a feminist book. I don't like feminism being mislabeled because it allows for people to target it. They sound like idiots because they are misinformed, but it is still annoying when people say thing like, "I don't want to read a feminist book because I am not gay so I am not going to relate to it." There are so many things wrong with that sentence and it in part happens because we misuse the word Feminist. This book does a great job of representing feminism by having a female character go on journey to save her mother without needing a male character to tell her how to. Basically the women do everything a man can do so everyone is equal, which is awesome because it reflects reality. Really this long rant is to inform everyone of the fact that this book is feminist because the women are all equal to the men, not because the main character is in a same sex relationship.
Going back on fairy tales, I thought that the curse of perpetual winter felt kind of weird. Basically the book started reminding me too much of frozen and I did not really like it. Either the author should have spent more time on the back story of the curse and its effect on the North or taken it out entirly. Was anyone else confused about why only the North was curse and not just the South? (If I missed something about this please comment and tell me!) Also it didn't make sense that the North would look down upon the South so much. The North is reliant on the South for pretty much everything and the South appears to be richer and have better education as well as a larger population. Realistically the South would have been the top priority and because royalty like to have the best, it would make logical sense for them to have moved there after the curse started. The whole thing was just too much like Frozen, but with some illogical parts. Of course most fairy tales are illogical, but when the writing is this good plot holes tend to stand out more.
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