Book Review
Title: Girl, Serpent, Thorn
Author: Melissa Bashardoust
Genre: YA/Fantasy/Romance
Rating: DNF
Review: Girl, Serpent, Thorn didn’t appear on my radar until the Goodreads Choice Awards because I’ve read so much YA fantasy over the past couple of years and I have been trying to branch out but this one caught my eye more than most. In the opening of Girl, Serpent, Thorn we are introduced to our protagonist, Soraya and we learn that before she was born her mother, a stubborn girl headed into a forbidden forest in order to prove she was brave. There she encountered a woman caught in a trap where a div was coming for her, divs in this world are like demons so Soraya’s mother freed the woman. However, she encountered the div who instead of killing her cursed her firstborn daughter to be poisonous so she could never touch anyone. Her mother went on to marry and tried to forget about the divs curse until she gave birth to twins, one male, Sorush and one female, Soraya and when the nurse picked up Soraya, she dropped dead so Soraya has been hidden away from the world her entire life. However, she can touch plants and not kill them but any animal or person will die and you can see when Soraya’s power is activated as her veins turn green. Soraya is beginning to become envious of her both especially after her family returns from travelling and she learns that Sorush is going to marry their childhood friend, Laleh who Soraya also had dreams of marrying which will never come to be. She also learns of a boy called Azad who has been prompted to a high ranking soldier, positions people are usually born to after saving Sorush’s life from a div which they managed to capture alive. While Azad intrigues Soraya she is more interested in the div as it might have some knowledge to undo her curse.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Girl, Serpent, Thorn didn’t seem like anything unique but I will have to wait and see where the story goes. Soraya asks her mother for permission to speak with the div in order to see if she can find out more information about her curse and possibly lifting it but her mother refuses which angers Soraya as it is her mother’s choice that have left her imprisoned. Soraya is going to appeal to her brother as he outranks their mother during the New Year festival but when she sees her mother, brother and Laleh happy and smiling she realises that she has never belonged to that world and never will which is heart-breaking for her. On her way back to the palace a little girl bumps into her and attempts to touch Soraya but Azad comes to her aid and gets her back to the palace where he confesses to her that he knows who she is because she is his favourite story. However, Ramin, Laleh’s brother tries to destroy this little connection Soraya has to the outside world but telling Azad about her curse which Soraya confirms but it doesn’t change his opinion on her and she asks him to help her get into the dungeons. Azad isn’t sure he has access but when Soraya mentions the tunnels, he offers to help her break down the locked door. Once there they manage to find the hidden key and make their way into the dungeon and finds the div who is only a girl but Soraya knows this isn’t a disguise as they use measures to weaken the div’s power. Soraya learns that the div’s name is Parvaneh and she is a parik, she learns that the divs are divided into different races, the drujes, the kastars and the pariks and the pariks look the most human and often act as spies. Soraya asks the Parvaneh what she can do to lift her curse and she lets slip that Soraya has been lied to about her curse as it works against humans and divs so it doesn’t make sense for a div to give a human the power to destroy and the specific nature of the firstborn daughter doesn’t make sense either and she urges Soraya to confess her mother about it but guards turn up before they can talk more. She asks her brother for permission to speak further with the div and he initially refuses to satisfy their mother but gives Soraya unofficial permission because the div attack are harming his reign before he has even been crowned and asks her to pay attention to any information that will be useful to him. By the time Soraya and Parvaneh meet again she is aware of what Soraya brother wants and gives a little information by saying the divs are more united than ever and someone has united them but doesn’t say who. She also explains to Soraya that her curse could also be a gift if she had the strength to use it but Soraya won’t do that. In exchange for the information about her curse, Parvaneh gives Soraya a choice, she can free the div or steal the simorgh’s feather for her and I think Soraya is being naïve about why the div wants the feather but she has been isolated her entire life.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, I wasn’t really that invested in Soraya’s story yet and I will be giving it a little longer but if it doesn’t pick up soon, I will be DNFing it as this year and I am not forcing myself to push through books I am not enjoying. Soraya decides she won’t return to the dungeon because she doesn’t have the information to the div wants and decides instead to seek out a yatu specifically the one that told her she was a monster as a child and was imprisoned for treason as he used to be disguised as the high priest and knows the location of the simorgh’s feather. When she meets the yatu he explain that the feather is a part of the royal flame which protects her brother and she knows she can’t give it to Parvaneh because she can’t abandon her brother and he also explains that using the feather to cut herself will get rid of her curse but the only way to get to the feather is to put out the royal flame which she can’t do either. When the yatu lashes out at Azad who came with her Soraya uses her power to kill the yatu and save Azad’s life but she feels like a monster for doing it. In the aftermath she returns to the dungeon and tells Parvaneh everything that happened that night and she once again urges Soraya to confront her mother and offers more information telling Soraya that to get her curse without having any of the physical appearances of a div she must have been given the blood of a div meaning her mother intentionally placed the curse on Soraya. Soraya doesn’t believe this and leaves as she wants to protect her family but she does have a brief pause when Parvaneh offers her a family about the pariks but she refuses. Before she leaves Parvaneh warns her not to give up her armour so soon as she might need it in the future.
Honestly at this point in the novel I wasn’t enjoying the book as Soraya is a naïve and bland main character. The insta-love vibes between Soraya and Azad are really putting off and the plot itself is bland and unoriginal as it is doing the same thing hundreds of other books have done. I can already predict, Soraya is going to find out her mother lied to her and end up possibly helping the divs meaning like Mia did in Heart of Thorns and I ended up DNFing the last book in that series but there first book had a mystery and characters that keep me hooked that this book doesn’t which is a shame as it has some interesting points.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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