Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Image Unavailable
Color:
-
-
-
- To view this video download Flash Player
- VIDEO
Audible sample Sample
Girl, Serpent, Thorn Hardcover – July 7, 2020
Purchase options and add-ons
Melissa Bashardoust's Girl, Serpent, Thorn is “an alluring feminist fairy tale” (Kirkus) about a girl cursed to be poisonous to the touch and who discovers what power might lie in such a curse.
There was and there was not, as all stories begin, a princess cursed to be poisonous to the touch. But for Soraya, who has lived her life hidden away, apart from her family, safe only in her gardens, it’s not just a story.
As the day of her twin brother’s wedding approaches, Soraya must decide if she’s willing to step outside of the shadows for the first time. Below in the dungeon is a demon who holds knowledge that she craves, the answer to her freedom. And above is a young man who isn’t afraid of her, whose eyes linger not with fear, but with an understanding of who she is beneath the poison.
Soraya thought she knew her place in the world, but when her choices lead to consequences she never imagined, she begins to question who she is and who she is becoming...human or demon. Princess or monster.
- Reading age12 - 18 years
- Print length336 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Grade level7 - 9
- Dimensions6.39 x 1.12 x 9.51 inches
- PublisherFlatiron Books
- Publication dateJuly 7, 2020
- ISBN-101250196140
- ISBN-13978-1250196149
Frequently bought together
Similar items that may deliver to you quickly
- “Do you see now why I recognized you? You’re my favorite story. I feel like I’ve known you for a long time.”Highlighted by 263 Kindle readers
- “I like the person I am when I’m with you. And I’d like to help you be whoever you want to be.”Highlighted by 222 Kindle readers
- Soraya lived in the shadows of Golvahar so that her family would not live in hers.Highlighted by 217 Kindle readers
Editorial Reviews
Review
Named a Best Book of the Year by Booklist, BuzzFeed, Tor.com, and more
Book of the Month Club selection
Junior Library Guild selection
ALA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults List
ALA’s Rainbow Book List
Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year
“A lush, dream-like tale about a princess whose very skin in poison, and whose isolation leads her to a journey of discovery that is both harrowing and beautiful. The author dives deep into ancient Persian myth. At the same time, she subverts fantasy tropes while delving into philosophical questions of personhood, individuation, and societal impositions―all with a narrative that is perfectly paced.” ―Sabaa Tahir, author of An Ember in the Ashes
“A can't-miss LGBTQ+ YA fantasy that gleefully rewrites the fairy-tale playbook.” ―PopSugar.com
“Bashardoust draws from the myths and religions of her own Persian culture to create a world simmering with magic and treachery where no one is quite what they appear to be. With crystalline, sometimes sensuous prose, Bashardoust digs into her characters’ motivations and manipulations, deftly keeping readers on the hook until the final, stunning turn.” ―Booklist, starred review
“Bashardoust again draws elements from multiple folkloric and literary precursors for a relationship-driven tale in which sexual undertones are no less intense for being kept between the lines. Alert readers will spot nods to other classics as events whirl to a climatic close amid cascades of poisoned thorns, just deserts, and self-acceptance. Surefire for readers fond of princesses capable of embracing actual demons as well as the inner sort.” ―School Library Journal, starred review
“Melissa Bashardoust’s Girl, Serpent, Thorn has the lushness of a fairy tale and the boldness of the best contemporary YA fantasy. This opulent novel, inspired by traditional Persian stories, combines all the romance and intrigue of high fantasy with a deep exploration of the main character’s emotional world and relationship to her own strength.” ―Lamba Literary
“A delightful and energetic book, one that effortlessly avoids any hint of a sophomore slump to present us with a vivid world, a compelling cast, and a narrative that managed to deftly surprise...A twisty, fascinating, well-paced novel that builds to a conclusion that is more than well-earned. Soraiya is a compelling protagonist, and one whose struggles are very relatable.” ―Locus
“I adored Girl, Serpent, Thorn. It’s beautifully written, has a complex protagonist who goes on a hell of a journey, and it left me with a book hangover that’s made it hard to get into anything else since I finished it.” ―Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
“Girl, Serpent, Thorn is YA literature at its best.” ―BookPage
“Girl, Serpent, Thorn balances a raw, human core of emotion with a fast-moving, intriguing plot that draws fresh inspiration from Iranian culture past and present. Soraya is a fascinating protagonist whose approach to the world is always-engaging, even as her constant missteps drive the novel forward...For so many of us who grew up identifying with villains, challenged by the desire to get a little revenge (or a lot), Soraya provides a beautiful touchstone. She does wrong; she does right. She chooses.” ―Tor.com
“Readers who like their female leads with a few thorns will appreciate this dynamic female lead. This is a perfect match for readers who love immersive fantasies influenced by world mythologies and cultures, like Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes or Rosanne A. Brown’s A Song of Wraiths and Ruin.” ―YALSA.org, Best Fiction for Young Adults nomination
“A compulsively readable modern queer fairy tale that is part fantastical adventure and part allegory.” ―Horn Book Magazine
“Bashardoust draws from Persian mythology and fairy tales to portray this morally complex biromantic heroine’s quest for identity, with support from strong female allies. An alluring feminist fairy tale.” ―Kirkus Reviews
“Scenes are lavishly detailed, Soraya’s inner turmoil is rendered with drama as she chooses whether to be a mouse or a viper, and the connection between Soraya and Parvaneh is stirring. Bashardoust’s exceptional attention to folktale structure and Soraya’s hard-won acceptance of herself make for a lyrical, inspiring read.” ―Publishers Weekly
“Melissa Bashardoust’s Girl, Serpent, Thorn is so much more than a fairytale―it’s a fantasy story about human complexity. Plus, the presence of a queer princess who saves herself from herself is nothing short of excellence.” ―Paperback Paris
“A lovely entwining of Persian culture and myth with well-known fairy tales. One of the best books of the year, hands down.” ―BuzzFeed
“Girl, Serpent, Thorn is the fairytale we knew we needed, but haven’t heard till now: a love letter to fantasy readers with poison in their veins and fear in their hearts everywhere.” ―The Young Folks
“A lush, atmospheric fantasy with an intriguingly complicated heroine, Girl, Serpent, Thorn presents us with a princess who may well be a monster herself...This is a story that takes multiple unexpected turns, from subverting established fairytale tropes to exploring issues of family and sexuality. Several of your initial assumptions about this book may well turn out to be wrong by its final pages.” ―The Culturess
“Captivating.” ―Harper’s Bazaar
“Girl, Serpent, Thorn takes your expectations of a fairy tale and turns them on their head, creating an elaborate, unconventional and fascinating story, complete with heroes who are morally questionable and villains who you’ll fall in love with. Will they live happily ever after? We’ll let you find out for yourselves―but it probably won’t work out the way you expect.” ―SciFiNow
“Not only does this story combine some beautifully dark fairy-tales, but does so with such a talented hand. I finished this story and was desperate for more from Melissa Bashardoust. This is a dark fairytale you won’t want to miss out on.” ―The Nerd Daily
“An inherently fascinating, impressively original, deftly penned, and engagingly entertaining novel.” ―Midwest Book Review
“Girl, Serpent, Thorn is a deliciously lush fairy tale of a novel. I was swept away by Bashardoust’s prose and found myself losing track of time as I read, turning every page, sinking into her magnificent world, wishing it would never end. At its heart, it’s a book about a girl who may be monstrous claiming her own power, filled with twists and a fascinating queer romance that stole my own heart.” ―Patrice Caldwell, editor of A Phoenix First Must Burn: 16 Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope
“Gorgeously written and quietly powerful, Bashardoust’s latest is an enthralling tale of family, monsters, and the things we do for love.” ―S. A. Chakraborty, author of City of Brass
“Every passage is a fine cut gem, each facet brilliantly rendered to create a stunningly crafted fairytale about a girl and monsters and a girl who is also a monster. I truly loved this book.” ―Emily Duncan, author of Wicked Saints
“This is a gorgeously written book set in a beautiful and dangerous world. I loved the vividness of the story, and the way Bashardoust makes stories matter in this book. I was captivated from the beginning, and absolutely thrilled with the end.” ―Kat Howard, author of An Unkindness of Magicians
“The queer, good-monster book of my dreams. I loved this heroine with my entire soul.” ―E. K. Johnston, author of Star Wars: Queen’s Shadow
“Monstrously beautiful and enchanting, Girl, Serpent, Thorn is a fairytale for anyone who has ever feared the poison in their own heart. I loved this queer, subversive, lyrical and deeply affirming book.” ―Tasha Suri, author of Empire of Sand
“Girl, Serpent, Thorn is a tale a rose might tell, lushly perfumed and lined with thorns in all the right places. With complex women, Persian demons, a gorgeously twisting narrative, and the age-old question of what it means to be a monster, it had me eagerly flipping pages until the very end. I only wish there were more!” ―Shveta Thakrar, author of Star Daughter
“Like a jeweled fairy tale, Girl, Serpent, Thorn glitters with twisty revelations, curses and dangerous transformations, magic and monsters and love―and at its heart, a girl who can kill with a touch. A thrilling, moving story of what it means to come into one’s own power, this book is utterly captivating.” ―Gita Trelease, author of All That Glitters and Everything That Burns
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Flatiron Books; 1st Us Edition (July 7, 2020)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1250196140
- ISBN-13 : 978-1250196149
- Reading age : 12 - 18 years
- Grade level : 7 - 9
- Item Weight : 1.16 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.39 x 1.12 x 9.51 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #83,646 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
Videos
Videos for this product
0:17
Click to play video
Loved the book
Customer Video
Videos for this product
0:41
Click to play video
Girl, Serpent, Thorn
Amazon Videos
About the author
Melissa Bashardoust received her degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley, where she rediscovered her love for creative writing, children’s literature, and fairy tales and their retellings. She currently lives in Southern California with a cat named Alice and more copies of Jane Eyre than she probably needs. Melissa is the author of Girls Made of Snow and Glass and Girl, Serpent, Thorn.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviews with images
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
It’s not just a story."
~
I can’t say enough fantastic things about this book.
I read Bashardoust’s debut a couple years ago, and thought it was fabulous. Her writing style is just — it’s gorgeous, y’all. I aspire to craft sentences as beautiful, as lyrical and poetic, as hers. As in Girls Made of Snow and Glass, in Girl, Serpent, Thorn, Bashardoust reinvents folklore. In this case, she’s borrowed from Persian mythology to create an absolutely entrancing universe full of magical birds, shape-shifting demons, evil sorcerers, and cursed princesses.
Soraya, our heroine, has lived a life of isolation. Despite being the twin sister of Atashar’s shah, she has been hidden away from the world due to a curse she was given at birth — there is poison beneath her skin, and she can kill anyone, human or div (demon) alike, with a single touch. Desperate to be rid of her curse, she seeks the help of an imprisoned div, and soon learns that the price of her freedom may be more than she’s willing to pay.
This is the first new-release fantasy novel to wow me in ages. All of the major characters are fully realized. None of them feel like they were created solely to fill cookie-cutter fairy tale tropes. They each have their own agendas, and even if I disagreed with their actions, Bashardoust made me understand their motivations and, a lot of times, sympathize with them.
The story, though slightly predictable at times, kept me engaged. For the last 150 pages or so, I genuinely couldn’t put it down. I tried to space out my reading, because I didn’t want it to end — but the cliffhangers! Bashardoust really knows how to write good cliffhangers. There were also a few twists that really floored me.
Another thing she excels at is fleshing out familial relationships. It was something I loved about her debut, and I loved it here, too. Just as fascinating to me as Soraya’s relationships with Azad and Parvaneh were her relationships with family members, particularly with her mother. Sometimes it feels as though fairy tale retellings focus too much on the romance of a story, but at the heart of so many classic tales are conflicts within families. Bashardoust understands that, and more than does justice to that theme in her works.
Thank you so much to Flatiron Books for sending me an advanced reader copy through a Goodreads giveaway. This book was one of my most anticipated books of the year, and I was so excited to get the chance to read and review it prior to its release. I loved it so much, in fact, that I went ahead and ordered a copy, too. I highly, highly recommend this book.
I don't even know what kind of imagination you have to have to bring a book like this to life, but man am I here for it. Girl, Serpent, Thorn has lots of reveals that I didn't see coming, and I could completely see why Soraya did the things she did. I don't want to talk about the plot and give anything away, but I thought this was a very well-executed young adult fantasy, and it was very refreshing to read. I thought the author's note at the end was a great addition to the book, and I am so glad Bashardoust took the time to add it so the reader can see what influenced her writing for this story. I went in without any expectations and was pleasantly surprised, so if you want to give this a try that's how I would recommend going in!
Thank you to the publisher for my advance review copy via Edelweiss. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2021
I don't even know what kind of imagination you have to have to bring a book like this to life, but man am I here for it. Girl, Serpent, Thorn has lots of reveals that I didn't see coming, and I could completely see why Soraya did the things she did. I don't want to talk about the plot and give anything away, but I thought this was a very well-executed young adult fantasy, and it was very refreshing to read. I thought the author's note at the end was a great addition to the book, and I am so glad Bashardoust took the time to add it so the reader can see what influenced her writing for this story. I went in without any expectations and was pleasantly surprised, so if you want to give this a try that's how I would recommend going in!
Thank you to the publisher for my advance review copy via Edelweiss. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
I loved the fairytale feel of the book, especially with the Persian twist. Soraya’s journey was heartbreaking, and there were so many twists and turns. This is a stand alone fantasy, and it moved pretty smoothly and quickly.
I wish there was more romance. The main romance left much to be desired. While you could tell there was chemistry between Soraya and Parvaneh, there could’ve been more done.
The characters outside of Soraya were underdeveloped. There could’ve been more to the villain and Parvaneh. The only side characters that felt fleshed out were Soraya’s mother and Laleh.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this despite the flaws. I definitely recommend for people looking for a fast-paced YA with f/f relationships.
Soraya and Sorush are twins. Soraya is hidden away because her touch is fatal. Sorush is the heir next in line to rule the kingdom.
On the day of Sorush and Laleh’s wedding announcement, Soraya meets Azad. He’s been awarded by Sorush for his bravery and for saving his life. Azad is immediately taken with Soraya even after he finds out about her fatal touch. The two of them sneak through secret passages to get into the dungeon so they can ask the prisoner div for help in breaking Soraya’s curse. A div is what gave her mother the curse years ago. The div tells her not to believe her mother’s story. As Soraya discovers the truth about her curse, her family becomes endangered and she has to do some clever thinking to save them. Soraya searches for allies and truths throughout the story as everything changes for her. Beautifully written and based on Persian mythology to give us this unique fantasy, 4 stars!
Top reviews from other countries
Reviewed in Brazil on August 13, 2023
The characters in the story are a notable highlight. The protagonist, Soraya, is a complex and multi-faceted character who struggles with her own inner demons and her unique curse. Her journey of self-discovery and growth throughout the narrative is deeply engaging. Moreover, the supporting characters are well-developed and add depth to the story, making it easy for readers to become emotionally invested in their fates.
While the book excels in many aspects, it does have moments of uneven pacing. At times, the story may feel a bit slower or overly descriptive, which could potentially test the patience of some readers. However, this slight drawback doesn't overshadow the book's overall appeal.
"Girl, Serpent, Thorn" is an excellent choice for readers who appreciate fantasy novels that embrace different mythologies and cultures. It offers a refreshing change from the more typical Western-inspired fantasy settings. The story's intricate blend of Persian mythology and its creative world-building provide a rich backdrop for the narrative.
In summary, "Girl, Serpent, Thorn" is a solid four-star book that combines a captivating premise, well-crafted characters, and beautiful prose. It's a must-read for those who seek a fantasy novel with a touch of the exotic and a willingness to explore the depths of human nature through the eyes of a compelling and unique protagonist.
The author did an excellent job of not only bring this world alive but also in writing complex characters. Soraya's journey is one of self-love and self-acceptance. As a reader, I could see, and pinpoint, her growth clearly throughout the novel. She went from being ashamed of herself to being proud of who she stands for as a person. She also went from being alone and craving acceptance, to finding people who accept her for who she is as a person. I also felt a lot of the side characters, and the antagonist was fleshed out well. I felt that most of these characters were very much 3d in writing. They all made choices, both good and bad, that affected those around them. My only critique is that I wished Ramin had a little bit more page-time and was fleshed out better.
The plot was fast-paced and the chapters flowed nicely. I felt it wrapped up nicely at the end. This is the first time I've read a sleeping-beauty retelling. This book even has hints of Rapunzel in it.
Overall, this book did disappoint me. Its plot, characters and fairytale world were as enchanting as the cover itself.