Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

The blurb about Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust describes the book as a “reimagining” of Snow White. I say it is a modern take on Snow White. It is an immensely feminist fairy tale and the story explores the complexity of family ties especially those between mother, in this case step-mother, and daughter.

Mina is the daughter of a brilliant and powerful magician. She was gravely ill as a child and would have died if not for her father replacing her heart with one made of glass. As her father explains, while this act saved her life, it left her incapable of love and being loved. Mina desperately wants to experience love. Therefore, she contrives a plan to catch the attention of the king with her beauty. Her hope is that he will love her for her beauty. Once they are married, and she is queen, others will love her also.

There is one catch in this plan, Lynet. The King, in his grief, had Mina’s father create Lynet from snow in the image of his dead queen. The king dotes on Lynet and each day she looks more like her dead mother. Mina finds she will have to get to the king through Lynet. Once married, Mina learns that her beauty is not enough. As a consolation, Mina gets one thing from the marriage, the power to rule over the southern kingdom as she sees fit. Despite the king’s promise that the south will always be Mina’s domain, when Lynet comes of age he makes her queen over the southern kingdom. Thus is born a rivalry which tests the bonds of family to the limits.

Unlike Snow White, this retelling does not pit Mina and Lynet against each other because of beauty; instead, it is power. Also, it is not a good versus evil tale. It is totally about relationships. The relationships are complex (which I loved) and they acted as a substitute for plot (which I did not like). Another thing I loved about this story was the way in which the characters were able to transcend above what they were created for and what was expected of them.

Despite the lack of plot and world building (a must for me) it is a well written and carefully thought out work. I think everyone will like the diversity of the characters as well as the complexity. If you love fairy tales and their retellings this is a book for you.

I received an ARC from Flatiron Books in exchange for my honest review.