This story had me hooked from the beginning
I really loved the world that the author had built.
The characters were all morally grey and made some bad choices.
A really enjoyable read

The inspiration of fairy tales in this book was evident and so beautiful. I loved how Soraya was portrayed, her character had so much depth and her power was so clever. The conflict in the book was digestible and the level of romance was small but a lovely edition to the plot. I can't wait to read more of her writing.

I really enjoyed this ambitious, unique fantasy - the world was well drawn and the setting was refreshing. Unfortunately there was something lacking in this characterisation and overall plot for me. I found that it didn't grip me as much as I was expecting and found the pacing slightly off. Overall, I thought Girl, Serpent, Thorn was a fun fantasy novel that was unlike other fantasy books I've read and I'd recommend this to those looking for a twist on fantasy with a sapphic romance at the heart of it.

The premise of this book was excellent, however the character that feels sorry for herself because she is "evil/poisonous/deadly/etc" and falls for a stranger - I've had enough of. The writing itself didn't do much for me either, was quite cumbersome to read through. Not a bad book I think, just not for me as a reader.

A very fresh entry into YA Fantasy. Would definitely recommend this one for those who love fairytale retellings but want something that feels a little different from the usual. Having said this, I did find the characters hard to really get into, and as a character-loving reader, this made it a little bothersome for me. Altogether, great book though.

Another title that I loved the premise of, but for which I just wasn't the target audience. I loved the world building and the concepts but I could not connect with the characters and wanted more complexity in their stories and within the plot itself.

I was really looking forward to this read, and have tried several times to get into it. Unfortunately, something is just not hitting the spot at the moment. I'll continue to try as the premise sounds excellent!

Unfortunately I just couldn't get into this book, and had to DNF at the 30% mark. I found the characters hard to relate to, to sympathise with, and I didn't really enjoy where it was going. I think I put this book on too high of a pedestal so it was bound to fall short!

I enjoyed this but I felt it read as YA I like my adult fantasy with more world building it was a good story but just not to my taste

Girl, Serpent, Thorn was a really enjoyable read. It was a retelling of a Persian fairytale and I loved reading and learning about lore that was unfamiliar to me. It reminded me of Sleeping Beauty crossed with Wicked!

There were lots of great elements, the characters were rich with their flaws front and centre, the relationships were complex. The fact that there were two enemies to lovers (and back to enemies for one) story arcs was interesting, I had hopes for one over the other but equally enjoyed both. The sapphic romance was well written and felt original.

At times, the story felt a bit repetitive or predictable but the fast pace kept me quickly moving along into the next piece of action.

I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a reimagined fairytale.

Really excellent world-building here - an enjoyable mix of Persian traditional tales, which was expanded on at the end (further reading).
Some of the romance bits felt a bit Mills & Boon, but overall this didn’t detract from an enjoyable tale.

This book had such a fascinating premise and it did not disappoint! The plot felt really unique, the characters were complex and interesting and I really enjoyed reading this to find out what would happen next.

Sapphic!! What an amazing world that this author built! Such amazing story telling and so original. I really loved this!

Dark, unexpected and original, this was a really exciting take on the sleeping beauty myth. There were a few stumbling blocks that stopped it being a higher rating, but a solid and enjoyable novel.

I adored this book. The plot follows a princess who cannot touch people as her touch is poison. She has to make a decision to be the good guy or the bad guy and this is something she teeters between throughout the book. There were some great twists that I didn’t see coming and it was fast paced. It had a great slow burn romance as well which I loved. I will be keeping an eye out for more books from this author!

I enjoyed the setting for this book quite a bit, along with the Persian folklore elements, but I found the characters a bit one dimensional with questionable motivations. I also found the narrative a bit disjointed in places.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The entire world knows of Prince Shah ahead of his wedding, but very few are aware of his twin sister Princess Soraya and the power she holds - one touch and the poison coursing through her veins will kill. Feeling isolated and misunderstood, Soraya begins to question herself and the curse she wields, forever wondering if she too could have the freedom so easily bestowed upon others.

'Girl, Serpent, Thorn' weaves an enchanting and immersive tale in this fabulous Persian-inspired retelling of Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel. Bashardoust's narrative was a breath of fresh air in a genre filled with reimagined fairytales and is one not to be missed!

First off: I loved the premise of this book even before I read it. Someone poisonous to touch, cast out because of what it means, having to hide herself away? Yes, please, I want to read about that! Give me all the introspection, all the feelings, get into that trauma. Soraya did not disappoint - she knew herself, knew exactly what she was capable of and how that would affect her and other people. And the worldbuilding was so wonderful and detailed and lush! Definitely recommend if you're interested in a darker fantasy story with a bite to it, especially one that's character driven.

The story of the Shah’s twin sister came to the people of Atashar as most rumors do, as a drifting set of jokes and have-you-heards that combined and recombined themselves slowly into a single tale: a poisonous girl with the blood of a div moving in her veins, a burden to her family, living in the shadows, cursed and reviled.

But unlike most rumors, this one is true.


Soraya knows fear in the shape of her own face. She felt it in her poisonous blood, an iron weight she had borne for so long. But it was a familiar feeling: the nagging sense that she was teetering on a knife’s edge, and all it would take was one push in the wrong direction and she would surrender to the deepest pull of the darkness that prowled inside her.

For years, Soraya has walked the edges of her curse, looking for a crack, but it held on. Until Azad, a handsome young soldier captures a female div named Parvaneh, and all the hope Soraya had shut out comes roaring back in. Parvaneh might be the only one who can show Soraya the gaps between the bars of her curse, but to escape her life, Soraya might have to tear a hole in her family’s.

Aren’t you made for death?


The premise promises a story that bears the indentations of a dark and twisted fairytale with all the rich density of horror, a tale that gathers Persian mythology into an exhilarating antiheroic slant, a world where the truth of who is right or wrong is as cold and unreachable as the stars—and the potential is definitely there.

The novel is heavy on the foreshadowing: the story often feels like a clock winding tighter as the ending draws near, and the world—though only delicately sketched since the author does not explain or engage with every aspect of its nature—is sharpened with urgency. There’s a suggestion of a trapdoor waiting under every page, and the possibilities bristled in my thoughts.

Soraya is an interesting protagonist. She was shot through with that dark, smoky core of poison, and it sung in her. It bloomed power in her blood, and made her something more than human. It made her unstoppable. A kind of awful pleasure sliced through Soraya at the realization that she’s far more powerful than she’s ever given herself credit for, a question winding around her like a rope: “What would she allow herself to become?” The helpless girl, locked away and withering on the vine of life? The quiescent serpent, ignoring the coiled thing inside her, that gathering of something hard and unyielding? Or the girl made of thorns as long as spears and as sharp as needs, with a sting like fire?

When the tilted emptiness that has settled inside Soraya begins to fade, replaced by stubborn determination, I wanted—abruptly and with an absurd intensity—for her to kindle it, to shield and nurture that flame until it takes far more than a single breath to blow it out. And for a while, I thought the story would balloon in that direction. But the narrative often retreats into a flimsy plot populated with characters that could have been more substantially fleshed out, and culminating eventually into a big reveal that’s obvious from the book’s earliest pages—and one that isn’t all that gripping in the first place.

Ultimately, that’s my biggest quibble with the story—that it cries out for a more challenging, better developed execution of a really involved and interesting premise. Still that’s not enough to put a permanent dent in the novel’s spell. As the story powers forward, and Soraya is forced to brush with her moral code, the novel probes, painstakingly, at Soraya’s desire to be just, to somehow behave well despite the contradictory desires of the heart. The author also affectingly articulates the ways that humanizing and dehumanizing those we love can be flip sides of the same coin. Here, I wish the novel had dwelled longer on the sapphic romance that blossoms between Soraya and Parvaneh who, amid the swirling chaos, have looked at each other and found a possibility of something.

I had fairly high expectations for this book, the blurb drew me in and there was a lot of hype from the early reviews. And although I did like this book, unfortunately it didn't meet my expectations. This is going to be a mini review as I don't really have much to say about this book.

I didn't really feel any attachment to the characters and felt like none of them really had any development individually. I did however really like the Sapphic romance in this, it wasn't rushed and thinking on the book, it was the only part I was really invested in reading more about. There wasn't much worldbuilding, this is supposed to be based on Persian mythology and as someone who doesn't know anything about Persian mythology, I was really looking forward to getting some insight to it and after reading this book, I still don't really know anything about Persian mythology. I wanted to know more about the divs and pariks but we didn't really get much background on either of them.