At sixteen, Mina’s mother is dead, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone—has never beat at all, in fact, but she’d always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, Mina forms a plan: win the king’s heart with her beauty, become queen, and finally know love. The only catch is that she’ll have to become a stepmother.
Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen’s image, at her father’s order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do—and who to be—to win back the only mother she’s ever known…or else defeat her once and for all.
Entwining the stories of both Lynet and Mina in the past and present, Girls Made of Snow and Glass traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything—unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story.
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This book is basically a way better version of Snow White, but without the seven dwarves.
Lynet is a 17–year–old princess, who is made out of snow and blood.
Her stepmother Mina has a heart made out of glass, and can warp glass and mirrors.
Lynet falls in love with a woman surgeon of the same age, which is way better than Snow White falling for a dude who kisses her randomly in the woods. Nadia, the surgeon, is way smarter, and she plays a large role in the story, but not so large that it makes the book all about her and her relationship with Lynet.
I love the whole concept, and the fact that the magician is the true villain, and it’s not the stepmother for believing that Snow is prettier than she is. It’s more about the bonds between the women in the story, unlike the original story of Snow White, which perpetuates the trope that women cannot be friendly to one another, and that only a man can make everything better. It also points out that there is more to life than romantic love; there is also love from family and friends, which is as strong, if not stronger. For example, the Huntsman in the story is convinced to spare Lynet not because she’s beautiful and pure, but because he is a reflection of Mina (literally), and Mina herself did not want to kill Lynet because she loves her.
The symbolism is really interesting. I like how Lynet is compared to a bird, fragile and weak, to her father and the magician, but to Mina, she is powerful and fearless, like a wolf. Mina also starts off in her own story as she is supposed to be, heartless and cold to the touch, but she slowly realizes that although she has a heart of glass, she can be as full of love as Lynet is.
I really liked this book, it’s definitely worth a read. I don’t usually enjoy books that try to build a twist out of another well–known story, especially ones that try to make a princess story into something new, but I think that Melissa Bashardoust did a good job.
