Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust, read by Nikki Massoud
- Publisher: Macmillan Young Listeners, July 7th 2020
- Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, LGBTQ+
- Format: Audiobook (eARC)
- Length: 10h 6m (336 pages)
- My Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)
AUDIOBOOK REVIEW
Content warnings: kidnap, torture, murder
This is a breathtaking and artful retelling of Persian mythology and fairy tales. From the beginning of story, I fell in love with Bashardoust’s writing and Massoud’s narration.
Yeki bood, yeki nabood. There was, and there was not a cursed, poisonous girl named Soraya (18, bi+). She was the young shah’s twin sister, but kept away from everyone because of her venomous veins, deadly upon touch. When the shah captured a div—parik Parvaneh, Soraya knew she owed herself to seek answers of her own curse from the prizoner. And then there was Azad, a young man who understood her, giving Soraya the unconditional acceptance and love she craved the most, despite her poison. As she learned that the only way to undo her curse was to put her family’s lives at risk, would Soraya exchange their safety—a family who were ashamed of her monstrous quality—for her own human self, or keep herself tucked away for the rest of eternity?