GIRL, SERPENT, THORN

A princess who is poisonous to the touch struggles with the choice between good and evil.

For two centuries, the ancestors of the shah of Atashar have ruled under the protection of the legendary magical bird, the simorgh. But the simorgh has long been missing, the nobility is losing faith in the young shah, and attacks by monstrous divs are becoming ever more organized. Soraya, the shah’s 18-year-old twin sister, carries poison in her veins and lives, shrinking, in the shadows of the palace garden "so that her family would not live in hers.” She longs for companionship but feels a growing urge to hurt and kill and has nightmares of transforming into a div. When a handsome young soldier captures a parik, a female demon who attacks the shah, Soraya finds herself increasingly attracted to both man and monster. But the parik leads Soraya to discover how she may lift her curse, and the soldier offers to help. Will Soraya betray her family to free herself? 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. Although the prose is occasionally heavy-handed and the emotional shifts sometimes abrupt, the narrative’s strengths lie in an intricate and unpredictable plot that resists easy tropes and textured and evocative worldbuilding. All characters are Persian.

An alluring feminist fairy tale.