Before this year, I didn’t pay attention to YA fiction releases. Frankly, I didn’t think they would speak to me, since I haven’t been part of the target demographic in more than 20 years. After having spectacular luck with The Mermaid, The Witch, and the Sea, You Should See Me in a Crown, and now Girl, Serpent, Thorn, I am here to eat my words because these three are some of the best books I’ve read all year.

Girl, Serpent, Thorn is a fantasy novel that is like a Persian fairy tale. Its prologue opens by telling us “Stories always begin the same way: There was and there was not. There is possibility in those words, the chance for hope or despair.” That does a good job of setting the tone for the rest of the book, because I was never quite sure what was going to happen until nearly the end, including whether the protagonist would win or not.

Soraya is a princess who was cursed by a div (demon) because of something her mother did, so anyone who touches Soraya will be poisoned and die. Her rooms and garden are opulent, but she’s desperately lonely because she’s kept hidden away so she can’t hurt anyone. Many moments in the opening chapters caught my breath because they expresses her isolation so well, like this one:

There were cushions everywhere—on the bed, on the chair, on the window seat, some on the floor—all with different textures, made from different fabrics. Overlapping rugs spread out across the entire floor, their vibrant colors a little worn over time. Every surface was covered with something soft, as though she could somehow make up for the lack of touch by surrounding herself with these artificial substitutes. Throughout the room were glass vases holding wilting roses from her garden, filling the room with the earthy smell of dying flowers. More than once Soraya had looked around and realized that this was the room of a very lonely girl.

When Soraya’s family return to their city at the beginning of spring, she learns two things:

1. Her twin brother, Sorush, who is also the shah, is marrying their childhood best friend Laleh.
2. They brought a div back with them, who might be able to help Soraya break the curse, and it’s in the dungeon.

On Laleh and Sorush’s wedding day, Soraya has a choice to make. She can either listen to her mother and stay away from the div, since they’re famous liars, or she can sneak to the dungeon and see what the div has to tell her. When a handsome, young man named Azad not only tells Soraya he’s not afraid of her, but wants to help her get to the div, Soraya makes the trip to the dungeon and sets her life on a whole new trajectory.

It’s hard to talk about Girl, Serpent, Thorn because there are a few massive twists at the centre of the story that truly need to be experienced. These twists kept me on my toes and even had me gasping in spots. I especially enjoyed the way they got me thinking about the idea of heroes and villains, because one of the central themes is that we need to interrogate everything we’ve been told about them. No one in this book is fully good or fully evil because we’re able to see how they’re the summary of the choices they make, including Soraya, her mother, the villain, and Soraya’s love interest.

Like I mentioned before, Soraya is almost totally alone. Her family spends little time with her and, when Soraya sees the royal family out together in public (from her rooms, since she can’t leave), she feels like Laleh has taken her place. The few moments Soraya and her mother have together in earlier chapters are tense and the closest thing to affection in them is when her mother brings Soraya a plant. Not-so-fun fact: the only connection Soraya has with anything living is her garden, because her curse doesn’t affect plants.

Given how alone she is and the longing for connection that Soraya shows, it makes total sense that she would leap at the chance to get rid of her curse. It especially works well because Azad offers to help when Soraya sneaks out of her rooms on her brother’s wedding day and they bump into each other; the shah’s wedding is the occasion of all occasions, which she can’t attend. The contrast between Soraya’s day-to-day experiences and what she sees when she sneaks out shows just how small and dissatisfying her life is.

Music and cheerful voices carried from the garden in the front of the palace, filling the heavy silence between them. Soraya thought again of seeing her mother with Sorush and Laleh, of their uncomplicated happiness. Don’t I deserve to be happy too? Didn’t she deserve to take whatever chance of happiness was offered to her?

When Soraya steps away from her life of quiet compliance, her choices lead to serious consequences for her, her family, and all of their city. (I’m trying to avoid spoiler territory, so please forgive me for being cagey.) Her character arc is especially interesting because we see her interact quite a lot with the villain and some of the most fascinating scenes show Soraya recognize that her choices have the power to make her just like the villain. By the end of the story, I was thrilled with the outcome of her choices and what that means for who she is then and what her legacy will be.

The writing style of Girl, Serpent, Thorn is gorgeous and immersive, especially once I got into it, and I highlighted many passages. This one still gives me chills because it’s so evocative:

She wanted to cry, to have a measure of release, at least, but she felt withered and empty. The smell of death and dirt from the dakhmeh still lingered on her clothes and in her hair. It was trapped inside her lungs, along with powdered bone remains that also stained her gloves and dress. But Soraya knew that even if she bathed and changed, even if she burned these clothes, she would carry the dakhmeh with her for the rest of her life. That was why the living should never enter the dakhmeh—there was no way to truly leave it behind.

Although I’m not familiar with Persian history or mythology, the names and setting helped me imagine what was happening in a way that I often can’t with books (some people say they see movies in their heads when they read. I usually don’t, so I enjoyed that I could this time). I also appreciate the author’s note at the end because it shares the historical and mythological inspirations that informed so much of Girl, Serpent, Thorn, filling in gaps that I wouldn’t be able to easily fill in by myself.

One thing I want to note is that Girl, Serpent, Thorn is not a romance. There’s a romantic element, for sure, but this is a fantasy novel first and foremost. I picked this up because it showed up on a bunch of “most anticipated f/f books of the summer” lists by people I respect, so I was a little surprised that the romance is so subtle. Thankfully, I figured it out early enough to shift my expectations and revel in what the story is, rather than be disappointed in what it’s not. Also, I know I’m not talking about the love interest at all except to say Soraya has one and that’s because sharing any details here would take away from the experience.

My only complaint is that I found the beginning to be a bit slow, which made it pretty easy for me to put down during the first 15% or so. Once I got past that and was fully invested in learning about Soraya’s journey, I had a hard time putting it down and I stayed up WAY too late reading it on a school night.

In short, I adored Girl, Serpent, Thorn. It’s beautifully written, has a complex protagonist who goes on a hell of a journey, and it left me with a book hangover that’s made it hard to get into anything else since I finished it. Much like The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea, I can’t stop telling friends, family, and colleagues about it, and I’m going to order a physical copy from our local indie bookstore ASAP.