Girls Made of Snow and Glass is Frozen meets The Bloody Chamber. This ia a feminist fantasy reimagining of the Snow White fairytale as you’ve never seen it before, tracing the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start: the beautiful princess and stepmother queen.

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.

I received an eARC of this novel through Netgalley, courtesy of publisher Flatiron Books, in exchange for an honest review.

This book literally made my heart ache as I read it. I loved everything about this mix of Snow White, Frozen, and The Bloody Chamber.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass starts off really slow, and kept me guessing for the first half of it. I wasn’t sure where the plot was going for a while, but I got completely wrapped up in the plot during the worldbuilding.

I particularly loved the family dynamics in this. I loved how very very different the dynamics were despite the many things that tied Mina and Lynet together during their childhoods.

I really hated Nicholas. Dude was more than a little bit abusive to both Mina and Lynet. For a little while, I was really worried that it was going to veer into the Donkeyskin fairy tale territory, but it didn’t which was a relief. Don’t even get me started on Gregory. That dude is the absolute worst to literally everybody and I hate every bit of his garbage guts.

I particularly loved reading from Mina’s perspective – she was uncertain about herself but determined to make things better for the Southerners. She made the best of every situation she could, but it didn’t always turn out as well as she planned, and I loved that.

I think I could have used a little bit more worldbuilding in the northern part of the country, but I understand why we didn’t get it, given how sheltered Lynet was.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anybody. You can pick up a copy on Amazon or Indiebound.

Disclaimer: All links to Indiebound and Amazon are affiliate links, which means that if you buy through those links, I will make a small amount of money off of it.