Series ✦ Penny’s Take
Girls Made of Snow and Glass
Melissa Bashardoust · 2017
76/100
👍 Worth It
Bashardoust's debut is a genuinely accomplished piece of YA fantasy — lyrical prose, a dual POV that actually earns its complexity, and a feminist retelling that centers the stepmother-daughter relationship rather than a romance. Parents of younger teens should engage with the author's own content warnings around parental abuse, suicidal ideation, and self-harm before placing it in younger hands. For mature teens and adults who love thoughtful fairy-tale retellings, it is a strong, starred-review pick.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: Parental abuse (verbal, emotional, physical) · Suicidal ideation and mentions of suicide · Self-harm references · Violence and physical assault — author-provided content warnings; not suitable for younger teens without parental review. We still scored it 76; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety60
substance78
craft82
originality80
accuracy82
hype78
age-fit72
human-eye80
Penny’s verdict76
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