Review of Ash by Malinda Lo

September 19, 2009
Review of Ash by Malinda LoAsh by Malinda Lo
Published by Hachette Digital, Inc. on 2009-09-01
Genres: Adaptations, Fairy Tales & Folklore, Fiction, Lesbian, Young Adult
Pages: 300
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
four-stars

Cinderella retoldIn the wake of her father's death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash's capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.

I found Ash by Malinda Lo through book blogs, found many positive reviews, and decided, why not order the book, as I love the cover, and I liked that it received almost universal positive reviews.

Fancy my luck, when those reviews turned out to be mostly correct. Now, I will admit bloggers are not a homogeneous group of people, we like different authors, different books, different writing styles, one person’s Danielle Steele may be another person’s Shakespeare. I know in time, you find bloggers who are your reading soul-mate, it is like this person climbed into your brain and just intuitively has the same taste in reading as you. I think I have found a few reading soul-mates. When I saw their reviews for Ash, I absolutely knew I had to read Ash.
Turns out I highly enjoyed it. I love a good cover, I love a good fairy-tale retelling, and I love me some diversity, as I’ve been through the higher education political correctness track, so you must imagine my excitement over a re-telling of Cinderella with lesbians and handsome fairy men! OH MY GAWD was I excited when the smiling amazon box came in the mail with this book. I promptly opened the box, took out the book, and began to read. Unfortunately I have a busy busy busy life, so I had to take breaks.
Ash is full of intriguing characters such as Sidhean the fairy, Aisling who is Ash, her stepsisters Clara and Ana and of course Kaisa. To be honest, I want to know more about Clara and Ana and Kaisa! For example, why is Ana such a bitch, I want to know the deep underlying reason besides the fact that her mum is one as well. I want to know how Clara turned out so sweet. I want to know about Kaisa’s background and her life. I really enjoyed the secondary characters. Now this isn’t to detract from Aisling, since she’s interesting. I like that she occasionally gave her witch of a stepmother the retort she deserved.
I liked the writing style, except parts seemed to just drag on and on. I did like how this truly felt like a fairy tale. I didn’t feel the writing was contrived at all. I know some books try to do the fairy tale re-telling and it’s just plain awkward , but this was not awkward. I felt empathy for Ash’s plight, how much does it suck to lose both parents, oh and I hated her stepmother deeply what a crazy betch.
I highly recommend Ash! While reading Ash I suggest you drink a nice tall glass of cream soda. It’s saccharine, I only drink it on special occasions (when I can afford soda both price and calories), and oh my gosh is it smooth. I liked how sweet Ash was, I don’t typically read GLBT books (I should read more) and yes for the most part, it goes down smooth.
four-stars
The following two tabs change content below.
My Twitter profileMy Instagram profileMy Pinterest profile

April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.
Filed Under: book reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,
About April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

Comments

  1. Rachel Belle says
    September 19, 2009 at 3:42 pm

    Good review. I don't usually read GLBT books either, but this one sounds pretty interesting. I'll have to check it out. (:

    I left you an award on my blog, btw. 😉

  2. Aimee says
    September 19, 2009 at 6:04 pm

    I am totally drinking the cream soda whilst reading this – whether I like Ash or not. Creaming Soda is one of my faves! Great review 🙂

  3. Jenny says
    September 19, 2009 at 7:43 pm

    Ok, any book that goes well with cream soda HAS to be good, lol!! I've seen this around but never really knew what it was about. I'll have to look into it.

  4. Jenn-ay says
    September 20, 2009 at 10:28 am

    I need to get this book. I trust you when it comes to books and your reviews so I'm def. going to read this one!!!

  5. Debbie's World of Books says
    September 23, 2009 at 10:07 pm

    Glad to see you enjoyed it. I just bought this book last week.

  6. justicejenniferreads says
    September 27, 2009 at 11:20 am

    I did not know that that was what this book was about. Way interesting. Great review.

Trackbacks

  1. Ash: Cinderella Beautifully Retold | YA Asylum says:
    August 16, 2013 at 11:33 pm

    […] Good Books & Good Wine: 4/5 Stars […]