Ash

by Malinda Lo

In the world of ASH, fairies are an older race of people who walk the line between life and death, reality and magic. As orphaned Ash grows up, a servant in her stepmother's home, she begans to realise that her beloved mother, Elinor, was very much in tune with these underworld folk, and that she herself has the power to see them too. Against the sheer misery of her stepmother's cruelty, greed and ambition in preparing her two charmless daughters for presentation at court, and hopefully royal or aristocratic marriage, Ash befriends one of these fairies - a mysterious, handsome man-who grants her wishes and restores hope to Ash's existence, even though she knows there will be a price to pay. But most important of all, she also meets Kaisa, a huntress employed by the king, and it is Kaisa who truly awakens Ash's desires for both love and self-respect...
ASH is a fairy tale about possibility and recognizing the opportunities for change. From the deepest grief comes the chance for transformation.

• ISBN10: 0340988371
• ISBN13: 9780340988374
• Publish Date: 4 March 2010 (first published 1 September 2009)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hachette Children's Group
• Imprint: Hodder Children's Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[nannah]

Oh, boy. This was … something. It had a lot of great ideas -- a lesbian cinderella retelling with fairies involved! -- but I just couldn’t connect with it … in any way.

Content warnings:
- some very creepy possessive behavior & unequal relationship balances that you think will be the main romance until the second half of the book. Sure, this is spoilers, but it’s so bad that I almost stopped reading.
This first romantic interest knew the MC’s mother and watches the MC grow up. When he’s already an adult (like thousands of years old). It’s yeah … creepy.

After her father dies, Aisling is forced to tend to her stepmother and stepsisters’ every whim (her only joy? Reading fairy tales by the fire; hence the nickname Ash). When she takes one too many trips to the Wood, Ash’s wish of being stolen away by a fairy may just come true in the form of one named Sidhean who stakes a claim on her. Will this abusive pedophile be her Prince Charming? Ash seems to be convinced he will be until she meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, and they form a connection. Once Ash understands what love really is, will she be allowed to have it?

Listen, I know the point is that this first love interest, the fairy Sidhean, is cursed to realize what he’s doing -- and what he has done for hundreds of years (luring humans to fall in love with him, and then to later have their hearts broken) -- is wrong, and to learn that by experiencing it himself. However, you don’t realize this as a reader until basically page 200 of a 264-page book. Before that it’s really like you’re in a fairy romance novel where the MC is in a relationship with a dude who has watched her grow up, preyed upon her and groomed her into a twisted, possessive, and unhealthy relationship that you, as a viewer, are supposed (?) to find romantic (because the MC does herself: “Why had he not claimed her already? What was he waiting for?”). So, until halfway through the second half of the book, I was absolutely disgusted.

That, unfortunately, kept me from enjoying the book.

But, really, that’s not all that I didn’t enjoy. The writing style is laden with “telling” over “showing” (and I’m not sure if that was a stylistic choice, since a lot of the old fairy tales have same style -- however, for a YA book especially, it’s not a very good choice). Pages 1-13 seem like a summary I’m muddling through on Wikipedia instead of the beginning of an actual book:

”By that time the philosophers had also begun to change their approach to this people. Rather than insisting that there was no such thing as magic, they began to merely suggest that perhaps magic was not as prevalent as it once was. They asked, have you ever seen an elf? Or did you work hard on your own to build your house, to feed your children, to put clothes on your family’s backs? And gradually, the idea took root that magic was merely an old country superstition.” [p.13]

There are also some pages that can be summed up in paragraphs, and others easily woven into the storyline; there’s just clumsy writing and storytelling everywhere. There’s so much unneeded clunky backstory thrown in at random times that it feels like -- when will this story really begin? Every chapter opener (at least in the first half) opens either with tons of summary or in an essay-like format with introduction paragraphs like,

”Everything changed after her father died. Ash had known every inch of her home in Rock Hill; Quinn House was strange and large and cold. In Rock Hill, everyone knew and cherished her mother and father; here, she was pitied by others: Poor girl. Orphan. Though Lady Isobel never treated her with much fondness, now that Ash’s father was gone, she no longer tried to hide her disapproval ….

There’s also continuity errors or weird plot blips like the fairy giving her a medallion, telling her he’ll appear if she ever needs something. But when she does he has the gall to look WEARY telling her the price of the wish like he didn’t want/expect this in the first place by giving her the medallion? And things like Ash being told a page before that she could not go anywhere without a chaperone, and yet the next page she’s out alone with no explanation of how this happened.

What could have redeemed the book for me was Kaisa and Ash’s relationship, but it also lacked … anything. Every interaction was dull, every dialogue between them limited to something like, “How’s the weather? Do you want to ride today?” “Sure,” that I didn’t feel when it crossed over into a love worth fighting a fairy’s claim for.

I’m sorry, this is really so harsh. This book really does have a lovely concept; I just didn’t love much besides that. I probably missed the point of this entire novel, but I rated this on my personal enjoyment, and everything's subjective.

[Angie]

I loved the ideas behind Ash, but sadly, I was bored the entire time I was reading it. The first half of the story is very much just the classic tale of Cinderella, but with fae in the background. Aisling was raised in the country where the people very much still believed in the power of greenwiches and the tricks of the fae. But then her mother dies, and her father tells her that she must leave fairy tales in the realm of fantasy. Then he remarries, dies, and leaves Aisling with nothing but her storybooks and a craving to find a real fae to escape life with her stepmother and sisters.

Ash had a lot of potential. I absolutely loved all of the fairy tales sprinkled throughout! I much rather would have read a collection of those full tales than Aisling's story. I felt no connection to her at all. She was just a character on the page, going through the motions. The first half of her story didn't hold my interest at all other than when she talks about the fairy tales. The latter half started to pique my interest, but then nothing really happened there either. She goes to the ball, gets caught, then runs off and the end. Not very exciting.

I was expecting much more romance from Ash based on the description. Sidhean is the fea that Aisling winds up finding and befriending, later learning that he's cursed (of course, she also has to be involved in said curse). I didn't even really believe their friendship. They just kind of walk around, and then he sends her home, or she makes a wish and he grants it and says he'll collect his payment later. The terms of his curse could have been really interesting, but that took up like one page at the very end. Same with Aisling's romance with the huntress, Kaisa. I felt nothing between them! We're just told that they're in love in the last chapter and then...it's over.

Ash really disappointed me. I loved the individual elements, but as a whole, it simply didn't work. It was slow paced and boring. Aisling had no personality, and I didn't believe any of the relationships except that between Asiling and her stepmother. Everything else was just a matter of telling instead of showing.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Jo]

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

I have wanted to read Ash for longer than I can remember. I loved the cover, and I love the idea of fairy tale retellings. However, when I discovered it was actually a lesbian retelling of Cinderella, I wanted to read it all the more. How different it would be! When I came up with the idea for LGBTQ YA Month, I knew it was finally time to give it a go. Unfortunately, I wasn't that impressed.

Ash is a servant to her stepmother and stepsisters, and is badly treated. She lives in a land where some people still believe in magic and fairies, and she wishes a fairy would bring her mother back or take her away - even if it means she can never return. When she meets beautiful fairy Sidhean in the woods, Ash believes she will get her wish, but he keeps telling her she's not yet ready. Sidhean becomes her only friend, Ash finding him in the woods whenever she can manage to get away. But one day, instead of Sidhean, it's Kaisa, the King's Huntress, that she bumps into. The two strike up a tender friendship, and Ash soon discovers she has feelings for Kaisa. Ash starts to realise life might actually be worth staying for after all, but Sidhean has claimed her for his own.

There are some aspects of the story that are the same or similar to that of the fairy tale we all know. The main differences are the LGBTQ aspect, and the involvement of Sidhean and fairies in general. As a fairy tale retelling, Ash feels much like a high fantasy, but the fairies feel a lot like the fae you would read about in folklore, or in some YA urban fantasies and paranormal romances, just a little subtler. We still have the girl who is a slave to her stepmother and stepsisters, we have a prince and we have a ball where he is to find a wife. We have magical clothes, a carriage and footmen, but instead of a Fairy Godmother, we have Sidhean, and the wishes he grants come with a price. (I would like to point out that although shoes come with the clothes, they are neither made from carpet as in the original story, or glass from the more modern version - despite the shoes Ash is holding on the cover appearing to be made of glass).

Ash is a sweet story, and a very good retelling, but it's kind of slow paced, and even at it's highest and lowest points, the tension seems to stay on one level really, or it felt that way to me. There just wasn't really much to get excited about, unfortunately, simply because the tension didn't always match the events taking place. And the ending really annoyed me. It just felt much too easy to me. I finished reading it thinking, "Really? That's it? That's how it ends?" I was really disappointed, and felt kind of let down.

The romance is sweet, but very slow to build. Most of the time, Ash has feelings she doesn't really understand, and doesn't know what to do with. The fact that she's a lesbian isn't made too much of a big deal out of in regards to what other people might think. There is some hint that it may be a bit controversial, but the story doesn't focus on it, it focuses on Ash and Kaisa. The actual realisation of Ash and Kaisa's feelings for each other doesn't come about until we're nearing the end, so it's more of a self-discovery and discovering the emotion of love than about an actual romantic relationship.

I love the idea behind Ash, and I think LGBTQ retellings of fairy tales could really work. Sadly, this particular story didn't work for me personally. Be sure to read some other reviews of Ash before deciding whether to read it or not; don't decide not to based on my review alone.

[layawaydragon]

I loved the idea of a lesbian Cinderella retelling. I thought she'd end up or at least fall in love with a princess instead of prince. I was wrong but that wasn't a problem. The huntress, Kasia, was fine and it makes more sense than a princess. Ash could actually run into and hang out with her. Which means there was more than instalove at a ball.

My only issue is wanting more conflict and a stronger conclusion.

Ash still didn't do much. I hate how passive Cinderella is and Ash isn't much better. She tried but had to get help from Sidhern every single step of the way. And he's just a giant blow hard. There was a great moment where the threads between her, her mother and Sidhern seemed to actually mean something.

In the end she's just lucky her mom's spell worked and Sidhern just walked away. And what about the dying magic and fae people? Are they just going to die out? It seems so cool of a world with scary fae and maybe she can bring magic back too. But NOPE! :(((

[clementine]

Although I tend to be firmly stuck in the realistic fiction and dystopian genres, I do enjoy a fantastic retelling of a classic fairytale, and so I was certainly drawn towards Malinda Lo's eerie retelling of Cinderella - especially because I quite liked the idea of it having an LGBTQ spin.

I thought Ash was a solid first novel with quite nice prose and a compelling story. The chunks of it that were inspired by Cinderella were identifiable, but it was its own story which held up without the classic fairy tale behind it. There were additions that fleshed out the story, and the casting of the fairy godmother as a male fairy cursed to love Ash was really neat.

I do think that there were some issues with awkward pacing and phrasing which affected my enjoyment of the book and didn't allow me to become fully immersed in it. It was like it was almost incredibly atmospheric, but didn't quite manage. It moved too fast, and a lot of things weren't given enough time to fully develop, and, yes, the prose was not perfect. There were bits of it that made me pause to frown. Ash's relationships with Sidhean and Kaisa moved too fast for me - especially Sidhean, who didn't appear quite enough for me to really get a good grip on his character. Also, the tension needed to be ratcheted up a bit. Obviously it's going to have a happy ending, but I just felt like there could have been more obstacles in the way, to keep me guessing.

Overall, though, I did like it. I thought the concept was really good, the prose was in general quite nice, and it was interesting the whole way through. I will definitely be picking up Huntress.