Ash by Malinda Lo

Ash

by Malinda Lo

The haunting, romantic lesbian retelling of Cinderella and modern queer classic by award-winning author Malinda Lo--now with an introduction by Holly Black, a letter from the author, a Q&A, and more!

In 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. 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. Their friendship, as delicate as a new bloom, 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 and empowering, Ash beautifully unfolds the connections between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.

Reviewed by Angie on

2 of 5 stars

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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.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 12 March, 2015: Finished reading
  • 12 March, 2015: Reviewed