Name: akshita's review of Ash by Malinda Lo
Item: Ash
Rating: 4
Author: akshita

Malinda Lo

10th anniversary edition. 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 by 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.

Caroline Clutterbuck Kapulkin

Ash dreamed that she was walking through the Wood at midsummer, and when she looked up through the canopy of leaves she felt the warmth and heat of the sun on her face. 

There was someone walking beside her, and she was not surprised to turn and see the huntress, who smiled at her and extended her hand, and Ssh took it. 

Small white flowers bloomed all around them, and as they walked the flowers became vines that climbed up the tree trunks until it was as if the trees wer ehung with blossoms made of snow.

This was my favorite spoken fairytale in the book.

"There is a story," Ash said, "of a stag that runs into a valley, and of the huntress who followed it." They had reached the horses by then, and Ash went to re-saddle Saerla, who turned her moonlight-colored nose toward them as they approached. 

"The entrance to the valley was hidden, but there was a secret entrance that was revealed only by the light of the full moon, and one night the huntress was watching that very location and she saw the entrance revealed. So she went in."

"In the valley there was a cave. Inside, it was like a palace made of gold, and the huntress walked down many richly appointed corridors before she came to what seemed to be a throne room. And on the throne was a woman dressed all in white, and she was incredibly beautiful, but she was also incredibly sad, because she had been cursed to spend her life locked in the cave, and the only time she could leave was as a stag."

"What did the huntress do?" Kaisa asked. 

Ash finished buckling the saddle in place and said, "The woman asked the huntress to chase her down, as a stag, and to kill her. And then, she could be free."

Ash is full of beautiful, serene imagery like this. I loved this brief line in particular.

The sun shone down in long beams of light, raising the dew from the ground in misty breaths that lingered in the hollows between tree roots.

I love the way Lo interweaves fairytales and folklore into Ash's world. There are many stories sprinkled throughout, and I like this in particular because of the mention that the King's name was lost to time. The history and politics of the country fade away, but the stories remain and bolster traditions.

"Tomorrow is the Fast of Lysara," Gwen whispered, kneeling down next to her and trying ineffectually to close the trunk. 

"Oh," Ash said. She had first heard the tale of Lysara when she was very young, for it was a popular one, but she hadn't given it a thought in years. Lysara had been a beautiful but penniless young woman from the Northern Mountains and when the King, whose name had long been forgotten, first set eyes on her at a Yule bonfire, he fell in love with her, and she with him. The King's advisors disapproved of the match because it was thought that she was half-fairy, for her eyes were as deep and richly verdant as the forest. But even though everyone knew that no good could come of a union with a fairy woman, the King was so deeply in love with her that he arranged to be married within a fortnight. The first year of their marriage was marked by uncommon prosperity and joy, but it was also their last. Exactly one year after their wedding, Lysara died giving birth. During her short reign as Queen, the people had grown to love her dearly, for she was the embodiment of true love, steadfast and sweet. SO the anniversary of her wedding day became known as the Fast of Lysara, when young girls made wishes upon their clean linen pillows to dream of their true love.

One late afternoon when the sun was spreading honey-gold over the autumn trees, Ash lay on the riverbank beneath an old oak whose limbs grew nearly down to the ground to form a splendid, secret room. She had been reading an old fairy tale that afternoon, and when she finished the story, she looked up through the leaves across the river and saw a woman there.

Jude Baker

Forced into becoming an indentured servant when her family dies, Ash lives a lonely and desperate life with no hopes for the future, until she meets Kaisa, the King's royal Huntress, who teaches her to love, live, and dream once again.

Magical and fascinating, with a mystic air throughout, a unique ending to a beautiful story.

akshita

With her parents both gone, Ash finds herself a servant in the house of her ruthless stepmother and there seems no hope of finding happiness again. But Ash is unaware of her mother's legacy, and that it will lead her to a magical place. A place where love, identity and belonging are all waiting.

This review isn’t about content, but more so why this book is personally significant and special to me even over a decade later.

I found it on my teacher’s classroom bookshelf. I still have that same copy, and I would apologize for stealing it but she would have trashed it if she knew what it was. 

A queer Cinderella retelling. It was the first LGBTQ+ book I ever read. 

I went to a Christian Academy where our books were closely monitored and regularly pulled from circulation when deemed “inappropriate” enough. It felt like a tiny miracle finding this book there, wedged between the fissure cracks of religious dogma. 

I already knew that I was different from my peers. I just didn’t have the language for it. Malinda Lo, though she’ll never know it, shone a little light into the darkness for me. Not enough to keep me from being afraid—but enough for me to see by. So I could find a way forward. 

I don’t think grateful really covers it. 

This may seem trivial or silly to a lot of you, and that’s okay. But I think stories like this are important to remember when we are talking about which books should or shouldn’t be allowed in schools.

Somewhere out there, there’s another little girl reaching out for a hand to hold where there might not be one for her; there wasn’t for me. 

But books like this? They reach back out. 

P.S. Malinda Lo, I’ll never forget you. 

Catherine

This review isn’t about content, but more so why this book is personally significant and special to me even over a decade later.

I first read Ash in the 8th grade. 

I found it on my teacher’s classroom bookshelf. I still have that same copy, and I would apologize for stealing it but she would have trashed it if she knew what it was. 

A queer Cinderella retelling. It was the first LGBTQ+ book I ever read. 

I went to a Christian Academy where our books were closely monitored and regularly pulled from circulation when deemed “inappropriate” enough. It felt like a tiny miracle finding this book there, wedged between the fissure cracks of religious dogma. 

I already knew that I was different from my peers. I just didn’t have the language for it. Malinda Lo, though she’ll never know it, shone a little light into the darkness for me. Not enough to keep me from being afraid—but enough for me to see by. So I could find a way forward. 

I don’t think grateful really covers it. 

This may seem trivial or silly to a lot of you, and that’s okay. But I think stories like this are important to remember when we are talking about which books should or shouldn’t be allowed in schools.

Somewhere out there, there’s another little girl reaching out for a hand to hold where there might not be one for her; there wasn’t for me. 

But books like this? They reach back out. 

P.S. Malinda Lo, I’ll never forget you. 

Sarah Sammis

Martha F.

Delicious. Fast and sweet. Malinda Lo is like a whisper from my teenage dreams.

A little different than I expected, while it did have fantasy and romance aspects it was more of a fairytale and coming-of-age story.

I liked that the main character was quiet and yet acted recklessly. The narration is written in 3rd person close perspective, but Ash's reactions are often muted and subtle; a girl wearily floating through life and grief, dreaming of escape. We are not spoon-fed her inner thoughts.

 is a slow, and sometimes painful, story about grief. 

A little different than I expected, while it did have fantasy and romance aspects it was more of a fairytale and coming-of-age story.

I liked that the main character was quiet and yet acted recklessly. The narration is written in 3rd person close perspective, but Ash's reactions are often muted and subtle; a girl wearily floating through life and grief, dreaming of escape. We are not spoon-fed her inner thoughts.

It is a slow, and sometimes painful, story about grief. 

this was actually okay. forgettable for me, but okay.

Carrington Kinslow

One of the most flat and boring books I’ve ever attempted to read. The actual love interest didn’t even appear until the book was halfway over. Why is this praised as one of the most beloved sapphic books of all time? Being one of the first doesn’t automatically make it even remotely good.

Nicole Dykeman

This was an enjoyable enough story, I just had trouble getting into it, and after finishing I think I've figured out why - I can't figure out what the main conflict of the story is? I couldn't understand what was going on sometimes, whether Ash was awake or dreaming. I didn't understand Sidhean's character at all really? But I did like the way the story paralleled the story of Cinderella without being exactly the same.

Inez 

This book left me with mixed feelings. I loved the world with the fairies and how there were so many tales that influenced the mc and played an important role in the story.

I didn't like the actual building of the story. You are promised a story about love, but that expectation isn't true.

The first half of the book is about the world How Aisling became orphan, fairytales and magic. She meets Sidhean when you are 25% in, but he doesn't really become a big part until Ash meets the huntress which is over 50%. It took me so long to get what the story was about.

The last 70 pages I think is where the most action happened. I read those very fast and enjoyed it. In those pages was a good plot where Aisling was in some kind of fight with herself.

All with all I think the biggest problem with this book is that its described as a romance, but that plays very little part in the book. Like it's the story but it takes so long before the actual story starts.

Nicki

I tried.. I couldn't not counting this towards my 2016 challenge.

Flavia Louise

Samiha Tasnim

Grace O'Callaghan

In all honesty, I don’t have much to say about this one. 
‘Ash’ is a retelling of Cinderella and it was a quick, cute and easy read and was exactly what I needed after trying and failing to get through ‘Circe’.

I thought that the folklore and faeries were a nice twist to the usual Cinderella story. It was pretty true to the original, but there were more details. I did however want more of the faerie world. We only really got to know one faerie and only went into the faerie world for a short amount of time.

Ash was your pretty average protagonist in my opinion. She was reckless at times but also didn’t push her luck sometimes when it came to her stepmother.
Really enjoyed that she was queer and it wasn’t a big deal. It was just a faucet of her character and not her defining characteristic.

The romance was so cute and made my heart flutter at times. It did feel a little rushed at the ending, but still so sweet.

All in all, this was a Cinderella story with faeries and queer characters. If you’re looking for a quick read or a retelling close to its roots, I’d recommend it. Wouldn’t recommend if you’re searching for a new and unique retelling.

Megan Cooper

Definitely a YA novel - and not in a bad way. Ash is a re-telling of the Cinderalla fairy tale. Not quite as dark as the original Grimm version, but grittier than the Disney one. The author adds her own mark to the tale and does an excellent job in capturing the essence of Cinderlla with enough original spins to make it a book I didn't want to put down. There are fairies in this book - who aren't necessarily nice or altruistic - and they add a sinister atmosphere. The fairy godmother becomes a male fairy who is part of the Fairy Hunt and definitely has his own agenda.

Kb james

Lena Saalfrank

Definitely my favorite version of the Cinderella fairytale. I always wanted to read an lgbt version of it and here it is. I absolutely loved the characters and i loved, that you heated about many other fairytales in this book.

Brook

Retelling and retooling the Cinderalla tale into a lesbian romance, Ash is a pretty fun read. I blazed through this quickly, and am curious to read more from Lo. Compared to most books we read for Lesbian Book Club, this was a very light, but we-written book, and that's a nice respite. I'm always here for books where the protagonist falls in love with a huntress.

Peyton

Ashley

Narrated by Malinda Lo. /// "Cinderella" retold. . . 

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, 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.

Jude Baker &
Ash by Malinda Lo

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