Ash

Overall: 4 1/2 stars Plot/Storyline: 4 1/4 stars This is simply a very rich retelling of Cinderella, with many of the well-known details intact, and a few changes and additions. If you are a fan of the Celtic style of fairy tale/folklore - with fairies as a magical race that humans stumbled across at their own peril - I believe this will be extra pleasing. Ash interacts with the fairy race throughout the story and this adds a level of suspense and danger since it's not all bibbity bobbity boo, and there are stories throughout to remind us of how dangerous these interactions can be. The love story - Ash and the huntress - is not treated as controversial. In this world, people don't seem to give a thought to it as a forbidden thing, and the treatment is matter of fact. People fall in love and this one girl, Ash, almost without realizing it falls in love with the Royal Huntress. There is more controversy in the class difference between someone who looks and acts like a scullery maid and a person who is part of the royal court. Their relationship is only overtly romantic well into the book, and this aspect is quite G-rated. (It's worth noting that the author comments on her blog that "in Ash's world, there is no homosexuality or heterosexuality; there is only love. The story is about her falling in love. It's not about her being gay.") The novel length is of benefit to the story, allowing Lo to give more time to Ash's profound grief over the loss of her parents, particularly her mother, as well as to show our heroine as a tough character, and to wed this tale, with the most popular tellings of French or German derivation, with the storytelling traditions of the British Isles. One of my complaints is that the author downplays Ash's dilemma between a life with the fairies and love in the real world. I think it could make her feelings seem shallower than had been intended, and her transition perhaps seemed less than completely explained. The other complaint is the ending. It ends happily, as it should! However, the resolution was simply too easy, as if the writer couldn't think of a more complex way to get the same result. To say more would be to spoil, but there was definitely some missing conflict. Characters: 4 1/4 stars Ash is a likable character, with courage and spirit. Whether or not you'll consider her intelligent is a matter of how you perceive her interactions with the fairy world since pretty much every story she'd read and her mother and everyone who believed in fairies told you they don't play! However, in the beginning she was longing to be with her dead mother and felt she had nothing left for her, and so it makes some sense to me. I would have liked at least one more scene where we get to see what's in the love interest's heart, but - as is often the case with romantic stories - it's enough that a sympathetic character found love. Lo made one of the stepsisters awful, but still with a hint of girlish hopes for herself, and one on the brink of likable. The stepmother seemed to have a justification for her actions, or at least she was able to justify it in her own mind. For the most part, I cannot say the secondary characters were fully fleshed out, but fairytales do tend to be told in broad strokes. Writing style: 4 1/2 stars Lo does a nice job of making the story feel both traditional and new - honoring folktales and traditions while seamlessly including a message of acceptance. By having it not matter to these people, in Once Upon A Time Land, that a girl's heart is given to another girl, it points out pretty sharply that it's odd that it bothers so many people in this world. As someone who enjoys fairytales, and folktales, and the reimagining of them, I found the author's choices and treatment of this story to be quite satisfactory.

Malinda Lo’s ASH is a quick read packed with interesting ideas. The book explores themes of femininity, liminality and power all wrapped up in a queer coming-of-age retelling of Cinderella. Aisling—nicknamed Ash—winds up working in her stepmother’s house as a servant after the untimely deaths of first her mother and then her father. Her father’s death saddled her stepmother, Lady Isobel, with unforseen debts, and Lady Isobel tells Ash it’s her duty to work those debts off by way of servitude. Ash grows up a servant in Quinn House, where she cooks and cleans for Lady Isobel and her stepsisters Ana and Clara. But while her days are taken up with the minutia of housekeeping, Ash’s nights are her own. She explores the nearby woods, where she meets first a fairy man with an ominous and mysterious interest in her, and then the King’s Huntress, Kaisa, for whom Ash falls hard. The crux of the book comes when Ash decides to strike deals with the fairy, Sidhean, in order to spend time with Kaisa. The book is full of cusps and precipices: Ash wanders from the human world into the fairy world, from childhood to adolescence, is a servant but masquerades as a noblewoman. It’s a book about choices and about boundaries with a very welcome and agentic female protagonist. Lo was intentional in her use of fairy tales throughout—the reader knows, going into the book, that it is a retelling of a common fairy tale. We come in with expectations based on that. The style of the book is distant and regal, old-fashioned. There are few contractions and a measured pace, the likes of which we associate with “once upon a time” writing. Occasionally this was too literal for my taste, but Lo generally carries it off and uses this tone and language to create truly lovely imagery throughout. But, what’s most interesting is that there is, at play here, a meta-textual relationship between the fact that this is another iteration of a common fairy tale and the role of fairy tales within the book. Ash reads and rereads a book of fairy tales throughout her childhood and adolescence. Ash and Kaisa flirt by telling each other their favorite fairy tales. They discuss the role of fairy tales, the lessons they teach, and how regardless of their veracity they become real, living institutions. Ash uncovers the fairy tales of her own history—of her mother’s life—over the course of her relationship with Sidhean, a living fairy. It’s a fascinating thing to read which never becomes overly clever or gimmicky. Part of the reason the fairy tales within a fairy tale aspect of the book works so well is because Ash’s world is so well-drawn. It’s an especially feminine book; by that I mean that it is a book much more concerned about women’s lives and women’s roles and women’s sources of power than men’s. While Lady Isobel and her two daughters first appear to be yet another two-dimensional incarnation of the evil stepmother and wicked stepsisters trope, Lo takes the time to fill them in and give them realistic motives and limitations. They never become sympathetic, but they become understandable people who are both trapped in their circumstances and so entrenched in those circumstances that they see only a handful of options. Lady Isobel is a woman heading a household and managing a mountain of debt without any real income—it makes financial sense for her to take her stepdaughter and turn her into a servant she doesn’t have to pay. It is unfair, but it makes sense. And it makes sense for her to push her oldest daughter, Ana, to marry well. She sees Ana as her one chance at pulling her family out of the hole, and Ana is groomed and indoctrinated accordingly. Clara, the second sister, has a number of interesting conversations about marrying for money and status with Ash over the course of the book. Ash, being a servant, is in a position where marrying for love is a much simpler and much more accessible option. That Lo points this out humanizes and contextualizes the book’s antagonists. Marriage—who does it and who doesn’t—is a broader theme in the book. The outlying towns where Ash hails from are held together by rural greenwitches, who work as the town’s healers and sources of wisdom and who traditionally don’t marry. Ash’s mother was one prior to her marriage to Ash’s father, so Ash is steeped in that community. The King’s Huntress, a position of high status and visibility, is another role of feminine power tied to a tradition of not marrying. And in contrast, there is Lady Isobel and her daughters who, through circumstance and their institutional lack of a viable trade, use marriage to claim and assert an altogether different kind of power. This running conversation about women’s lives and women’s choices—and the extent to which those are real, true choices rather than prescribed ones—made this book a joy to read. While Ash was a finely drawn character, I would have liked deeper characterization of the tertiary characters. Kaisa, specifically, remained a cipher through the text, someone who was more role than real person. I rooted for them to work out, but mostly because I was rooting for Ash; their romance felt rote and unfinished at times, but perhaps that was . Ultimately, my biggest complaint about the book is that it was too short and too restrained for my taste. I wanted more history, more exploration of the characters’ interaction. I wanted more raw anger and sexuality. But this was a YA book, and Ash adheres to the conventions of YA lit—short, fraught with tension that culminates in a couple of tongue kisses and nothing more. None of this is a criticism of the conventions of YA literature; these are more my personal tastes. ASH is an excellent book by any standard, and an excellent YA book in particular.

While it is not at all inaccurate to call this a retelling of Cinderella - it does, after all include the evil stepmother, step-sisters and a midnight deadline - it is rich enough to stand as a beautiful and touching story in its own right. While admittedly my Cinderella knowledge is 100% supplied by Disney, I never felt like I had heard it all before. The book truly pulls the reader deep into the world of Ash filled with natural beauty and ugliness, legends and fairy tales, loneliness and pain. The true charm of the book, however, is the development of Ash's conflicting relationships. Her feelings towards Sidhean are a haunting portrayal of an unhealthy, dependent relationship born of loneliness and mystery. While not outright abusive for indeed the character is far more complex than that, Sidhean's emotional distance and possessiveness are an eerie, though not too explicit, lesson for young readers. Ash's interactions with Kaisa are a very realistic development of young love, particularly as many LGBT youth first experience it. Ash is unable at first to define her own emotional reaction to Kaisa, though the reader can clearly see the developing interest. She is surprised and uncomfortable at the first suggestion they are more than friends, yet there is no "coming out" story in any traditional sense. While lesbian romance is clearly not the standard expectation in this world - the stepsisters are of course eagerly seeking their Prince - it is shown that lesbian relationships exist and no one thinks twice about them being anything other than normal. In addition to making it a pleasant departure from the storyline LGBT youth tend to get in pop culture, this also makes the story more accessible to all by keeping the focus on emotions everyone can relate to from loneliness to love. A highly recommended read for all young adults and adults a like.

I read this story after her second novel, Huntress, in a day. I have to say it is a retelling of the Cinderella (of course), but it has a bit more of a magical feel to it, with the growth of this young woman who's discovering herself. I liked the story, I do wish there had been more of a build up between her and her love interest, but the story did revolve around the main character's journey in many facets of life. It's beautifully told.

Ash by Malinda Lo is a lesbian re-telling of the tale Cinderella. We all know the typical story: Cinderella is under the thumb of her evil stepmother and stepsisters, and thanks to her fairy godmother attends the royal ball and falls in love with the prince and lives happily ever after. But this story is by no means like that. It's so much more. In the beginning of Aisling's tale, her mother has died and is buried outside their house in Rook Hill. She misses her mother dearly, and wishes for nothing more than to have her back. Her father sets out on a business venture and when he returns he brings with him a new wife. When her father dies Aisling - or Ash - is to live with her stepmother in their house in the city. But due to a cruel twist of fate, becomes their slave. Dreaming of a life she could never have, Ash wanders through the woods at night in search of something she has no clue of. When she meets the fairy Sidhean, she believes she's found her salvation. But then she meets the King's Huntress, Kaisa, and starts to wonder if she truly wants to disappear from her world anymore. It's so rare that a book truly captures me like Ash did. I found this book to be intriguing from just the tag-line, "a lesbian re-telling of Cinderella." I had thought it would be worth a read, a good time-passer. But what I found in this novel was so much more than that. It's a beautiful tale of a girl who has been stripped of everything she has and how she must collect the broken pieces and put them together to form some semblance of happiness and home. Calling this story a "lesbian re-telling" is a bit harsh as well, now that I've read it. This book is a beautiful love story between two people who just happen to be women. In their world it's not too uncommon. There's never a moment where it's brought into question the idea of one's sexuality. Love is love, and in Malinda Lo's story it is very much a fact more than it is a statement, and I applaud her on this, as I do for many aspects of the book. I'd name them all, but it'd be too hard to name them all in just one paragraph. Masterfully written, poetic in its narrative, and the characters developed so well I felt like I was standing directly in front of them, Ash by Malinda Lo is an absolutely marvelous read which has instantly become one of my favorite books of all time. You'd be doing yourself a disservice to not pick it up.

Bestill my bookish heart Malinda Lo! While Ash was not without a few minor challenges, it accomplished something I rarely encounter, and that was a queer protagonist portrayed in the most natural and beautiful manner. I am so thankful to have included this retelling among my current Pride Month reading (which has been fantastic and will be carrying over into July ❤ ). The skinny.. This is a Cinderella reimagining that begins like most with the death of the Ash’s father, leaving her to reside with a heartless stepmother. Her only means of escaping her unfortunate circumstances happen to be found within the fairy tales passed on by her mother. But when Ash finds herself in the company of a real fairy, Sidhean, it seems she may have found an answer to her problems as he claims her for his own. However, an encounter and unlikely relationship with the King’s Huntress Kaisa soon stirs a desire for love and life within Ash that she thought all but gone. Now she will have to choose between the dreams that she has always escaped to and possibly true love. “For in the depths of grief, sometimes one cannot tell the difference between illusion and reality.” What I appreciate.. (aka reasons to fall in love with Ash) As I mentioned above, perhaps the most shining aspect of Ash is that it beautifully explores and captures a queer protagonist in the most natural, subtle way. Ash’s sexuality is not described or thrown to the forefront of the story, it just simply is. And that is why it works incredibly well. The prose is simplistic at times yet fluid, guiding the reader on a seamless journey that unfolds with great ease. While at times feeling almost one dimensional, the characters were still highly successful in achieving their roles. I mourned for Ash with her losses and her anger was viable. The wicked stepmother was just that, and the heavier fae elements melded wonderfully into the Cinderella theme. Malinda Lo has successfully incorporated the themes of loss and grief that have always been a part of this timeless tale but often lost in the romance and magic of it all. I admired the more realistic and raw approach that held true to these aspects of the story. One of the more gratifying conclusions I have encountered in some time! “To charge someone with love is a great responsibility; there will be an equal yet unexpected reaction.” Challenges some may encounter.. Ash will feel very familiar when held in comparison to the tale of Cinderella at times. Many of the original, key elements have been left in place. The pacing slows during brief periods due to decreased dialog and some may struggle with the lack of depth in many characters. There are heavy themes of loss and grief throughout. In the end, Ash won me over and easily made its way into my favorite Cinderella retellings. With a protagonist that fell elegantly into the underlying themes, I found myself enchanted. Malinda Lo has a way of weaving a subtle magic throughout the pages the slowly unfolds before you even realize it is happening. ☕Savor over a nice cup of your favorite hibiscus or herbal brew.☕

What a gorgeous book. ASH has been sitting on my list of "books I really want to read" for a while now, but I had never gotten around to purchasing it. I was pleasantly surprised then when it popped up as an option for a class assignment. And am I ever glad this is one that I went with. I'd heard good things about Malinda Lo's work and I was not disappointed. ASH is beautifully written and flows wonderfully the entire time. It holds on to that magical quality that a fairy tale needs, but comes away a bit more that. Simple, yes. This story is not one with deep characters or multiple intriguing plot twists. But it holds true to the feel of the tale it pulls from, and I think that's more important. It is a retelling, after all. The story of Ash, Sidhean, and Kaisa was one I wasn't prepared to love as much as I did. But by the end of the book, I felt like I had walked away truly gaining something from this story because of how their own connected. Again, they may not be complicated characters, but they are good ones. The rating system may not be perfect, but I do truly believe this book deserves five stars for its prose and the way it approaches not only the story, but its messages as well. I'm so glad I read this sooner rather than letting it sit on my list for ages, I just wish that I had gotten to it even sooner.

Here's the deal: I work in a bookstore. As a twenty-something (gay) woman, I more often than not inwardly cringe at the girls who ask me to point them towards new books, and specify that they like things like Twilight. Lo's debut novel, Ash, isn't Twlight. It's the anti-Twilight. And that's exactly why it's so good. Even though it's a retelling of Cinderella, Ash is more a coming-of-age story than a sappy romance. Torn between the memories of her dead parents and the reality of her cruel stepmother, Aisling finds her escape in the woods she loves and the dangerous fairies that live there. Until she meets Kaisa, the King's huntress, Ash lives as an abused servant by day and a bewitched victim of fairy magic by night. Now, if this was Twilight, Aisling would fall hopelessly in love with some abusive, mystical stalker who she is "inexplicably drawn to" (I swear, that's the exact wording they use for 90% publisher copies of the YA fantasy-romance dreck pumped out today like candy). But this atmospheric and eerie plot leads to a surprising conclusion -- much different than the classic Cinderella -- but ultimately much more convincing! The romance in Ash is less purple prose or a storm of clichés and more poignant and touching -- based on friendship, respect and freedom, not an unhealthy attraction to danger. I couldn't put this one down, and I'm glad I didn't: the ending is utterly satisfying and sweet (spoiler: oh, and gay). As for me, I really enjoy pointing Twilight-addled preteens towards such subversive literature. There's something deliciously ironic with the fact that a healthy, lesbian relationship in teen literature is more controversial than the dozens of abusive, incomprehensible, poorly written "novels" for teens pumped out each day. Parents: skip Twilight and buy Ash. Unless you'd rather your girls identify with useless empty female protagonists who flirt with death rather than proactive, but gay, female protagonists who find nothing sexy about killing yourself for the sake of boys who equate violence with love.

It's a cinderella-story, but not a very common one. A girl named Ash (= Cinderella) looses her parents one after another and is from the beginning until the end confronted with a long fought conflict: the fight between tales and religious faith. Her mother and father, her two maybe-lovers are all combined in this fight and until the end no one seems to win. Both sides got something important or convenient for Ash and she just knows how to use them, without exploiting them. There are many interesting tales told during the big plot, i truly enjoyed them. It's all a very creative mix of fantasies and tales and they do not disturb the whole, bigger plot of the story. In the end, she chooses one (i won't tell which) but - from the readers perspective - it's not a bad one, because somehow she managed to leave everyone pleased. And it has a very interesting rule of thumb in the end: (SPOILER!!!) the prince is a good, but not always the right choice.

Ce conte de Malinda Lo est un vrai coup de coeur. C'est beau, frais, poétique, enchanteur et surtout joliment écrit. C'est une nouvelle façon de (re)voir le conte de Cendrillon sans le côté mièvre à la disneyenne. On sort carrément du stéréotype manichéen de la gentille fille qui veut fuir sa méchante belle-mère pour aller se marier avec le beau Prince Charmant. Ici, le personnage principale, Ash (Cendre en français), est touchante sans inspirer la pitié, elle apprend de son environnement, elle choisit et elle agit plutôt que de subir. Elle va s'apercevoir qu'être belle et bien habillée ne suffit pas pour être aimée, qu'il est possible d'aimer de plusieurs façons différentes, que de suivre les autres n'est pas le meilleur choix, etc. Bref, on a enfin un conte pour ado (et adulte) où le personnage féminin, même si douce et touchante, a une vraie personnalité. Dommage qu'il ne soit pas encore traduit en plusieurs langues, il mérite vraiment d'être connu !

Loved how the story unfolded! And the Lesbian plot well done

Slow burning love. Perfect re told story. I'm not much of a reader. Been wanted to read a lesbian novel for ages just didn't look into it as much..till recently. I came across this book so many times. I loved this and will continue to find more lesbian love stories ❤ I'm glad I picked this book to get me started ☺

[SPOILERS] I finished Ash a few days ago and it has become my new favourite book. Before I read this, I didn’t even know what to say when someone asked me what my favourite book was - but now I do! Ash has everything i could ever want from a story. From the beautiful, magical world it’s set in where greenwitches are dying out and fairies lurk in the shadows, to the same-sex relationship at the very forefront of the book. I’m still thoroughly enchanted by this incredible novel. From the very beginning, this book is captivating. As someone who very recently lost their mum, I’m so happy to be able to identify with Ash, who we see at her mum’s funeral at the very start of the book. This loss is something that echoes throughout the pages, which I was very happy about. I’ve found that loss can often be portrayed wrongly in fiction, like something you can easily forget about or move on from. But Ash goes from wanting to find a way to bring her mum back from the dead, to craving the sound of her voice, to just missing her dearly and wishing she was by her side. I commend Malinda Lo for this brilliant portrayal. I felt for Ash so much, and hope I would do so even without going through my own trauma. Then there’s the love within the story. I’m not sure whether to label Ash as lesbian or bisexual, but she seems very interested in a male faerie, at first. Of course, he is a faerie, and there is a whole bunch of agenda and backstory underneath the mere enjoyment of his company. I was never sure whether to think he was evil or not, but he was interesting. Then, we meet the huntress. I love the way Malinda Lo built their story, with little meetings that unveiled a little bit more each time about both characters. It is tender and captivating. In a lot of novels I find I don’t believe the love story, or maybe even that I don’t care about it, but this one was careful and magical. With Ash acting as a servant to her step mother, she can rarely leave the house, and ends up making deals with the faerie who tells her that she belongs to him. You’re never quite sure where she will end up, but I was thrilled when she finally ended up in the huntresses arms. And none of it seems too dramatic, or overly sexual. It’s just a brilliant story. Lastly, there’s the magic in the book. I’ve already mentioned the faerie, but Ash and other characters are constantly telling tales of faeries and people who get taken away from them. We understand that most people don’t believe in them in the story world, now, but Ash does, and wants after their magic to help in her life. There are also witches, which Lo calls “greenwitches”, who do certain ceremonies and healing rituals. I liked this too, and felt I could really see the herbs and such that the witches would use. It seems Ash’s mum was also a witch. And all this magic ties together perfectly, enough to keep Ash from the completely non-magic reality around her. I just really, really liked this book. It’s been a long time since something has held me that captive and got me that into a story. If you’ve found yourself becoming bored of stories with predominantly straight characters, or where the love just seems completely unrealistic, you must read Ash. <3