Check out my free ecourse Ignite Your Passion for Reading: Fall in Love With Books!
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Better Than Dreams

  • About Me
  • Archives
  • Courses
  • Newsletter
  • YouTube
  • Unlucky in Lockdown
  • Christmas Book Finder
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • Vimeo
    • YouTube

Book Review: Ash, by Malinda Lo

21st November 2012 By Julianne 3 Comments

Photo by Moyan Brenn

When Ash’s mother dies, her father remarries, but he doesn’t live much longer himself. Ash finds herself at the mercy of her ruthless stepmother Lady Isobel and stepsisters Ana and Clara. She is forced to move away from her childhood home and work as a servant, and she copes by developing an obsession with her book of fairytales.

Ash thinks the fairy she meets in the Wood holds the key to her escape, though it may mean death and leaving everything she knows behind. But when she meets the King’s Huntress, she starts to change her mind…

This is a book which is all about beautiful imagery and evocative language. The atmosphere is as important as the plot, which is pretty straightforward. The characterisation falls by the wayside a little – although Ash, Lady Isabel, Ana, Clara, and Sidhean were all very clear for me, I thought that Ash’s mother and Kaisa were a bit too quickly drawn. There isn’t much worldbuilding either, but traditional fairy tales don’t really have worldbuilding, so I didn’t mind. We learn enough to make the story work.

I loved the idea of the Royal Hunt led by the King’s Huntress. It was a great way to work a female character with power and royal connections into the story, and the rituals involved in the hunt evoked history and tradition. I also really enjoyed the sections set at Lady Isobel’s sister’s house, where Ash is easily accepted by the other staff and joins them at the Yule bonfire. These busy scenes made a excellent contrast with Ash’s many walks alone in the Wood.

If you need all your fiction to be snappy and plot-driven and don’t want to spend time going on the occasional tangent and following dream sequences, Ash is probably not for you.But if you like books that are a little ethereal, give it a go.

If you are a fan of fairy tale retellings, I would consider Ash to be a must-read. I loved seeing how Malinda Lo twists and rearranges all the typical fairy tale elements. The fairy godmother becomes a slightly menacing fairy man and the three balls take place weeks apart. She also makes the traditional – and new – villains of the story seem at least partly sympathetic, which was interesting, and realistic.

I’m looking forward to reading Huntress, which is a loosely-connected prequel, and learning more about the traditions of the Royal Hunt, and meeting more of Malinda Lo’s characters.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: book review, books, fairy tale, fantasy, LGBT, LGBTQ, love story, Malinda Lo, review, romance, teen fiction, teenage fiction, YA, young adult

Check out my free ecourse, Ignite Your Passion for Reading: Fall in Love With Books!
Previous Post: « Top Ten Books/Authors I’m Thankful For
Next Post: BlogINK Competition Entry: On Not Reading Before Bed: A Manifesto »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sophie

    15th April 2013 at 6:16 pm

    This sounds really interesting, definitely thinking of giving it a read!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. What Makes A Book YA? Plus Bookish Brits Vlog 16: Teenage Characters Outside YA says:
    27th January 2017 at 1:11 pm

    […] language and evoke a dreamlike atmosphere but it’s not very common – an example is Ash, by Malinda Lo. I loved Ash but a lot of other readers disliked it, and I think this is because when someone picks […]

    Reply
  2. Monday Amusements 10 says:
    27th January 2017 at 2:14 pm

    […] Lo, who wrote the wonderful fairy tale retelling Ash, posted this thoughtful and inspiring piece about Sex and YA Fiction. It’s full of Very Good […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Hi! I'm Julianne and this is my book blog. Click my picture to read more about me.

Explore By Category

Explore By Date

Search

Footer

Privacy Notice
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2023 Better Than Dreams on the Foodie Pro Theme