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Ash by Malinda Lo, a Book Review

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Ash by Malinda Lo

Filled with grief from her dad’s death, Ash dreams of being taken away by fairies, so when she encounters a dark and dangerous fairy it seems like her dreams are about to come true. Until she meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, who very quickly begins to change her heart.

❤️‍🩹 Trauma and Healing 💫 Atmospheric 🌱 Character Growth 😭 Emotional

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Book Review

Dark, haunting, atmospheric, and full of yearning

Ash is a dark retelling of Cinderella. It’s about a young girl named Ash who loses her mother at a young age, and of course loses her father after he marries a horrible step mother. The wonderful difference in this story is that the romance is not with Ash and the Prince of the kingdom, but with the beautiful (and badass) Kaisa, the King’s Huntress.

Another wonderful difference that I really appreciated was that in this retelling of Cinderella, that fairy godmother is not what you think. Disney seems to have made us think that the Fae are cheery magic filled creatures, just wanting to grant wishes and be your companion. Where it’s much more cannon for fairies to be more like Maleficent than Tinkerbell. So the fairy godmother in this story is darker, and it is a wonderful change! It makes way more sense that the Fae Sidhean would request something in return for wishes granted, considering the Fae are much more notable for making deals.

Above all, Ash was a nice story of grief and longing, and how we learn to love and live once again.

Now despite all of those good things that I appreciated about Ash, it wasn’t my favorite book. It was pretty good, don’t get me wrong! But there were some moments that just, kind of, bored me. The writing was a little slow, there wasn’t a ton of action, and it followed Cinderella a bit too closely, especially considering there was a different love interest. I was also confused a little bit throughout whether she was actually falling in love with her dark fairy. It wasn’t incredibly clear the difference between the love that she had for the Fae (which represented something more akin to escaping, giving up, running away, and grief) and Kaisa (who represented love and life).

Ash was a fun retelling that added some elements to the classic story of Cinderella that I just adored.
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Malinda Lo

Malinda Lo is the critically acclaimed author of several young adult novels, including Last Night at the Telegraph Club (Jan. 19, 2021). Her novel A Line in the Dark was a Kirkus Best YA Book of 2017 and one of Vulture’s 10 Best YA Books of 2017. Her novel Ash, a lesbian retelling of Cinderella, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award for YA Science Fiction and Fantasy, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and was a Kirkus Best Book for Children and Teens. She has been a three-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.

Decolonize Your Bookshelf With Me

Hi! I’m Amanda. Bookish Brews started as a personal project to decolonize my bookshelf turned into a passion for diverse stories. Once I realized how much we can grow personally from stories by people with different experiences than our own, I realized how much they impact our world. But I also know that growth from stories does not happen without intentionality. Bookish Brews is dedicated to building meaningful conversations about how stories by diverse voices can change our lives, our culture, and our world.

"Let's change the system via the lens of compelling fiction."

—Justina Ireland, author of Dread Nation
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Amanda (she/her) is a mixed Vietnamese American writer who firmly believes that stories can change the world and that protest happens in small everyday disruptions consistently over time. She's based on unceded Tongva land and spends her free time working to dismantle the hierarchies placed on literature at Bookish Brews.

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