ashTitle: Ash
Author: Malinda Lo
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers - ARC

Summary:
As daughter to loving parents Ash grew up living and breathing the local lore of faeries and witches her mother shared with her as a child.  Strongly believing in their existence her mother often fought with her father about how acceptable it was to share that part of life with their daughter.  Eventually winning out, Ash’s father taught her that the forest surrounding their home was a place of certain danger and ultimately kept her away from any and all people or locations that appeared remotely mystical in origin.

As is the case with all things forbidden Ash felt strangely compelled to make a connection to this mystical life she’d never experienced.   Taking away as much knowledge as she could before her mother’s death Ash tucked it away for future use and clung to her father’s love as a replacement for the loss to their family.  Continuing on she cautiously mingled with the other world through the local greenwitch and skirting the faerie filled Wood forbidden to her.  That is until her father arrived home from a trip away with a new step mother and step sisters for her.  It was then that her life changed in a myriad of ways.

Her father too is suddenly dead and Ash is left to her step-mother’s devices.  Finding herself in a dramatically different  life than before she muddles through years of longing for something more.  Finally, she starts taking risks and steps outside her step-mother’s boundaries and into the fabled Wood she’d heard of in faerie tales.  Immersing herself in old books of her mother’s that told such stories she becomes bolder in her attempts to connect with the otherworld. Fearful at first she quickly overcomes that initial trepidation and finally crosses fully into the Wood.

Deep in the Wood, a place that had formerly been forbidden to her, she is found by Sidhean a magical faerie who quickly falls in love with her.  Feeling something herself Ash wonders if running away to live with the faeries is the answer to all her woes.  Problem was that the Wood also gave her the King’s huntress Kaisa a beautiful woman she admires and grows to have feelings for as well.  Conflicted Ash wonders if it would be better to choose Sidhean and go to the land of faeries never to return to the oppressive life her step mother built for her.  Or she could chose to pursue some sort of life with Kaisa a forbidden love in it’s own right.

Opinion:
Lo has created an interesting premise in this reworking of Cinderella’s story.  There is absolutely no question of that. The problem is that there was too much going on.  Was it a faerie story or was it a story about a girl awakening to the fact that she could be in love with another woman? The broad overview of both stories left me feeling as though Ash was disconnected from both potential romances; there wasn’t any passion in either.  Given that, I didn’t feel the conflict Ash was supposed to be experiencing as she worked to decide which life and which partner to choose.

The latter made me wish we’d had a story without that conflict at all; that it was either Ash in the faerie tale or Ash awakening to her lesbianism all the way through. I understood completely the reason for having both in the story but for me that conflict muddled the eventual love story.  Particularly since we also dealt with the overpowering step-mother, the annoying plotting step sister, and bits and pieces of the prince choosing his bride from all eligible ladies of the land.  As I said, lots going on.

The faerie story aspect was intriguing and beautifully written.  Of the whole story it was that area that drew me in as a reader the most.  I wanted to know more about it and see more of it.  I wanted Ash to tell us more of the history and interact with its inhabitants much more than she did.  The sections where Ash was in the Wood and in that faerie land were so vivid I was excited to experience them.

In the end this book may not have been for me but it was none the less a book that I would encourage anyone interested in experiencing a retelling of Cinderella’s story to pick up.