Review: Ash - Malina Lo

Where I got it: Library
Rating: 3 stars  

Cover Rating: 5 stars (I really like this cover. It's simple at first but it's just a great image.)
Genre: Young Adult

Publication Date: September 1, 2009

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Page Count: 272 p.

Buy it: Book Depository / Amazon
Add it: Goodreads

If you think you know the story of Cinderella...think again.
Ash is a young girl left when her mother and father die to live with her new stepmother and stepsisters. The stepmother is cruel and Ash is treated as little more than a servant. But the woods call to her and the fairies within wouldn't mind if she joined them. Also in the woods Ash finds the King's Huntress and is instantly drawn to her. There are so many choices that Ash can make, so many different paths her life can take beyond that of servitude. She has to know what she wants though and it has to be something she can actually have. She can't have her mother back, but maybe she can find someone else to care about her.

Chapter Beginnings

First, I just want to mention how beautiful the chapter beginnings are. They fit the fairy tale quite nicely. Now onto the story. I could not get into the first half of the story. I didn't hate it, but it was slow goings. It just seemed like a lot of set up, without a whole lot going on. Once I got to Part Two though, things starting getting much better. All the pieces started to fall together and things started happening with Ash.

Sidhean was an okay character, I wish we had seen him a bit more. He was one of the faeries that Ash meets in one of her excursions into the woods. He seems nice enough, for a faerie. Then you have the Huntress, who Ash also meets in the wood. She was a bit tough to read at times. She could be tender one moment and then all business the next. It was tricky to read her. All the characters seemed a little bland, none were too throughly developed. I would have liked to see the extra characters shine a bit more. If the stepmother and stepsisters fade into the background, that's okay they are part of the original fairy tale. What I want is more from the new characters, the people I don't know much about.

The story itself was pretty good though. I liked the love triangle aspect, it was a bit unexpected the way it was. I love re-tellings and Malinda Lo certainly did revamp this one into her own tale. Ash was a good read, I just wished the new characters got more face time in the story so I could get to know them better.

First Line:
"Aisling's mother died at midsummer. "

Favorite Line:
"Ash could hear her breath in the dark: quick, frightened, like a rabbit fleeing from hunting hounds."