I purchased Ash
Description: Ash is a story with much in common with Cinderella – a girl loses her parents and is turned into a servant by her stepmother and stepsisters – but this is not girl-meets-prince as much as it is girl-meets-huntress. (Young Adult)
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.
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About The Author:
Malinda Lo was born in China and moved to the United States as a child. She grew up in Colorado and has since lived in Boston, New York, London, Beijing, Los Angeles and San Francisco. She is the former managing editor of AfterEllen.com, the largest entertainment news website for lesbians and bisexual women. Malinda now lives in Northern California with her partner and their dog. Ash is her first novel. Visit her online at www.malindalo.com.
Taken from Lo’s Ash FAQ:
How do you pronounce the names in Ash?
Aisling = ASH-ling (emphasis on the syllable in all caps)
Sidhean = SHEEN
Kaisa = KY-sa (pronounce “Kai” like ki in kite)
Is Ash going to be made into a movie?
So far, movie rights have not been sold to anyone, so I doubt it. But you never know!
What was your inspiration for writing Ash? Why did you decide to retell Cinderella?
These two questions are often asked separately, but to me they go hand in hand. I can’t answer one without answering the other.
The full answer actually begins back in my childhood, when I absolutely adored — full-on, unabashedly loved — the story of Cinderella. Yes, especially the Disney version. (Hey, I was 6!) The story is about having your dreams come true, and who doesn’t want that? I sure as hell did.
Then, fast-forward a few years to when I first read Beauty, a retelling of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley. This book hooked me on fairy tale retellings. I read and reread Beauty, and I read and reread every other book McKinley wrote, too.
In high school, I wrote three fantasy novels. (I was pretty geeky.) They were not very good, but the experience of writing them was undeniably wonderful. Then I left writing fiction behind for many years while I was in college and grad school. I lost the magic for a long time. When I decided to finally face my fears (I had lots of fears about becoming a professional writer, mostly centering on failure) and write another novel, I decided to write the book I had always wanted to read: a retelling of Cinderella.
Why a lesbian Cinderella? Was that your intention from the beginning?
Actually, no. The first draft of Ash was a straight, as in heterosexual, retelling of the fairy tale. Then I sent that draft to a friend of mine for some feedback, and she told me she thought the Prince Charming character was kind of dull, but this other woman in the book was quite intriguing. I reread the draft and realized that Ash was falling in love with this other woman. I had written that in entirely subconsciously.
I figured I could either attempt to make Prince Charming more charming, or I could rewrite the whole thing and have Ash fall in love with this female character. It would become a lesbian Cinderella. The idea of doing this totally freaked me out at first, because I thought it would make the book unsellable.
But it was so clear, after further consideration, that this was the story that was actually coming out (in all senses of the phrase), that I decided to go for it.
Are you worried about possible backlash for Ash because of the lesbian story line? (Parents not allowing their kids to read it, book challenges, etc.)
I am sure that some parents will not want their teens to read Ash because of the same-sex romance. But I don’t think it does me any good to worry about it.
Were the characters inspired by real people in your life? Do you see yourself in any character in particular?
I think most people who ask these questions are curious about whether a novel is fictionalized autobiography. In other words, did you experience these things and then write about them in your book? The thing is, it’s not a one-to-one relationship — especially in fantasy.
For example, taking the case of Ash, I did not lose my parents as a child. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t experienced grief or depression. I haven’t met a creepy but seductive fairy during my walks in the woods, but I have been in relationships that felt both creepy and seductive. I have never been to any royal balls, but I’ve been to a lot of fabulous parties.
So, were the characters inspired by real people? Of course — but again, it’s not a one-to-one relationship. If you’re curious about whether I will name the individual sources of my inspiration, the answer is no. If you’re curious about whether I see myself in any of the characters, the answer is yes. I see myself in all of them.
Will there be a sequel to Ash?
The short answer is: No. I have never planned to write a sequel to Ash.
The requests for a sequel are very flattering, because it shows that some of you, at least, liked Ash enough to want to spend more time in that world with those characters. Thank you! But I feel that Ash’s story is complete, and I won’t be writing a sequel. (Also, I’m pretty sure Ash has a fairly boring — though very happy — life after the end of the book. There really wouldn’t be much to write about!)
Ash
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