Ash By: Malinda Lo

Title: Ash
Author: Malinda Lo
HARDBACK
Amount of Pages: 272
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Release Date: September 1, 2009
Geared Towards: Older Teens/Fairy Tale Readers
Extra Info: This book is Malinda's debut novel.

"As the room came into light, it was as if their world had shifted: three place settings, three chairs, three plates. There had never really been a place for her, after all."

Summary (From Amazon): In the wake of her father's death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash's capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.

Wdebo's Review: Ash was such an addicting read. It has this naive voice that is found in most fairy tales, but this dark lyrical writing found in the Brother's Grimm. With this combination, this book became one of my favorite debut novels of 2009. And having it be about fairy tales, didn't hurt either.

The voice was just amazing, like I said above, it had this naive-ness about it. However, that aspect of the story also annoyed me, even though Ash was like 18 she still sounded like she was 12, it just seemed like the characters never aged. But through the naive-ness there was darkness that spun the words together.

In the novel, all the references to fairies just made me feel like I was reading Tithe again, but there is just something wonderful about fairy books. I also love all of the fairy tales in the story, they were short, cautionary tales but they just leave this frightening, exciting feeling in your body like after reading a Brother's Grimm story.

I found the character, Sidhean, the fairy that Ash meets, my favorite to read about. He was dark and dangerous, and the whole, you belong to me, is creepy but still quite sexy.

The cover is just wonderfuly awesome, when I first saw it on the computer though, since the screen was so small, I thought it was a crumpled piece of paper, but when I got the actual cover I was like Holy Crap it's a girl. I don't like the grass, it's very synthetic, I think a plain back background would have looked a lot better. (A-)

All in all, an amazing, must-read book, that shows us that you are never too old to read fairy tales. And Malinda Lo is defidently an author I am dying to read more from.

Grade: A

Wdebo :)

**************

Other Books You May Enjoy:

Tithe [Read Review HERE]
Wonderous Strange [Read Review HERE]