Huntress By: Malinda Lo

Title: Huntress
Author: Malinda Lo
HARDBACK
Amount of Pages: 371
Release Date: April 5, 2011
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Geared Towards: Teens
From: Publisher (Review)
Extra Info: HUNTRESS is the "prequal" to ASH. It is part of the same land, just many centuries before.

"There was an emptiness inside of her, but she did not think it was due to hunger" (P. 99).

Summary (From Front Flap): Nature is out of balance in the human kingdom. The sun hasn't shone in years, and crops are failing. Worse yet, strange and hostile creatures have begun to appear. The people's survival hangs in the balance.

To solve the crisis, the oracle stones are cast, and Kaede and Taisin, two seventeen-year-old girls, are picked to go forward on a dangerous and unheard-of journey to Tanlili, the city of the Fairy Queen. Taisin is a sage, thrumming with magic, and Kaede is of the earth, without a speak of the otherworldly. And yet the two girls' destinies are drawn together during the mission. As members of their party succumb to unearthly attacks and fairy tricks, the two come to rely on each other and even begin to fall in love. But the Kingdom needs only one Huntress to save it, and what it takes could tear Kaede and Taisin apart forever.

Wdebo's Review: As a giant fan of ASH, I was very excited to begin and read HUNTRESS. When I first started I found it hard for me to get into the story, but after a bit the writing came to become addicting until the very last sentence.

Personally, I always find stories about different lands difficult to take in, read and understand from the very beginning. It always takes me a while to get into stories like this, so when I first started HUNTRESS, I had trouble getting interested, which was disappointing for me, a girl who loved ASH so much. Though once I hit a point towards the middle of the story, I was instantly addicted and could not put down.

The story is written in an omniscient third-person point of view, and it switches between characters throughout the chapter. At first, that caught me off gaurd, I got confused in the beginning, but after a while I got used to the writing and became more comfortable with it and enjoyed it a lot more, it is always nice to see what different characters are thinking about during the same moment.

The most solid element of the novel is the love between Kaede and Taisin, the timidiness between the two in the beginning that grows into a beautiful romance, was a wonderful progression to witness in the story itself. Both girls, though from different walks of life are brought together through love. It was not too overcliche and had a realness to it that made it so great. The chemistry and romance between the other characters was also great too, mostly the one between Con and Shae.

Cafe Cover Chat: I love any cover with an Asian person on the cover, so I love this cover and it looks so pretty and cool. (A-)

All in all, though the story itself had a magical fairy-tale aspect to it that made it enjoyable, the best ingredient to this novel was the romance between the two main characters.

Grade: B-

Wdebo :)