Review: Ash by Malinda Lo

This is a Cinderella retelling with an LGBT+ twist. We follow Aisling, or Ash for short, who loses her mother at a young age. When her father remarries she gains a stepmother and two stepsisters. So far so good. But here is where the story begins to veer away from the classic fairytale. In this world fairies exist. Not the kind fairy godmother kind, but the cruel hearted Fey kind. Ash seems to have some sort of connection with them, or at least with one of them in particular. She longs to belong in their world, but when she meets the King’s huntress, Kaisa, she changes her mind about leaving the human world behind. 


I was really interested in this story because I enjoy retellings and because of the LGBT+ aspect. But I have to say I was pretty disappointed. The romance doesn’t really come into play until almost halfway through the book, and then it plays out pretty quickly and almost as a side plot to the fairy world. But then the fairy plot didn’t really feel that fleshed out either. As I said Ash seems to have a connection with the fairies, but it isn’t really explained until very late, and then that part of the plot also plays out pretty fast. The whole story was basically very unfulfilling and very boring. By far most of the book was Ash pining for one thing or another and that got old real fast. 


I just feel like this book could have been so good, but in the end it really failed and it didn’t give me anything at all to cling onto to. It was just boring and insubstantial. I gave this 2 stars out of 5. 

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