Review of Ash

My review of Ash by Malinda Lo is based on a paperback copy of the book that I purchased for myself. The following review is my honest opinion of the work.

Goodreads Summary: "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, re-reading 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 begins to believe that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King's royal 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 and romantic, Ash is an empowering retelling of Cinderella about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief."

I was craving science fiction. I went to my TBR bookshelf to pick up a science fiction novel. Next thing I know I'm curled up on the couch in the game room, completely neglecting my pretty pink xbox 360 controller with which I was going to play Mass Effect, in order to devour Ash. If this doesn't prove my love of all that is fey I don't know what will. That and the fact that I'm pretty sure the fey themselves were compelling me to read this novel.

I cannot stress enough how beautifully this novel was written. I was dreamily sighing over certain passages. My younger self would have had a pretend wedding with this book. [The older me is looking into the legality of a real wedding of course.] Ash is a retelling of the classic fairy tale, Cinderella but it's beauty lies in the fact that it is not only a retelling of a fairy tale but a fairy tale itself! Okay. I know that makes no sense. Let me try again. Ash holds the beauty of a classic fairy tale. The wording, the characters, the plot, everything is pure fairy tale. It's beautiful. It's charming. It's just so...I have no words.

Ash is a dreamer. I love this about her. In fact, I think being one is simply an Ash trait. [As an Ash I feel eligible to deem traits to be Ashlike.] I could see a younger me in her so easily. I love that bond that she held with her mother, I hold a similar one. There were so many similarities between me and Ash that I couldn't help but wonder if Malinda Lo had written a book about me! You know, one of those books you could send away for your child where their name is inserted as the main character? This was that book for me. I lost myself so easily in it. I loved Ash. She wasn't perfect as the best characters never are. She was...not real, there was mysticism about her as in any fairy tale but I felt I could relate to her.

This was a beautiful novel that I'm sure will become a classic in it's own right and not merely beloved as a retelling of a classic fairy tale. I'm giving Ash by Malinda Lo a five out five stars review. This was a heartwrenchingly beautiful novel. I recommend it to all lovers of the fey and to those that still want to believe in those fairy tales of youth.