Satan Reviews- Books: Ash

Ash

Malinda Lo

Hodder Children's

Spoilers, complaining, me being out of the habit or writing reviews


I finished this book in the beginning of May and I'm now only writing the review in the beginning of July because I'm that organised. It's possible I'll forget things/ muddle up details so this will be fun.

Purely on enjoyment levels, did I like this book? Yes. As I once said in my bi-weekly writing group; shit was gay, as it should be. Could have been gayer though. Just a thought.

The world building was pretty good. I understood the world the book took place in quite well and I could picture what was happening quite well. However, that's the main quality of this book. The book is largely world building and I felt that it allowed other aspects of the book to be lacking. The world the novel took place in also felt kinda generic. The overused historical, European inspired location used in a lot of fantasy books. Basically the general setting you'd imagine for Cinderella but with more lesbians fairies.

The plot kinda feels non-existent. There's the Cinderella aspects of dead parents and shitty step family who hate her for no real reason, there's the prince looking for a bride bit (but it's still a prince so it's not even relevant to Ash), and there's the fairy thing. But they're all kinda separate chunks that don't mesh. The fact that Ash danced with the prince suggested the setup of a plotline about her having to get out of the marriage, or the possibility to even make the prince a princess to up the gay antics, but nope. Lo could have even done a Cinderella III: A Twist in Time where the stepmother is the main villain and uses magic to do evil shit and all that jazz.

I did enjoy the romantic subplot of the novel between Ash and Kaisa. It was kinda cute and at the beginning had a nice pace... that suggested a longer book. I got to halfway through the book and I felt like something big was going to happen because their relationship was still simmering and didn't feel like it was close to a romantic climax of any kind. I wasn't dying from anticipation and all that. The kiss could have happened earlier because as it's probably one of the main draws for the book and it really didn't matter.

I don't understand the jeopardy of the novel. I get that Ash was getting herself more and more indebted to Sidhean to be able to live her extra life, but I don't understand what the actual cost was. She spent a night with the fairies but it's just very yeah, and? The book ends almost straight after that in which she gets her happy ever after, so I don't see what the problem was. For this to actually be important the book either needed to be longer or there should have been a sequel where the consequences could have been illustrated. Losing time, loss of feelings, change in personality? Coolio, could add tension/ angst/ plot. But nope. I don't even know what the whole point of the fairies plot was. I know Sidhean= Fairy Godmother that Ash lowkey sounded like she wanted to bang. That also banged her mum... probably. It was heavily hinted.

Ash let go of the fact her dad died suddenly and apparently with massive debts that were out of character for him. Why not have the plot be about Ash proving her stepmother killed her dad/ getting revenge with the help of the fairies that cared for her mother, while falling in love with Kaisa. The more helps she gets, the more indebted she becomes to them. Same aspects, just explored more. And Kaisa could be the princess, but in disguise or something to keep the Cinderella theme going. Because the Huntress thing was cool but felt a little out of place and just added more to be explained and wasn't fully explored.

Overall, I enjoyed the ideas behind this book, but the plot needs revamping and I want to be punched in the face with lesbianism.

I gave this book two out of five stars.