Lo, Malinda: Ash
Ash (2009)
Written by: Malinda Lo
Genre: YA/Fairy Tale/Fantasy
Pages: 264 (Hardcover)
As I mentioned before, I learned about this book via John Scalzi's The Big Idea column at his site Whatever. The premise grabbed my attention right away, and you know I can't resist a pretty cover. My image here doesn't do it much justice, so if you want a larger one, just click in the "Big Idea" link.
At any rate, when I saw it at the store, I had to have it. And when I sat down to read it, I absolutely HAD to finish it that day. So I did.
The premise: in unfairly simple terms, Ash is a lesbian re-telling of Cinderella. But that's an unfairly simply description. Sure, you've got the Cinderella myth, but rather than falling for the typical Prince Charming, Ash finds herself attracted to the King's Huntress, and she'd do anything to stay with her. Even if it means bargaining with the fairy, a risk that could very well make her lose everything.
Review style: it's kind of a hard book to spoil, isn't it? I mean, anyone who knows the general Cinderella tale knows where the book is going, but the trick is, because it's a re-telling, you're on ground that's familiar but not, and you tend to forget it's a re-telling you're reading. At any rate, there's spoilers, but nothing that doesn't correlate to the actual fairy tale.
I don't know why, but I was surprised when the book opened with an emphasis on the fairy. Now, I'll admit, the only version of Cinderella I'm familiar with is the Disney one, but even then, you'd think that Fairy Godmother and the fairy would go hand-in-hand, yes? Not so in my brain. But despite my dislike of fairies, I liked their treatment here: for starters, Ash is set in a medieval land, and fairy tales and folklore are treated VERY realistically, especially in terms of how missionaries (termed philosophers here) came into the land and spread their faith and how that faith/belief-system overruled the native ones. But Ash, like her mother, still believes in the old ways, so when her mother dies, Ash is so consumed with grief that she wants to be like one of the people in the fairy tales: someone who wanders into the fairy realm and never comes back.
This is Ash's driving motivation for the first half of the book. It grows when her father remarries, when her father dies, and when she's reduced to nothing but a maid for her stepmother and stepsisters. Better than Ash's grief and desire for oblivion is how naturally all of the events happen. I dislike characters who are evil "just because," but Lo takes the time to explain the motivations that lead to Ash's downfall. Her father owed money and lots of it, and when he died, the debts passed to the stepmother, who made turned it on Ash. Ash has to work for them to make up for her father's debts because they can't afford anyone else. This motivation, the need for wealth, is also what drives the stepmother and stepsisters into a frenzy when the Prince announces he'll marry: they want that catch! Marrying wealthy means they won't have to worry ever again. Ash, on the other hand, could care less about the Prince.
Now, maybe this motivation is clear in the original telling of Cinderella. I don't know: I'm not familiar with it. But whether it is or not, I'm glad it's in THIS telling. There are very clear motivations for everyone's actions, and I'm glad of it.
Though, I will say I wish we'd gotten some detail as to why both Ash's mother AND father passed away. The mother, I worried, had somehow been poisoned by fairies (this isn't substantiated by the book, merely speculation since she was involved in the old ways) and I worried the father had been poisoned by the stepmother (again, speculation, because why would he suddenly fall sick? Certainly, the stepmother is responsible for not listening to the greenwitch and for using doctors, whose primary method of care was bleeding (think leeches!), but she showed real grief at his passing). I just wanted explanations, even though I really don't think explanations were the point.
Also interesting was Ash's interaction with the fairy, particularly the stand-in for the fairy godmother, who--in this telling--is a male named Sidhean (I'm told I've got the pronunciation wrong, but I read the name as Sid-HE-an and I like it that way). He's been cursed by a human to truly fall in love so that he knows what others suffered that he spirited away to the fairy world in the past. The fairy world isn't what it used to be, nor is it completely the stuff of legends. That said, he's in love with Ash (it's a curse), and he's willing to grant her wishes, but the price is that she must be his.
She asks for two: the first is to be able to go on the Hunt with Kaisa, the huntress, without her stepfamily knowing. The second is to be able to go to the ball to see Kaisa. Interesting twist with the ball: she arrives in her all of her fairy-given glory, and of COURSE the Prince is enchanted and dances with her first, but because it's a masquerade, she doesn't know who he is until the dance is over, and once he removes the mask and offers to get them drinks, she runs. But she runs to Kaisa, who is the one she ends up running away from in the end. After all, midnight's coming and all that, and she gets caught by her family and they think she's been stealing from them.
I do like the simplicity of the romance here between Kaisa and Ash. I think it's obvious that they were drawn to each other, and I liked the scenes of them together. I will say that I think Lo could've done a better job showing the two of them in love, because when the topic of love finally came up, while it wasn't out of left-field, I found myself wishing we'd had more leading up to that admission. I've seen comments that point out that Ash could've easily been attracted to Kaisa for what she represented: freedom, independence, and wealth, and that's a fair criticism. Granted, if all Ash wanted was independence, freedom, and wealth, she would've played up the Prince's affections and we would've had our traditional fairy tale. So obviously, there's more to it, and Ash was always drawn to the Huntresses, so her falling for Kaisa isn't a surprise. I just wish it'd been developed a wee bit more. Yet, the ending we get with them is excellent. It's a simple and sweet fairy tale ending, and the relationship is consummated with a single kiss, which just fits the style of the story. But it's also the kind of simplicity that makes the cynical part of my brain go, "But what happens AFTER? Is the stepmother really going to let Ash go that easily? What about the debts of her father?" And so on and so forth. What, I'm evil like that!
Another relationship that I wish had been developed better was that between Ash and her stepsister Clara. Clara, being the youngest daughter, was constantly compared to her sister, and there were times when it seemed like she and Ash had bonded more than Ash had with anyone else in her step family. That said, I wish we'd seen more of it through-out the book, so that when Clara does chastise Ash for being too judgmental about her and her sister's desire to marry for wealth, it'd come across more as a sharp tone from a friend rather than the usual animosity from a stepsister.
Also something that was a little too easy was the way in which Ash convinced Sidhean to set her free. The logic was sound enough, but I'm not sure his curse would've allowed it. Yet, if that had been the case, we would've ended up with Kaisa rushing into the fairy to save her true love, like so many of those fairy tales we heard about. I like that Ash was a proactive character, that she made her own decisions, despite the consequences, and she found ways to control her life. Because let's face it: Disney's Cinderella is a rather passive creature: the point is that good will always triumph over evil--you just have to sit around and wait for it to happen. Not so with Ash, and I appreciated that, very much, about her character. There's a lot to admire in this particular heroine, and not just because she chooses a non-"traditional" path when it comes to love (kudos to Lo for making homosexuality NOT A BIG DEAL in her world. Making it a conflict would've bogged down the book in a bad way), but because she makes tough choices, even in grief, and learns from the consequences. Granted, she gets lucky enough to get out of the consequences, but if I were reading this from a mother's perspective, I wouldn't mind passing it along to my daughter (whereas I would with other YA heroines, namely a certain one named Bella *cough!*).
My Rating
Worth the Cash: note I'm giving this rating to a hardcover. I always feel that carries more weight than if the book were a paperback, for obvious reasons. At any rate, this is a very enjoyable read that I tore through in a day, but the prose isn't light so much as it reflects a certain fairy tale quality, perfect for a re-telling of the Cinderella story. Ash is a likable heroine you can empathize with, and even though she makes mistakes, the mistakes are her own and she works to fix things the best she can. The love story itself needed a little bit more development between the first meeting and the admission of love, but I did like the characters together, and I liked that Ash was attracted to a person instead of the wealth and power a partner could bring her, which signifies not only the difference between Kaisa the Huntress and Prince Charming, but also between Kaisa and Sidhean. One of the most important messages of the book: loves doesn't ask for anything in return, and love will love you for who you are, not who you aren't. What a simple lesson, and what an easy one to forget. Malinda Lo is definitely on my watch list, and I look forward to her next offering, whatever it may be and whenever it might arrive.
Cover Commentary: you can't tell by my little thumbnail, but in the black background, there's a kind of light feather effect that almost looks like grass, which makes sense. Ash spends plenty of time grieving, curled up either at her mother's grave. And even if she's not there, the posture speaks volumes about the character. The ballgown is a nice touch, and the title is well-placed. It's just a lovely little hardcover, and I'm glad I've got it. :)
Next up: Indigo Springs by A.M. Dellamonica