Snippet: Ash, by Malinda Lo

 

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, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.
The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Their friendship, as delicate as a new bloom, 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.

This isn't the fairy tale you think it is. Malinda Lo's Ash is a lovely retelling of Cinderella that veers half-way through towards a different, exciting direction. But it's also a story about grief, and the romantic relationship is put a bit on the background. The book's pacing is quite slow, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. I have a big soft spot for this book, one of the first explicitly queer books I've ever read.

✨ 4 stars