Ash by Malinda Lo

I’ve been looking forward to reading “Ash” for a long long time. Mostly, because it was recommended by Melissa Marr. Also, I love retellings of Cinderella and I love faeries, so this was an obvious choice for me. Ash was this month’s pick for the Rather’s Book Club, so a lot of what I’m going to say here I’ve already shared on the site.

At first, I had a very hard time getting hooked into the book. Ash felt distant and sad. She had the Tara Effect** and I felt pity, rather than a connection to her. Her life sucked. Yea… And? What was she doing about it? Very à lá Cinderella: nothing much, other than wait around to be rescued. In her case, she didn’t much care for Prince Charming. Rather (and perhaps even worse, IMO), she was waiting for Sidhean: an aloof, mysterious and quite possibly dangerous faery to come and take her away. This, despite all the warnings she had received her entire life regarding the untrustworthiness of faeries. Pathetic much? Yes.

However, “Ash” is no “Twilight”, and ultimately it is a story about overcoming difficulties, and about women power. At first, this is evident only in other characters. Women play a fundamental role in this world, having important jobs in society such as the greenwitch and the King’s Huntress. I really liked that their importance was seen as something natural (yes, the King’s main hunter is always a woman… and?), and not something extraordinary like in “Graceling” or other books about strong women. No one question’s these women’s roles—particularly because their character leaves no room for doubt. Even Ash’s stepsister, Ana, whose life’s sole objective is to find a good catch, shows strength: she isn’t shallow. She knows a good match is the only way she can help her family, and she is willing to fall in love with a man twice her age because it is her duty. Clara, Ash’s younger stepsister, is also a particularly interesting character: she is not cruel like Ana, but she shows intelligence and perception that makes me want to read a book from HER point of view- even if we don’t see much of her.

As I said, however, Ash starts off being quite disappointing as an MC. She waits for Sidhean- whom she, and the readers, pretty much know nothing about (Sidhean is surprisingly absent for a main character, and I would have loved to see more of him) to take her away not to happiness but to OBLIVION. What the fuck is that? However, things start getting interesting when Ash and the King’s Huntress, Kaisa, start falling in love. Kaisa is everything Ash isn’t: strong, opinionated, and active. It is Kaisa that teaches Ash that when the world is shit you have three options: 1) accept it as it comes 2) Wait for the faeries/death/superman to take you away miraculously and 3) DO something about it. Dude, why on earth are you waiting for prince charming? Why are you waiting for the world to suddenly realize it is being unfair, apologize, and change? It just isn’t going to happen. Your destiny is in your hands, and your hands only. It is only when Ash learns this that she becomes an interesting character. It is only when she starts taking risks, when she starts going for what she wants, that she shows strength. That is why the Foo Fighters song is so appropriate for this book: you can either be abused, or resist. If you are taking that first option, then fine, but shut up and stop complaining. If you decide to actively resist: kudos to you.

On a different note, I want to talk about the sexuality in the book. Basically, I’m going to repeat two things I said on the Rath:

1) I like how alternative sexualities are portrayed as natural in a middle grade book. Here you love whom you love and nobody raises an eyebrow at it. There is no coming out of the closet (as when homosexuality is mentioned in most YA – or even adult- books), no whisperings, no need to point out "THEY ARE GIRLS". I liked the naturality of it. I think that the less fuss we make about stuff like this, the faster we will get to acceptance in society.

2) On the other hand, there is a scene that deeply disturbed me: when Ash first meets Sidhean. She is 13, very immature and innocent, alone in the world, and when this strange man puts his hand to her face... Man, all I wanted to do was pull her away from the Dirty Old (Faery) Man. It is a very sexually charged scene. I thought I was being paranoid, but this is confirmed when Sidhean says he fell in love with her the first time he saw her. I know it's supposed to be romantic or something, but for me it was just WRONG. Of course, Ash’s adolescence passes in what is a blink of an eye for an immortal like Sidhean. Still, she is human, had a whole portion of her life to grow through before being legal, and it just gave me the creeps.

Anyway, "Ash" turns out to be a page-turner, and I'd recommend it to anyone who cares to challenge the notion of a heterosexual faery godmother. =)

*TARA EFFECT: Clo and I feel the same way about Tara in “True Blood”: there is only so much crap you can lay on your character before an audience starts loosing interest and begins feeling only sorry for the person. Putting your character in a tight situation? That is plot building. Taking away every slight sliver of hope and happiness from their world? That is just drama.