Ash

Ashby 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, 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 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. 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 choosing life and love over solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief. (goodreads.com)

Why yes, that is the UK cover of Ash. I find it stunning and it drew me to the book instantly, whereas the North American cover did not. I didn't even look twice at it, sad to say. Which is why I am now reading this book two years after it was first published in my own country.I am horribly swayed by covers. I am ashamed to admit I never even really read the summary of the book when people first started to blog about it. The cover did nothing to draw upon my curiosity or whimsy. This cover? It looks like Alice in Wonderland meets Cinderella somewhere in Brian Froud's imagination.One other thing put this book on my radar, over the summer Kristi of The Story Siren hosted LGBT Lit Week and Malinda Lo was one of the guest post authors. Suddenly Ash was no longer just another book about the retelling of Cinderella to me. It became something that sounded original and interesting. Then I saw the UK cover and I knew I needed to read the book.So I bought it at Christmas and read it in a few hours this weekend.This novel is hauntingly beautiful. It has a Eastern European sort of folk-tale vibe, as well as an ethereal faerie vibe and a sense of danger and enchantment with each page you turn. This is a different sort of faerie tale and it's a gripping one. Yes, I hated the Stepmother and stepsisters, they were pleasantly miserable and mean, but they are just sort of a background to the story as the Woods play a bigger role than the humans I think. I loved the mixture of Cinderella comparisons and favourite folk tales which ride the fence of truth or fiction. I love that Ash thinks they are more lessons for life than just made up stories. I love that the faerie world is real in a way, though does not consume the story.I love that there is love, however subtle, and it is tender and sweet.I loved Lo's writing style. The story was easy to read and extremely captivating. I honestly did not know (until this past August) that Ash was a folk tale/fantasy type story. I thought it was contemporary and therefore ignored it. That will teach me to rely less on my cover fixation and to read more summaries and reviews even if the cover turns me off.Now I know why everyone is clamouring for Huntress a new novel by Malinda Lo that comes out this spring! I have now added that one to my Goodreads wishlist - but I might wait to get it until I see what the UK cover looks like. ;)