Ash by Malinda Lo

I am honestly shocked that so many of the top reviews for this book are tepid at best and negative at worst, because I thought this was a beautiful, vivid, melancholy story-- there's something about pre-2000s YA fantasy. I think being written before the proliferation of the internet meant that they could be more experimental, and less at the mercy of appealing to the demands of the algorithm. They feel remote, isolated, and hopeful; islands onto themselves. I love that about them.

ASH is a Cinderella retelling about Aisling, a girl who lives on the edge of the wood with her mother and father. Her father is upright and traditional but her mother has pagan beliefs and believes in the faeries (and her father loves her so much that he indulges this). When her mother dies and her father remarries, Ash is heartbroken, especially when her new stepmother and stepsisters seem to want little to do with her, leaving her to grieve on her own in the woods.

I don't want to say too much, but this is a queer awakening as much as it is a story about bargains, different kinds of love, and the power of illusions. The way that Lo writes is both simple and ornate, and I adored the way that she wove magic into the "real world," to the point where everything feels like a shimmering illusion and you find yourself questioning what is and isn't real.

At times, this story feels almost gothic (the scenes where Ash sleeps on her mother's grave), and there is such powerful imagery in ASH. It's definitely a book that came out well before its time (I mean, a sapphic YA Cindrella story in 2009??), and it's aged so well. Especially with how Ash has a more complicated relationship with her stepsisters that goes beyond "slutty, gold-digging bitches = bad." I'm glad to see it getting a second wind, because I honestly think anyone who loved ELLA ENCHANTED will love this.

And yes, she saves herself in this one.

4.5 to 5 out of 5 stars