Ash

I'm back on books.

I've had Ash in my room for a while, one of the hundreds I've bought in bulk then not fancied three days later. But since I'm trying to save as much as is humanly possible right now (nice surprise, nursery is £200 less than I was expecting this month. I think I added a week?) I thought I'd better read through all those books.

Ash is a fairy tale. It gets a little bit Cinderella-ish, but only if the Fairy Godmother were actually a male fairy Cinderella's mother had cursed to love Cinderella. It plays more on those fairy stories you get in books like Lord of the Rings (you know, think the kingdom of the Elves) rather than 4-inch high flying sprites.

It's so well-written, even if I seem disparaging with the Cinderella reference. I suppose I'm likening it so others might find it interesting? The detail of the descriptions is incredible, but it flows well with the book. I want to walk through the enchanted forest Aisling does. I want to wear the outfits, and eat the food.

I love the names in it too. The writer, Malinda Lo, makes me think she might be Japanese but there's something Irish to the names, like the fairy Sidhean (Shidane) or the huntress Kaisa.

The huntress bit had my brain thumping though. It was so ... weird.

Okay, so Aisling (or Ash) loses her parents at the start of the book. Her mother dies, her dad remarries, then her father dies. She's left with her stepmother, who lies about her father's debts and makes her work as the housekeeper. She sneaks off regularly to see Sidhean in the forest, and sometimes just to be in the forest. After a while, she starts bumping into the huntress, and they start to be friends, while the fairy starts to get posessive. Ash strikes a couple of deals with Sidhean, to spend time with Kaisa (like going on a hunt with Kaisa, and going to this ball and accidentally dancing with the eligible Prince and then running away, like some well known afformentioned fairy story), and somehow Kaisa and Ash fall in love, and Ash frees Sidhean from her mothers spell so she can be with Kaisa.

So ... is lesbianism okay in fairy stories?

I still liked the book, don't get me wrong, it just seemed to imply that if you were female and hunted deer you had to be a lesbian. I just don't see how there's really a connection? Yet I wanna read more of Malinda Lo's stuff. She's ... vivid.

I need to find another book to read. I'm thinking Me and Orson Welles? Then I can finally watch my copy of the DVD, haha!