Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Ash

Ash
Malinda Lo.
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009
264pp.,pbk.,$9.99
ISBN 978-0340988374
Grades 8-12

Highly Recommended

Ash is an entrancing, lyrical and beautifully written fantasy. The author, Malinda Lo, explains that Ash is a retelling of the Cinderella story in a fantasy world that in some ways is a familiar one, but in one critical way is not. Ash is a lesbian retelling of Cinderella in which the heroine falls in love with a beautiful huntress instead of the prince. 




Lo masterfully portrays alternative lifestyles in such a manner that it does not take away from the captivating plot. The story does not revolve around her being a lesbian, and in fact it wasn't until quite late into the book  that I paused to consider that perhaps Ash had feelings for the huntress. What I found to be fascinating about this story was that Lo created a fantasy world in which homosexuality was completely normal. Lo explains that this allowed her to write Ash as a fairytale story, not as a coming out story.

Reviews and Awards for Ash

 The Prequel

The Huntress, the companion novel to Ash.


Ash and Huntress are extremely powerful books that I would highly recommend adding to your YA collection as they give our LGBT students a voice. If you are interested in including more LGBT titles to your collection I have found that The American Library Association has one of the most comprehensive, reputable, and up to date Rainbow Books Bibliographies that I have come across.