Ash & Huntress by Malinda Lo
Jan. 25th, 2012 08:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dorothean posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
50books_pocI read Ash when it came out, but was trying to prevent myself from buying books when Huntress came out, so it passed me by. Then I realized my library had it! So I re-read Ash (actually enjoyed it better the second time around) and then read Huntress. And halfway through, I ordered a copy of Huntress for myself, because I'll definitely want to read that again, too.
No-spoiler reviews on Goodreads: Ash and Huntress.
I really loved both of these, but at the same time noticed a lot of flaws. In Ash, it's mostly that the character Ash is rather stiff and remote, and her feelings about the King's Huntress are not as vivid as they might be. I think the technical problems of Huntress (which I described in the Goodreads review) come from the same source -- Lo is trying to evoke the feel of a fairy tale while writing a novel. She succeeds pretty well overall, but it's tricky because in novels, so much depends on learning deeply about the characters and their relationships, whereas those don't matter in fairy tales. Part of what makes a fairy tale what it is is that things happen just because that's how they happen. Filling in human motivations can make the story less of a fairy tale.
Mostly, though: I love how in Ash, Cinderella's fairy godmother becomes a dangerous temptation. And how in Huntress, dreaming you love someone can change your life.
No-spoiler reviews on Goodreads: Ash and Huntress.
I really loved both of these, but at the same time noticed a lot of flaws. In Ash, it's mostly that the character Ash is rather stiff and remote, and her feelings about the King's Huntress are not as vivid as they might be. I think the technical problems of Huntress (which I described in the Goodreads review) come from the same source -- Lo is trying to evoke the feel of a fairy tale while writing a novel. She succeeds pretty well overall, but it's tricky because in novels, so much depends on learning deeply about the characters and their relationships, whereas those don't matter in fairy tales. Part of what makes a fairy tale what it is is that things happen just because that's how they happen. Filling in human motivations can make the story less of a fairy tale.
Mostly, though: I love how in Ash, Cinderella's fairy godmother becomes a dangerous temptation. And how in Huntress, dreaming you love someone can change your life.
