Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Ash

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Ash by Malinda Lo

23 reviews

bookdragonenby's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I enjoyed reading this book. The conclusion was a little rushed for my taste.

15 pages left and there hadn't been a solution suggested. The detail of stories and world building were gorgeous and well thought out. But the relationship felt really lacking. I didn't know who I was meant to be rooting for. Over a solid read, but nothing too out there.

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shannonvonpesach's review

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It skipped too much for me between the real Cinderella and the whole fairy think. I couldn't wrap my head around it and did not enjoy the book at all.

Ash was not a likable character for me.

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nyxonyxdust's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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lady_valhella's review

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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levitatingnumeral's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Ash is very much a “neither - nor”, on-the fence.
The story itself is bland. It doesn’t succeed in exploring the characters and their relationships nor does it have interesting events going on.
The world-building is lacking: sure, it’s set in a nondescript past, but it fails to portray anything in depth. For example: we know Gwen wants to marry and that is portrayed according to the historical stereotype, but are we going to ignore that women back then probably had personalities, motives, dreams? It’s like every single event or character is a mere caricature or stereotype.
The storytelling heavily relies on telling, rather than showing. Which I dislike, but I could’ve maybe defended with a “well, it’s a retelling of a fairytale, so of course it resorts to telling the facts, as is customary”. Except the book attempts to introduce a more literary twist, using descriptions and a more flowery language (at times). So the book is too long and detailed to be a classic fairytale and too focused on telling to be a well-written novel.
Finally, the author tried to give a feeling of “it’s in the past” through the use of both language (specific words/sentence structures) and figures of speech. However, this is used inconsistently and much too lightly, entirely preventing immersion.

I truly don’t understand the reason for this book to exist. The story is unremarkable, the characters are flat, the writing is underwhelming.

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kshertz's review

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lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This was a super cute queer retelling of Cinderella. I enjoyed following the character on her journey. The magic and the fairy were a little confusing at times and the ending was a little unbelievable but I still enjoyed this rewrite and retelling.

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