A review by katymul
Ash by Malinda Lo

dark emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Malinda Lo is a master of many genres, and the fairy tale is no exception. She captures the pieces that make the tales feel timeless without sacrificing the immediacy that the old tales often lack. This book is a famous pioneer for sapphic love stories in the YA arena, but reading it in 2023, you wouldn't realize that without the introductions by Holly Black and Malinda Lo herself. I mean that as a compliment. Often groundbreaking books are self-conscious about tropes and situations that were new or at least bold moves at the time. Lo treats the sapphic pairing as natural, easy, and unfraught in a way that feels much more modern than I expected knowing the book's importance in the history of representation. So many important, milestone books aren't as good of reads as you want them to be. This book isn't just important, it is very very good.