katymul's review against another edition
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.
dlberglund's review against another edition
4.0
Sweet and salty, queer retelling of the Cinderella fairy tale... With an extra dose of fairies. There are enough twists from the now-standard version to keep you wondering what could happen next.
jgonyx's review against another edition
4.0
This book is like a little warm hug and I wish I would have read it back when I was younger, I think teenaged me could have used a sweet queer fairy tale like this.
I do think there is a lot of room for development and untold moments that Lo could have taken further with this story, but as a fairytale it does it’s job and feels like a story that could be passed down.
Lovely world building and story, I’ll miss these characters.
I do think there is a lot of room for development and untold moments that Lo could have taken further with this story, but as a fairytale it does it’s job and feels like a story that could be passed down.
Lovely world building and story, I’ll miss these characters.
mjabbott47's review against another edition
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
lyowo's review against another edition
2.0
2.5* cute premise but the characters all felt kind of flat and lot of threads were unresolved:(
sunshinecapturer's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
erraticmusings's review against another edition
4.0
I read the 10-year anniversary edition, which includes an introduction from Holly Black and an author/editor Q&A at the end. This book sits in an interesting place for me, where it's really on the lower end of what I would rate 4 stars in its own right, but the context kind of propels it a bit further up the scale. I had apparently put this book on my to-read list back in 2017, and I wonder if I would have thought about it differently back then.
The introductory text made me really excited for and really want to love this story, and it did start off quite strong. I enjoyed the author's style, and any given section of the writing was nice, but taken as a whole, the pacing kind of stalled for a while in the middle. Given the richness of the initial worldbuilding, I felt that there was some missing complexity at the part where the stepmother entered onto the scene, and especially regarding the father's backstory and motivations, as well as Ash's relationship to the second loss after that of her mother. The portrayal of Ash's grief for her mother was moving but somewhat dampened by the flatness of everything surrounding it. Further into the story, though, things picked up nicely with the interplay of the dynamics between Ash and Kaisa vs. Sidhean, and as the tension between fairy and human worlds was further highlighted.
I enjoyed the theme of tension between traditional and "modern"/"educated", and especially in how minds work to rewrite the things they don't understand. The fairy tales interspersed through the novel were a pretty cute way to show more hints of how the magic worked in this world without giving away all the answers. The power of disbelief to render magic impotent is also a fun element that I like to see in stories. I did feel like there were some unexplained elements that could have been fleshed out a bit more (or at least alluded to) so that they feel more like intentional omissions and less like plot holes. For instance, do we suppose the huntresses have some otherworldly connections still to this day? Was the previous King's Huntress enamored of a fairy? What are the actual consequences and limitations of magic? Are fairies about to go extinct in this world? What is Sidhean's fate after all he does for Ash?
One thing that bothered me about how this society was set up was the weird amount of patriarchy -- considering that there was no stigma around gayness, it didn't make sense to me why the majority of women seemed utterly beholden to husbands and the search thereof. I suppose we can forgive this oversight given how radical it was to even envision a world that didn't require a coming-out story back in 2009, but reading this 14 years down the line, I definitely got taken out of the story a few times just thinking about how the motivations of all the husband-chasers didn't make sense.
The introductory text made me really excited for and really want to love this story, and it did start off quite strong. I enjoyed the author's style, and any given section of the writing was nice, but taken as a whole, the pacing kind of stalled for a while in the middle. Given the richness of the initial worldbuilding, I felt that there was some missing complexity at the part where the stepmother entered onto the scene, and especially regarding the father's backstory and motivations, as well as Ash's relationship to the second loss after that of her mother. The portrayal of Ash's grief for her mother was moving but somewhat dampened by the flatness of everything surrounding it. Further into the story, though, things picked up nicely with the interplay of the dynamics between Ash and Kaisa vs. Sidhean, and as the tension between fairy and human worlds was further highlighted.
I enjoyed the theme of tension between traditional and "modern"/"educated", and especially in how minds work to rewrite the things they don't understand. The fairy tales interspersed through the novel were a pretty cute way to show more hints of how the magic worked in this world without giving away all the answers. The power of disbelief to render magic impotent is also a fun element that I like to see in stories. I did feel like there were some unexplained elements that could have been fleshed out a bit more (or at least alluded to) so that they feel more like intentional omissions and less like plot holes. For instance, do we suppose the huntresses have some otherworldly connections still to this day? Was the previous King's Huntress enamored of a fairy? What are the actual consequences and limitations of magic? Are fairies about to go extinct in this world? What is Sidhean's fate after all he does for Ash?
One thing that bothered me about how this society was set up was the weird amount of patriarchy -- considering that there was no stigma around gayness, it didn't make sense to me why the majority of women seemed utterly beholden to husbands and the search thereof. I suppose we can forgive this oversight given how radical it was to even envision a world that didn't require a coming-out story back in 2009, but reading this 14 years down the line, I definitely got taken out of the story a few times just thinking about how the motivations of all the husband-chasers didn't make sense.
emdowd's review against another edition
5.0
This hit all of my storytelling buttons, including the ones I didn't even know I had. Couldn't put it down, it's up there with Wicked and the Mists of Avalon as far as amazing rejuvenations of "old" stories. (But seriously: queer fairy tales! There are not enough exclamation points in the world to describe how much I love this idea.) Not only a sweet, subtle love story but also an inspirational tale about letting go of what you once wanted to take hold of your future.
maireadsbooks's review against another edition
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5