nerd teacher [books] reviewed Ash by Malinda Lo
Adorable queer retelling of Cinderella.
4 stars
Content warning A few light spoilers.
I loved this book, and it is something that I really wish had been available to me when I was younger; I needed something like this, especially as I was struggling to understand myself.
I'm torn on the lack of labels, but it bothers me less because it's a WLW novel. We know that the characters are queer, even if we don't know that they're lesbians or bisexuals (though, it feels like Ash would definitely be bisexual with the inclusion of the relationship to Sidhean) Either way, that's one of the few things I had minor issues with but can definitely overlook because of the ending (it's not erasing the WLW aspect by Ash or Kaisa finding their way to a bloke later on). In a strange way, I'm also torn on liking that.
What I really want is more of Sidhean. I want to understand his motivations more and see more of the relationship between him and Ash's mother in order to understand why it is that she cursed him; I want to know more, especially as it is an event that impacted Ash. It'd be nice if she found that out, too.