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kshertz's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death of parent, Death, and Animal death
madarauchiha's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨
Finally! Lesbians can have mediocre, bland fairy tales! no I kid, mostly. Not at all, actually. I really don't like this book. Remember when you were a kid and young adult novels were really well written and interesting and had depth? I know not everyone can be Ursala K Le Guin but I feel so bad for kids who don't have anything challenging and mature to read. I just know this leads them to the adult section way earlier than they can handle such themes. But I'll digest.
What's really bizarre to me is that, despite being lesbian, the amount of female relationships is almost nonexistent. We get more time spent with a cis? man Fae Person than we do with any other woman character. The idea that a young girl in a dangerous, unhealthy situation doesn't try to seek out other people, especially women, is bizarre to me. The original fairy tale had, at least, Cinderella seeking out other people and ending up with a fairy godmother. I think having some scenes of her in the market trying to converse with people, esp women, trying to maintain relationships despite her stepmother trying to isolate and degrade her until Ash could only depend on her stepmother's whims. I'm not expecting much, it's a YA novel, I don't want to see explicit traumaporn. Just... something. Make an effort to expand Ash's world to make it a shock when the stepmother takes away Ash's freedom.
Like, that could have built up tension and make you really root for the main character! But no, we just get occasional scenes of the one other female servant doing chores until she gets dismissed. [Not a spoiler, it happens in a few portrayals of this tale]
No, the dead mother does not count. It's not an active living relationship.
Speaking of the Fae man person? Um, so that was resolvedout of no where, off screen, and out of left field. I know the fae are very mysterious and alluring, so they have to be written as such. But resolving an entire plot point off screen with a tiny teeny sliver of what really happened was such a huge wet fart to the face. Was there a set character limit? Was the publisher banging on the door? I don't know.
I'm not sure if the curse to love a lesbian was a metaphor or not, so no comment. Actually comment, someone explain that to me, thanks.
So the mothercursed the fae man because the fae man had a habit of luring women into the woods bc he liked the feeling of being wanted. When he tried to pull that woo trick on the mother, she cursed him to fall in love with a mortal woman. Except the mortal woman turned out to be her underage(?) daughter, and he's been stalking her since she was barely 13? Or something like that age? Ew? Lo, what the fuck, girl. So the the Fae man grants Ash two wishes, which would bind her to him forever as in a master slave situation, and she has to figure out how to break out of this wish debt. She also learns he's cursed by her mother to fall in love and his love turned out to be her? So Ash resolves this plot point by asking him to consider her wish debt paid if she agrees to 'be with' him for a single night, which somehow breaks his curse. And by sheer chance he only does this to break the curse. He's learned nothing, I assume, because there's nothing to stop a cruel fae man from continuing to do this to other mortal women. Also we never hear from him again so who knows if that's really resolved or not!
The way the girl child has to figure out how toappease the fae man and beg him to agree to a work around to her debt, which he only agrees to because it would get him out of this curse is pretty shitty. Like what does that tell lesbians reading this book? That they must appease men in order to be free to love and be with women? Fuck that shit. That's some hot doodoo kaka back in 2009 and it still is today. She should have killed him for trying to groom her into a relationship, esp a master slave one. The way that would have been so satisfying.... It would really reinforce lesbians aren't here to appease and satisfy men and their preferences. We are our own persons.
The love interest. I wish they used her name instead of title. It felt very dehumanizing and I couldn't get into the romance. I tried using a name replacer in my ereader, which replaced every 'huntress' with her name and made it seem like Ash had a polycule of lesbian lovers. Great, though incredibly confusing to read when fairy tales came up and she was in every one of them.
Maybe I should've read harder into it, but I didn't get the vibe Ash as falling in love with anyone, much less a woman. Like, listen. Lesbianically, I check out women. Not in a sexually harassing way, but I do notice and think to myself yeah she's hot, her bulge is pretty, I'd Winky Face her You Know What etc. That just doesn't happen in this book. I can't tell if that's just a lack of chemistry between the love interests. Is Ash asexual? Aromantic? Has her stepmother broken her mentally so she doesn't know what a normal healthy relationship or attraction is? I mean that's possible. The only 'healthy' relationships Ash has ever seen was her father with her bio mother, and then with her step mother. There's also the otherhouse's servant girl and Colin but it's incredibly off screen and mentioned twice, the second time in a negative light because Colin is a philanderer or something.
If there were scenes of Ash getting in trouble for her gaze lingering too long, and someone noticing, thus getting her in trouble. Like, I hate seeing lesbophobia in novels, but I'd trust an actual lesbian of color to portray this with tact. Ash is already in a toxic situation, being in the closet would make sense and be empathetic to readers who might also be in the same situation. And it wouldn't even be lesbophobia as much as it is the step mother not wanting to lose an indentured servant / slave.
I don't know why I typed out all this for a not quite old book from 2009. I really doubt the author will see this, why bother making suggestions? I do hope aspiring authors* see this and register how to make a plot more interesting, sensible, empathic, etc etc,
*not you fanficcers, you can choke. Unless you're minors, then never mind, explore your art but remember to get out of fanfic when you hit college age. You will only stunt your art, trust me, I learned this the hard way.
Diversity.
uhhhh lesbian? A lesbians? Two of them, at least. Judging by the cover, Ash is supposed to be white, and this is upheld by the incredibly white european world setting. So no, not really diverse, aside from two lesbians. I think at some part the huntress' skin was described as golden? Or golden in the sunlight? Which gave me some racist vibes. Like why'd you make the animal killing, supposedly butch character brown skinned? Are we really pulling that stereotype here? The author is an incredibly lightskinned asian woman, I'm not buying that there's no colorism here.
I think if there were no lesbians this book would get the worst ratings. No really. It's not like other cishet authors trying to use lgbt characters / plots / themes for brownie points because aiming for diversity points is 'what's in style' these days. No, it's that most people see lgbt characters and themes, and automatically think the book is great. Even if the book is the most bland, poorly written, time wasting, pointless book ever written. I wish people would understand that checking off 'lgbt' from a Diversity Plot Point Checklist does not make a good book. LGBT characters should be included yes, but with genuine intent. I think it was Gailey's 'upright women wanted' wherein there was a basic checklist of lgbt characters introduced and then their lgbtness was barely brought up or had an impact on the story at all.
This is like that book. LGBT has an inherent impact on an lgbt person's life. It changes how we interact with a cissexist, homophobic society. I didn't get that impression at all in this book. You could swap genders / pronouns for either Ash or the Huntress to make it a cishet relationship, and nothing would change the story.
You might say, so what? It's a YA genre novel, who cares if it's not that deep?
I think it's important that such things are reflected. Children aren't stupid or ignorant to how their sexuality influences their lives, especially LGBT children. To not have such a thing shown in a story about Lesbians is ridiculous.
Prose.
Ok. It was pretty, the writing was legible. The author did a lovely job of describing the forest scenes, anyways.
At this point I have run out of steam for this lousy book. It took an hour to read, so there's that positive, at least. This book was the equivalent of eating a bowl of white rice, but the serving is slightly too small to make you feel full. Also it comes with no other servings much less soy sauce so you're really left unsatisfied even though it's rice. Rice!!
content warnings
major animal death , animal cruelty, animal hunting, gore, dogs, confinement, medical content, death, child abuse, emotional abuse, grief, parental death
medium body horror, misogyny
minor dogs, dead animal, blood
Finally! Lesbians can have mediocre, bland fairy tales! no I kid, mostly. Not at all, actually. I really don't like this book. Remember when you were a kid and young adult novels were really well written and interesting and had depth? I know not everyone can be Ursala K Le Guin but I feel so bad for kids who don't have anything challenging and mature to read. I just know this leads them to the adult section way earlier than they can handle such themes. But I'll digest.
What's really bizarre to me is that, despite being lesbian, the amount of female relationships is almost nonexistent. We get more time spent with a cis? man Fae Person than we do with any other woman character. The idea that a young girl in a dangerous, unhealthy situation doesn't try to seek out other people, especially women, is bizarre to me. The original fairy tale had, at least, Cinderella seeking out other people and ending up with a fairy godmother. I think having some scenes of her in the market trying to converse with people, esp women, trying to maintain relationships despite her stepmother trying to isolate and degrade her until Ash could only depend on her stepmother's whims. I'm not expecting much, it's a YA novel, I don't want to see explicit traumaporn. Just... something. Make an effort to expand Ash's world to make it a shock when the stepmother takes away Ash's freedom.
Like, that could have built up tension and make you really root for the main character! But no, we just get occasional scenes of the one other female servant doing chores until she gets dismissed. [Not a spoiler, it happens in a few portrayals of this tale]
No, the dead mother does not count. It's not an active living relationship.
Speaking of the Fae man person? Um, so that was resolved
I'm not sure if the curse to love a lesbian was a metaphor or not, so no comment. Actually comment, someone explain that to me, thanks.
So the mother
The way the girl child has to figure out how to
The love interest. I wish they used her name instead of title. It felt very dehumanizing and I couldn't get into the romance. I tried using a name replacer in my ereader, which replaced every 'huntress' with her name and made it seem like Ash had a polycule of lesbian lovers. Great, though incredibly confusing to read when fairy tales came up and she was in every one of them.
Maybe I should've read harder into it, but I didn't get the vibe Ash as falling in love with anyone, much less a woman. Like, listen. Lesbianically, I check out women. Not in a sexually harassing way, but I do notice and think to myself yeah she's hot, her bulge is pretty, I'd Winky Face her You Know What etc. That just doesn't happen in this book. I can't tell if that's just a lack of chemistry between the love interests. Is Ash asexual? Aromantic? Has her stepmother broken her mentally so she doesn't know what a normal healthy relationship or attraction is? I mean that's possible. The only 'healthy' relationships Ash has ever seen was her father with her bio mother, and then with her step mother. There's also the other
If there were scenes of Ash getting in trouble for her gaze lingering too long, and someone noticing, thus getting her in trouble. Like, I hate seeing lesbophobia in novels, but I'd trust an actual lesbian of color to portray this with tact. Ash is already in a toxic situation, being in the closet would make sense and be empathetic to readers who might also be in the same situation. And it wouldn't even be lesbophobia as much as it is the step mother not wanting to lose an indentured servant / slave.
I don't know why I typed out all this for a not quite old book from 2009. I really doubt the author will see this, why bother making suggestions? I do hope aspiring authors* see this and register how to make a plot more interesting, sensible, empathic, etc etc,
*not you fanficcers, you can choke. Unless you're minors, then never mind, explore your art but remember to get out of fanfic when you hit college age. You will only stunt your art, trust me, I learned this the hard way.
Diversity.
uhhhh lesbian? A lesbians? Two of them, at least. Judging by the cover, Ash is supposed to be white, and this is upheld by the incredibly white european world setting. So no, not really diverse, aside from two lesbians. I think at some part the huntress' skin was described as golden? Or golden in the sunlight? Which gave me some racist vibes. Like why'd you make the animal killing, supposedly butch character brown skinned? Are we really pulling that stereotype here? The author is an incredibly lightskinned asian woman, I'm not buying that there's no colorism here.
I think if there were no lesbians this book would get the worst ratings. No really. It's not like other cishet authors trying to use lgbt characters / plots / themes for brownie points because aiming for diversity points is 'what's in style' these days. No, it's that most people see lgbt characters and themes, and automatically think the book is great. Even if the book is the most bland, poorly written, time wasting, pointless book ever written. I wish people would understand that checking off 'lgbt' from a Diversity Plot Point Checklist does not make a good book. LGBT characters should be included yes, but with genuine intent. I think it was Gailey's 'upright women wanted' wherein there was a basic checklist of lgbt characters introduced and then their lgbtness was barely brought up or had an impact on the story at all.
This is like that book. LGBT has an inherent impact on an lgbt person's life. It changes how we interact with a cissexist, homophobic society. I didn't get that impression at all in this book. You could swap genders / pronouns for either Ash or the Huntress to make it a cishet relationship, and nothing would change the story.
You might say, so what? It's a YA genre novel, who cares if it's not that deep?
I think it's important that such things are reflected. Children aren't stupid or ignorant to how their sexuality influences their lives, especially LGBT children. To not have such a thing shown in a story about Lesbians is ridiculous.
Prose.
Ok. It was pretty, the writing was legible. The author did a lovely job of describing the forest scenes, anyways.
At this point I have run out of steam for this lousy book. It took an hour to read, so there's that positive, at least. This book was the equivalent of eating a bowl of white rice, but the serving is slightly too small to make you feel full. Also it comes with no other servings much less soy sauce so you're really left unsatisfied even though it's rice. Rice!!
content warnings
major animal death , animal cruelty, animal hunting, gore, dogs, confinement, medical content, death, child abuse, emotional abuse, grief, parental death
medium body horror, misogyny
minor dogs, dead animal, blood
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Grief
Moderate: Body horror and Misogyny
Minor: Slavery, Animal death, and Blood
mothman19's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
relaxing
medium-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? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Grief
Moderate: Physical abuse
Minor: Animal death, Bullying, and Confinement
booksthatburn's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This a quiet and powerful Cinderella retelling with a focus on the MC's interior world rather than the exact details of the vaguely antiquated setting. It's a fairy tale steeped in fairy tales, discussing strange bargains of dubious origin as the MC first is connected to her departed mother then seeks escape from her abusive stepmother via fairy tales. It portrays the MC's two romantic options of a sort in a way that makes them obviously two different paths, two different ways the rest of her life could go, not just two people she cares for. Even the possible pairing which looks straight at a glance feels queer in the way that two bi people dating is unquestionably queer even if it looks straight to an outsider. The sapphic pairing made me want to scream for them to kiss already, I'm not kidding about this being a slow burn all around.
On its merits as a retelling, I enjoyed how a lot of what is usually the main story is kind of happening in the background (e.g. the prince's search). It stands on its own and doesn't require any familiarity with the original or some of the more famous adaptations. If you are familiar with the basic tale there are references to anchor it without feeling like its wholly retreading ground.
Overall it's a lovely mix of vibes, yearning, queerness, and fairy tales with undertones of grief, loss, mourning, and moving on.
On its merits as a retelling, I enjoyed how a lot of what is usually the main story is kind of happening in the background (e.g. the prince's search). It stands on its own and doesn't require any familiarity with the original or some of the more famous adaptations. If you are familiar with the basic tale there are references to anchor it without feeling like its wholly retreading ground.
Overall it's a lovely mix of vibes, yearning, queerness, and fairy tales with undertones of grief, loss, mourning, and moving on.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Blood, Violence, Animal death, and Death
Minor: Sexism
CW for sexism (minor), confinement, child abuse, domestic abuse, blood, violence, animal death, parental death, death.valereads's review
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I really like this book in theory. The concept is so cool; a lesbian retelling of Cinderella featuring traditional fae, what’s not to love? Unfortunately the execution wasn’t everything I wanted it to be.
For one the pacing is this novel is really poor. The book is divided into two parts. The first section of the book follows Ash through her childhood before she has any relationship with her love interest, Kaisa. This section gives us lots of worldbuilding and really develops the characters and I enjoyed it a lot. However the second section is where the book fails in my opinion. We spend so much time with Ash, Sidhean, and Ash’s step-family in the first part but the second part feels rushed and as a result the characters and their relationships aren’t built up as much as they could be so the ending of the book doesn’t feel earned.
I did enjoy how Lo spent time developing and giving depth to some of the side characters, particularly the step-sisters, Ana and Clara. However the main characters and their relationships aren’t nearly developed as I’d like. In contrast to her step-sisters, Ash felt shallow and lacked personality. I found myself comparing her to other “blank slate” type characters showing up in YA around the time this was released such as Bella Swan from the Twilight Saga. I also felt Kaisa was particularly underdeveloped. She’s meant to be Ash’s endgame love interest but she had barely any personality and I can remember perhaps one fact about her. In the case of Kaisa this is linked to the pacing issues as I think she is introduced to late in the story to really build her as a character.
Overall this book ended up being a bit of a disappointment. I didn’t dislike it but it had some significant issues which meant it didn’t live up to the fascinating concept.
Content Warnings: abuse, parental death, violence towards animals
For one the pacing is this novel is really poor. The book is divided into two parts. The first section of the book follows Ash through her childhood before she has any relationship with her love interest, Kaisa. This section gives us lots of worldbuilding and really develops the characters and I enjoyed it a lot. However the second section is where the book fails in my opinion. We spend so much time with Ash, Sidhean, and Ash’s step-family in the first part but the second part feels rushed and as a result the characters and their relationships aren’t built up as much as they could be so the ending of the book doesn’t feel earned.
I did enjoy how Lo spent time developing and giving depth to some of the side characters, particularly the step-sisters, Ana and Clara. However the main characters and their relationships aren’t nearly developed as I’d like. In contrast to her step-sisters, Ash felt shallow and lacked personality. I found myself comparing her to other “blank slate” type characters showing up in YA around the time this was released such as Bella Swan from the Twilight Saga. I also felt Kaisa was particularly underdeveloped. She’s meant to be Ash’s endgame love interest but she had barely any personality and I can remember perhaps one fact about her. In the case of Kaisa this is linked to the pacing issues as I think she is introduced to late in the story to really build her as a character.
Overall this book ended up being a bit of a disappointment. I didn’t dislike it but it had some significant issues which meant it didn’t live up to the fascinating concept.
Content Warnings: abuse, parental death, violence towards animals
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Terminal illness
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