Book Thoughts: Ash

Title: Ash
Author: Malinda Lo

I really wanted to love this book. I didn't.

I love the idea of this book. I adore fairytale retellings (and, okay, I'm a bit of a sucker for the Cinderella story), and this one put a really cool twist on it -- Ash (the Cinderella character), rather than falling in love with the prince, falls for the king's huntress, aided not by a fairy godmother but by a fairy (think faerie) who's in love with her. It was such a cool story and I absolutely adored Malinda Lo's twist on this classic tale.

What I didn't love was the writing style. It read, to me, like an antiquated fairy tale -- which fits for the kind of story this is, I guess, but it feels very forced and one-dimensional as a narrative style for an entire novel. I had no emotional connection to Ash or her relationships with Sidhean or Kaisa. Ash at one point describes fairy tales as stories with a lesson to be learned; I kind of felt this way about the novel ASH. It's less of a novel that you get emotionally invested in and more one that's like oh, okay, Cinderella but she loves a girl and also love is important. You don't feel the love, you just sort of read about it.

I don't know. I did enjoy ASH because as I said, such a cool twist on the story, but I kind of had to drag myself through the style and I don't feel attached to the characters at all. But as this is Malinda Lo's first novel, I love her blog, and her newer books aren't fairytales, I'll definitely try something else of hers.

Book Thoughts: Hex Hall

Title: Hex Hall
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Series: Hex Hall #1

I read Hex Hall over twoish hours this morning. It was an absolutely wonderful book. I will confess that I figured out the plot twists about halfway through the book, but that's something I do a lot, and the great thing about this book: it doesn't matter, because it's still fun to read.

Sophie Mercer is a witch. She's always tried to use her powers to help people, but after a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, she gets sentenced to Hecate Hall, nicknamed "Hex Hall." It's basically a reform school for witches, shapeshifters, and faeries. Sophie has a hard time fitting in. The most popular, most beautiful, and most powerful witches on campus become her enemies almost immediately; the guy she likes is dating one of those witches; the only person who will be friends with her is Jenna Talbot. Jenna's also the only vampire on campus. And to top it off, Sophie knows next to nothing about being a witch. So, she doesn't really fit in.

When students start turning up drained of blood, Sophie's one friend is the only suspect. But Sophie doesn't think the attacks are Jenna's doing. She's convinced that there's a far more powerful enemy out there. And whoever the enemy is, Sophie is one of their biggest targets.

I was expecting something fun but girly, full of giggling and girliness and love spells and so on. What HH delivered was much more than that. The dangers Sophie faces and the situations presented are much deeper and darker than shallow, surface-level popularity crises. There are demons, there is torture, there are all manner of dark, lurking secrets. It's a fantastically woven plot. But the narrative style is light, fresh, sarcastic, witty - Sophie sounds just like a regular teenager. A very fun book. Definitely go read it.