[Livro] Ash, de Malinda Lo

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Título em Português: --
Série: --
Autor(a): Malinda Lo
Editora: Hodder Children's
Páginas: 291
Data de Publicação: 4 de Março de 2010

Sinopse:

In the wake of her father’s death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash’s capacity for love—and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.

Opinião:
Para quem segue o blog já deve ter reparado que o meu contributo com conteúdo, durante o mês anterior – para dizer a verdade, durante os meses anteriores – tem sido muito escaço. Isso deveu-se a uma imensa falta de tempo para dedicar a livros e/ou filmes e o que levou a uma falta de vontade enorme. Ash foi um livro que sofreu com este momento que estou a passar.

Ash é um retelling de Cinderella - quem me conhece sabe que não sou muito fã deste conto de fadas, no entanto, estava relativamente curiosa em relação a Ash porque incluía LGBT no seu enredo.

O livro é bem escrito e sabe o usar o conto como base sem ser uma cópia chapada do mesmo; usa elementos chave (que facilmente reconhecemos) para desenvolver o plot, mas sem ser demasiado evidente. Confesso que a sensação de “eu já li isto algures” não está muito presente, algo que poderia acontecer (e acontece com outros retellings), o que é um ponto a favor deste livro. Mas, tal como comecei por escrever no inicio desta crítica, este livro sofreu com a minha falta de tempo e vontade de dedicar-me a um livro e acabei por não me ligar muito a ele. Não posso dizer que não gostei da personagens, simplesmente passaram-me ao lado. Achei que o enredo se arrastou durante mais de dois terços do livro, para no final Ash ter uma epifania qualquer e tudo avançar com alguma rapidez.

Recomendo para quem gosta de YA, para quem gosta de Retelling e em especial o da Cinderella, mas mais do que isso acho que poucas pessoas terão interesse neste livro, apesar de que, como já referi, o livro está bem escrito e não é mau, apenas não é daqueles que fique connosco.

Title: Ash
Serie: --
Author: Malinda Lo
Publisher: Hodder Cbildren's
Pages: 291
Publication Date: March 4th 2010

Synopsis:

In the wake of her father’s death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash’s capacity for love—and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.

Review:
Those who follow the blog show may have noticed my contribution with content for this last month – to be honest, for these last months – has been scarce. That was because I had little time for books and/or movies, and that drove me into a reading slump. Ash was a book that suffered from that.

Ash is a retelling from Cinderella - for those who know me know that I don’t fancy much this fairy tale, although, I was curious about Ash, mainly because its LGBT theme.

This book is well written and knows how to use the fairy tale without being a copy&paste from its original story. It used key elements (which we can easily spot) to develop the plot, but without being extremely obvious. I may confess that “I read this somewhere else” sensation was not present here, which could happen (and actually happened in a few other retellings), and that is a major positive point in this book. But then again, as I stated in the beginning of this review, this book suffered from my reading slump and I wasn’t able to connect with it. I can’t say that I didn’t like the characters; I was just unable to connect with them. In the first two thirds of the book the plot dragged a lot, and in the last part Ash had some kind of an epiphany and everything happened way to fast.

I’d recommend this book for those who like YA, and like retellings, especially those who like Cinderella, but not for anyone else. Although, as I already said, it’s well written, and it’s not actually bad. It’s just one of those books which don’t stay with us.