Huntress

Huntress by Malinda Lo 2011
Little, Brown & Company/Hachette Book Group

Rating: 5/5

Incredible Quote (IQ) "She was no longer in her body; she felt free. She was as small as a drop of dew quivering on a spider's web; she was a minute in an hour in a day in a million years. So much had passed to bring her to this moment: births, deaths, countless insignificant decisions that made her who she had become. All of that-all of her-could end now. She could return to the limitless state that every living creature once was in and will be again." Kaede pg. 327

This story takes place centuries before Ash (the author's previous book) and explains the original purpose of the king's Huntress. Nature is off balance, the sun doesn't shine anymore resulting in crop failure and hunger throughout the land (merely referred to as a whole as The Kingdom). The King is desperate to find a solution to the problem, especially since strange new creatures are beginning to appear and it is unclear as to whether or not they are harmless. The oracle stones are cast, Kaede and Taisin are chosen to go on a journey to Tanlili, the city of the Fairy Queen. Both girls are only seventeen years old, Taisin is one of the most promising sages, filled with magic, and Kaede is a devoted warrior, although it is intially unclear as to what she brings to the table. The girls travel with the King's son, con along with his most trusted guards, Tali, Shae and Pol. Taisin has had a vision that prevents her from being close to Kaede but the danger of the mission calls for the group to trust one another and that trust may lead to the downfall of the mission, and any possible romances.

Malinda Lo's novels are not to be rushed through in order to see the end of a plot, instead they should be cherished for the backgrounds and character development. I read this book as slowly as I could (while trying to be mindful that I needed to review the book for the publisher!), savoring each word and the ability to clearly visualize the scenery and characters described because this author pays extraordinary attention to detail. What's even more impressive is that the author focuses equal (or close-to-equal) attention on her secondary characters. There is not only a brewing romance between Kaede and Taisin, but there is one between other members of the group but their romance is not the only thing that defines them. Instead we learn about the families of the secondary characters and delve deeply into their layered personalities. This is not a story about the end of the journey, as cliche as it may sound, Huntress focuses more on the actual journey itself than the end result. I liked that neither girl started out as an expert, Taisin has immense potential but she's not an expert yet and Kaede struggles with archery. I found it interesting that the girls were not shaped by their surroundings but they did react to them, they constantly had to adjust (along with the whole group) their plans due to unforseen circumstances. Ahh life.

The romance between Taisin and Kaede begins at a relaxed pace, both girls are nervous about their feelings. Not because they aren't supposed to be in love due to gender (once again this is a world where everyone's sexuality is accepted) but due to obligations. Taisin as a sage must remain celibate. Kaede is expected to marry a powerful man for political reasons to help her father. It is acknowledged though that making political marriages between women is rare. The romance in this book seemed to be more about resisting the lure of love than the confusion that comes with it. Taisin is determined not to fall in love with Kaede because she doesn't want to be hurt when her tragic vision comes true, she steels herself for the worst and closes herself off. Kaede is confused as to why Taisin is so nervous around her, she is not initially aware that she has feelings for Taisin, she's just curious about this quiet girl whose family own a farm (as compared to Kaede who comes from a wealthier family). There is confusion on Kaede's part because Taisin is the Queen of Mixed Signals! The beauty of this romance is that is oh so worth the wait. I worried that I would grow impatient but the author's writing is so rich that it is most definitely worth the wait, each sentence uttered by Taisin or Kaede seems to take on a much deeper meaning and it was easy for me to envision the awkwardness of some of their encounters.

Huntress is partly inspired by the I Ching, which I know nothing about and while I may not have caught all the references and subtle nods (I learned a lot at the Diversity in YA talk such as Kaede on the cover is holding an akido bow and that the story uses Celtic magic), I adored this story even more than Ash. Taisin and Kaede don't grow leaps-and-bounds but they do slowly emerge as exceptional young women who have been through serious hardships and had some lovely adventures which have shaped them, for better or worse. Their romance helps them to grow but it never overshadows other aspects of the plot, the story strikes a balance between first love and adventure. The fairy world was fascinating to read about, the author made it easy to see how the fairies were so different from humans and she doesn't allow her characters to make sweeping generalizations or observations about the fairies' behavior. First she creates a scene, then she has a character ruminate on what just occurred. I firmly associate this book with winter based on the cover and the fact that the sun-never shines which makes it the perfect winter read (if your winters are actually cold. If not blast the air conditioning so you can shiver under the covers while reading ;) The bonus is that this book is packaged together beautifully. The cover is phenomenal (basically a full-face Asian girl starting defiantly at you while holding a weapon with soft snowflakes flying around and an imposing mountain in the background), the colors are lovely (I love love love purple!) and each chapter starts with a curlicue which is awesome. It practically screams old-fashioned fairy tale and this book is a traditional fairy-tale with a few modern (colorful) uplifts.

Disclosure: Received from publisher for review. Thank you so much!

PS I got Huntress autographed at DiYA last week (which I still need to write about because it was awesome)! I also picked up some bookmarks :D Read Malinda Lo's Reading in Color guest post in honor of Huntress' release And yes Malinda is so kind and she has an awesome speaking voice. I got shivers down my spine when she read from Chapter 1!

Blog Tour Guest Post: Malinda Lo on Changes

Last night I finished Huntress. I had been reading it very s-l-o-w-l-y and that pace was oh so worth it. You need to in order to better appreciate Malinda Lo's fantastic worldbuilding and her phenomenal way with words.

My question to Ms. Lo was on the book of Changes aka the I Ching. In following that theme I wanted to know what changes she wished to see in publishing. As you will soon see I took the 'Changes' in the Book of Changes literally but that's not exactly correct. Regardless, I'll let the much-more eloquent and fabulous Malinda Lo explain.

My new novel, Huntress, is a young adult fantasy inspired by many aspects of Chinese culture, including the I Ching, which is a foundational work of Chinese philosophy. The I Ching (or Yijing, as it is romanized in pinyin) is often translated into English as the Book of Changes, and for this guest post, Ari asked me to write about some changes I'd like to see in the publishing industry.

While the I Ching is indeed about change, it's not exactly about change in the way that many people in our society think about it. So I'm going to ask you to bear with me for a minute while I briefly explain what the change in the Book of Changes is about.


Here are a couple of quotes from An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy by JeeLoo Liu, which I found to be a great resource for the basics about the I Ching as well as Daoism and Buddhism, which were also key influences in the world I created in Huntress:


“What Yijing teaches is that we need to adapt our conduct in accordance with your changing relations to the environment. Even if we do not change, other people and other things are constantly changing. Therefore, adapting to changes is far superior to ignorant persistence.” (Liu, page 31)

“Nothing is fixed forever. Neither the good nor the bad will last long. What one needs is a keen perception of the incoming development. If one sees where one is in the whole progression of events, then one can take appropriate action either to enhance the trend when it is auspicious, or to alter it, at least to slow it down, when it is inauspicious.” (Liu, pages 33-34)

What this means is that change is inevitable. Your task as an actor within the world is to adapt to that change, and to make decisions on how to act given the broader context. An individual does have freedom of choice, but that freedom is situational; it is limited by the situation the individual is in.

Now if that's not too confusing, let me explain how I fit into the grand scheme of publishing within this philosophy!

I am one person — one agent or actor — within a web of other actors that include editors, publishers, literary agents, other authors, booksellers, librarians, readers, book printers, ebook manufacturers, and any other actors that have anything to do with book publishing. I can certainly make choices about what I do within this industry. I can choose to write about lesbians, as opposed to straight people. I can choose to write about people of color, as opposed to white people. I can choose to be frustrated by the lack of diversity on bookshelves in general, or I can choose to co-found Diversity in YA (www.diversityinya.com) with my friend Cindy Pon.



A lot of people are upset about the lack of diversity on book covers in the YA department. A lot of people are angered by those who seek to remove books that include queer people from libraries and schools. A lot of people feel like they're up against a monolithic corporate giant (the book publishing industry); they see it as a David vs. Goliath situation (to borrow an analogy from an entirely different faith).

I absolutely have been upset, angered, and made to feel like I can't make a difference. But I also know that change will always happen. It is inevitable.

Your hair grows without you even noticing. Once I was terrified of saying "I'm gay," and now I can say it easily. Once the United States was predominantly white; now, it is 35% non-white, and it's estimated that by 2050, whites will be a minority.

There are changes happening within the ecosystem of the publishing industry, too, which is part of the broader web of human society. In addition to adapting to changing technology, the publishing industry will have to adapt to the changing demographics of its readers if it wants to stay in business.

Every actor within the industry can make decisions about how he or she will act in their situation. I want to see an industry that invests in stories about people of color and LGBT people, so I am choosing to act in ways that will contribute to that. I am hoping that projects like Diversity in YA can raise awareness of the fact that readers exist who are diverse, and who want to read about a diverse world.

I want to enhance the trend of diversity in YA publishing, because I believe it truly is auspicious. Everybody reading this post can help enhance that trend, too. I hope you'll join me in taking action that does exactly that.

Thank you so much Ms. Lo! And stay tuned for my Huntress review later this week.

Ash

Ash by Malinda Lo 2009
Little & Brown/Hachette Book Group

Rating: 100/5!!

IQ "She wasn't exactly telling the truth, but she wasn't entirely lying, either, for she did not believe that wrong was an accurate description of her feelings. Perplexed, yes; uncertain, yes; but beneath it all something as yet unnamed was coming into focus." pg. 187

I chose the above quote because I think it fully exemplifies how people feel when they fall in love and I also think that it describes how people feel may feel when struggling to find out their sexuality (this is pure speculation, based on the few other books I've read, so in all probability I may be wrong and feel free to say so). As in, when first falling in love, people are confused. We don't know what this bubbly (cute song) feeling is that has come upon us, we feel uncertain but happy.

I LOVED this novel! As soon as I finished it, I knew that I had to review it on Christmas, a wonderful book for a wonderful day (if you don't celebrate Christmas, well then it's for a wonderful holiday season! Ash is a retelling of Cinderella. I must admit, I would prefer to have seen this version of Cinderella in movie form as a child or to have it read to me. Anyway, Ash is short for Aisling and her story starts off somewhat typically, just add in magic. Ash is devastated by the loss of her parents, especially the death of her mother. She wants to die and be with her family. Her stepmother has her working as a servant and her stepsisters are apathetic and even make her life worse. Enter Sidhean and Kaisa (I also adore all the names used in the novel). Sidhean is a powerful fairy and Ash falls in love with him, she wants to become a part of his world. Sidhean is handsome and seems to care deeply for Ash, but he's also dangerous. She feels that only in the world of fairies will she be happy (short of death and in a way you do die when you join the faeries). Then she meets Kaisa who is the King's Huntress. Kaisa is beautiful, friendly to her and doesn't treat Ash like a lowly servant (unlike everyone else in her life). She treats Ash with respect. She teaches her things and listens to her. In a way, Ash is a love triangle but within that love triangle are the deeper forces, Sidhean represents death and Kaisa represents life. Who will she chose? Also, all the characters are three-dimensional. We learn their stories and while some don't change, we learn the motives behind their actions, and some characters do change for the better.

I love the twists in Ash. Not just the obvious of Ash falls in love with a woman. Their romance is slow to develop but it's thoroughly enjoyable. But that's not what this novel is about. Ash is not a coming out story, it's more of a coming of age story. Even more it's about a girl coming to terms with her grief and learning to love again. She is at rock bottom and love saves her. Ash is grieving and Sidhean is a way out, he's not Prince Charming (he is charming though). He's her fairy godmother (fairy godfather to be politically correct ;p). Also his help comes at a price. Ash is unpredictable because while you suspect the story will have a happy ending, there is a good deal of pain and trials to go through. How exactly will Ash get her happy ending?

The writing in Ash is absolutely beautiful. You turn each page slowly and you never want the story to end. I relished each place. I could have stayed in Ash's world forever. I could perfectly envision it in my mind's eye. A place where everyone is accepting of people's gender (there's no preconceived gender roles), sexuality (there are gay couples and it's totally fine) and race. Race is never really mentioned in the book, only in descriptions of character's appearance, although the author has said that she has always seen Ash and Kaisa as Asian. Wouldn't it be nice to live in a world where people's race and sexuality were accepted as is and that no one was told they could not do something because of their gender? I also loved this world for the fairies. They are beautiful, cold, magical beings. They hide from the humans and the only real source of conflict in Ash's world is over whether or not fairies exist, and the practicing of magic by greenwitches. And of course, the exquisite scenery described in Ash adds to the attraction of her world. Ash spends much of her time in the Woods, where faeries are said to lurk. The Woods are described with such detail, you can envision them perfectly in your imagination.

I can't recommend this book enough. Ash will blow you away, it's just lovely. I finished this book feeling satisfied with a happy content feeling, but then later on, I wanted more (the author is working on a story set in the same world but thousands of years earlier, I believe). I'm so glad I bought this book because Ash is a book I will treasure and re-read countless times. Also, the cover is gorgeous! I'm so glad that one of my new favorite books has a great cover to go with it :) There's no graphic violence or sexually explicit acts so I'm going to recommend this to all who are in 7th grade and up.

I want to close this review with a quote from the author (which I found watching this video because I think she is right on and I couldn't have said it any better myself (I'm paraphrasing a bit) "The real fairytale is that nobody cares that she's gay. The fairytale is that she can fall in love with another woman and it's as normal and wonderful as any heterosexual romance." Amen! It's a beautiful romance, but Ash is about so much more; loss, love and hope. Ash is a must-read. Don't miss out on this stunning debut novel.

PS Merry Christmas everyone!!!! And I hope everyone continues to have a happy holiday season :)