“Ash” by Malinda Lo was a reinvented, revamped, and reconstructed story of Cinderella and her fate. Except Aisling’s(Ash) fairy is a man named Sidhean and he wants to whisk her away to fairytale land until she meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, who grounds her to reality and makes her feel alive and have a purpose to live.
As I read through the book I noticed that the usage of story telling of myths and stories is embedded into the stories in itself which kind of grounds the fantasy aspect of the book. Parts like when Aisling is recalling the story of “The Farmer and the Hunt” which is when the Fairy Hunt is first mentioned in deep detail stating “if you see the Fairy Hunt riding, never approach them,”(28) which is a key concept that readers needed to fully grasp in the beginning of the book. Later on this same technique is used by Lo when she lets the Huntress tells the story of the “Eilis and the Changeling” to Aisling who was intrigued and informed more about the inner workings of past magic before the time of the philosophers and more people had believed more in the greenwitches. After the story was told Aisling prompts the Huntress “‘Have you seen a fairy?’ In the weeks since father had died, Ash’s memory of her midnight encounter with the Fairy Hunt had seemed more like a dream than a reality.”(55) So with the usage of storytelling the reader is either told explicitly about the past or hints of the magical pas of Aisling’s world is able to peek through the reality that they have now to inspire her actions and thoughts as well.
Another thing I learned from reading this book is that little unexplained events pop up out of nowhere or the foreshadowing effect is very well embedded that the reader does not think of it as foreshadowing but just tiny insignificant details or random events when in reality it is a key scene in the future.This is shown most prominently when she describes being in a Fairy Circle near her mother’s grave “There was a roaring sound in her ears, as the horses surrounded her, and she squeezed her eyes shut, afraid of what she might see.” (7) and later we see that she was not just in a very dangerous scene but key scene that reveals that Aisling is more powerful and important to the magical world than she seems especially when before her father gets ill she encounters the Fairy Hunt again,“Suddenly the riders move in unison, circling her, and she felt like she was being spun like a limp doll held by a willful child” (33). Then later the reader finds out just how dangerous being in the presence of a fairy is in the first place, only strengthens the characterization of Aisling and catches the reader off guard.
Another thing I learned from reading through this book is that the blending of reality and fantasy is a unique way to compare choices and dramatize the heaviness of said choices. Near the end when Aisling is almost complete with her dance with the Prince Aidan for Sidhean the two worlds blur between her and “Anchoring the two worlds together was Kaisa, who stood there for one moment looking back at her, and then continued on into the ballroom. The two worlds split apart again,”(220) and when Ash was with Sidhean a conversation transpires between them and that’s when Sidhean confesses that her mother cursed Sidhean to fall in love with Ash and that is why she must come with him when she is ready to willingly give up her life to live with him and leave any feelings she has (for Kaisa) behind she reacts later on by rethinking about the consequence of going with Sidhean because after she met Kaisa she now has found a purpose to live as reflected by her “But the girl looked like a specter, and if she were Ash, then Ash knew she had died as well. She tried to run away, but tripped on the root of the hawthorned tree and fell onto the grave…. And Ash wept, for she wanted to live. (234) Distinguishing fact between reality and fantasy helps the reader also understand how “grave” Aisling’s situation has become throughout the book. Especially dealing with magical beings with contracts.
Overall Ash is a great mentor text because it uses storytelling inside of storytelling to enhance the situations and information being passed around in the stories they tell within the story itself.The foreshadowing is subtly catches the reader off guard in a way that they better understand the situation with events that have happened before much like how regular human life works. Also it uses the mix of reality and fantasy to successfully dramatize the heavy decisions characters have to make.
As I read through the book I noticed that the usage of story telling of myths and stories is embedded into the stories in itself which kind of grounds the fantasy aspect of the book. Parts like when Aisling is recalling the story of “The Farmer and the Hunt” which is when the Fairy Hunt is first mentioned in deep detail stating “if you see the Fairy Hunt riding, never approach them,”(28) which is a key concept that readers needed to fully grasp in the beginning of the book. Later on this same technique is used by Lo when she lets the Huntress tells the story of the “Eilis and the Changeling” to Aisling who was intrigued and informed more about the inner workings of past magic before the time of the philosophers and more people had believed more in the greenwitches. After the story was told Aisling prompts the Huntress “‘Have you seen a fairy?’ In the weeks since father had died, Ash’s memory of her midnight encounter with the Fairy Hunt had seemed more like a dream than a reality.”(55) So with the usage of storytelling the reader is either told explicitly about the past or hints of the magical pas of Aisling’s world is able to peek through the reality that they have now to inspire her actions and thoughts as well.
Another thing I learned from reading this book is that little unexplained events pop up out of nowhere or the foreshadowing effect is very well embedded that the reader does not think of it as foreshadowing but just tiny insignificant details or random events when in reality it is a key scene in the future.This is shown most prominently when she describes being in a Fairy Circle near her mother’s grave “There was a roaring sound in her ears, as the horses surrounded her, and she squeezed her eyes shut, afraid of what she might see.” (7) and later we see that she was not just in a very dangerous scene but key scene that reveals that Aisling is more powerful and important to the magical world than she seems especially when before her father gets ill she encounters the Fairy Hunt again,“Suddenly the riders move in unison, circling her, and she felt like she was being spun like a limp doll held by a willful child” (33). Then later the reader finds out just how dangerous being in the presence of a fairy is in the first place, only strengthens the characterization of Aisling and catches the reader off guard.
Another thing I learned from reading through this book is that the blending of reality and fantasy is a unique way to compare choices and dramatize the heaviness of said choices. Near the end when Aisling is almost complete with her dance with the Prince Aidan for Sidhean the two worlds blur between her and “Anchoring the two worlds together was Kaisa, who stood there for one moment looking back at her, and then continued on into the ballroom. The two worlds split apart again,”(220) and when Ash was with Sidhean a conversation transpires between them and that’s when Sidhean confesses that her mother cursed Sidhean to fall in love with Ash and that is why she must come with him when she is ready to willingly give up her life to live with him and leave any feelings she has (for Kaisa) behind she reacts later on by rethinking about the consequence of going with Sidhean because after she met Kaisa she now has found a purpose to live as reflected by her “But the girl looked like a specter, and if she were Ash, then Ash knew she had died as well. She tried to run away, but tripped on the root of the hawthorned tree and fell onto the grave…. And Ash wept, for she wanted to live. (234) Distinguishing fact between reality and fantasy helps the reader also understand how “grave” Aisling’s situation has become throughout the book. Especially dealing with magical beings with contracts.
Overall Ash is a great mentor text because it uses storytelling inside of storytelling to enhance the situations and information being passed around in the stories they tell within the story itself.The foreshadowing is subtly catches the reader off guard in a way that they better understand the situation with events that have happened before much like how regular human life works. Also it uses the mix of reality and fantasy to successfully dramatize the heavy decisions characters have to make.