A blog of my running thoughts while reading. *Warning: Spoilers*
This was a great book. It managed to truly be a retelling of Cinderella, but to give agency to Cinderella herself, which is usually lacking. She chose her own ending and it was perfect. She managed to keep her word and fulfill her bargain to Sidhean, but also to find her way to her own true love in the end. It was surprisingly simple and extremely satisfying.
Twice now Ash has wished to attend an event in secret and twice Sidhean has granted her wish, but he has made her promise to be his in return. So when will she go with him and why does he want her? And what will happen with Kaisa at that point? This is an intriguing retelling of Cinderella that seems unlikely to have the typical ending!
Ash’s relationship with Sidhean has gotten extremely complicated, but at least she’s making friends with the huntress, Kaisa. I don’t know yet where that friendship is going, but I’m really glad that Ash found a friend. Hopefully this will be good for her. I’m also kind of intrigued by the medallion Sidhead gave to Ash. I’m enjoying this book a lot.
Ash is getting lost in her desire to stay with the beautiful fairy. Why is he so appealing to her? As odd as it seems, she seems to fascinate him as well. It almost seems like Ash’s stepmother arranged for her to be a virtual slave. I kind of wonder how much, or even if, Ash’s father’s debts really were.
So far I’m interested. Ms. Lo has built a kingdom who’s spiritual history is pretty clearly based on the Christian expansion into northern Europe and the British Isles (or at least on the sort of legendary version of it that many people know). She’s using old European fairy lore as well. I have to wonder if the mother in the tree will end up being a ghost (as it was in the German version of the story) or a fairy in disguise. It will be interesting to see where this goes!
How are the dragons any better off with only a male dragon remaining than they were with only a female dragon remaining? That doesn’t make any sense at all! And I’m more than a little disappointed in our one female hero. Her only skill of value to this adventure was being able to heal a dragon and she couldn’t even do that! She fainted! Augh!
Wait. The old man claimed that he wasn’t a healer any more maybe five pages ago, but all of a sudden he’s got herbs and is healing Orson with incredibly powerful magical healing powers? How does that work? This book is so strange! And these are the worst villains ever! The evil lord who has been dominating the countryside was defeated by half-starved birds while his wizard (who you can tell is really evil because he wears human teeth in his hair and a black cloak) was defeated by bread. That’s right – bread!
So far I’m not terribly impressed with this book. It reads like a cheap knock-off of Eragon, which was a knock-off of a number of other stories already! The art is not what I would expect in a book aimed at teenagers (it’s very childish) and the story is frustrating in many of the same ways Eragon was. The hero has an old injury that pains him, frustrates him and restricts his movement, he is the prophesied hero who alone can connect with the only remaining living dragon in a special, magical way, there is a beautiful and magical girl who believes in his power more than he does and who he has a crush on, an evil, usurping lord who killed all the other dragons and now wants to control the remaining one, etc. See? Same story. He’s even a second son farm boy from a small town and his mother is dead.
This book was interesting, but I felt like it kind of glossed over a lot of the major issues involved. I’m not sure why. It just kind of felt like it spent a great deal of time repeating things while it barely mentioned some of the central issues. It’s not a bad introduction to the topic, but it’s strangely full of gaps.
The major message that I’m getting from this book so far is that the US has always been run by narrow-minded, prejudiced jerks. It’s weird how a soon as some people become citizens they forget that they ever weren’t and even many immigrants manage to subscribe to the idea that immigrants are inferior to Americans. So many Americans are so proud of their immigrant heritage, but can’t stand new immigrants. Somehow they just can’t see the hypocrisy of that.