Huntress
Author: Malinda Lo
Series: Prequel to Ash
Publisher: Little, Brown
How Received: review copy
Release Date: April 5, 2011
Nature is out of balance in the human world. The sun hasn't shone in years, and crops are failing. Worse yet, strange and hostile creatures have begun to appear. The people's survival hangs in the balance.
To solve the crisis, the oracle stones are cast, and Kaede and Taisin, two seventeen-year-old girls, are picked to go on a dangerous and unheard-of journey to Tanlili, the city of the Fairy Queen. Taisin is a sage, thrumming with magic, and Kaede is of the earth, without a speck of the otherworldly. And yet the two girls' destinies are drawn together during the mission. As members of their party succumb to unearthly attacks and fairy tricks, the two come to rely on each other and even begin to fall in love. But the Kingdom needs only one huntress to save it, and what it takes could tear Kaede and Taisin apart forever.
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Before reading Huntress, I hadn't read Ash. I've wanted to - I still do - but since this was a prequel, I knew I didn't have to, so I dove right into it without any idea of the world or the story or the writing style.
For some strange reason, I wasn't expecting much out of Huntress - yes, it sounded good, but I expected it to be one of those books I read and then forget about a week later. It's not the most fantastic read, but the characters are going to cling to my brain a lot longer than I anticipated.
I'll be the first to admit that, as pretty as Malinda Lo's writing is, I'm not a huge fan. Do I love the description? Yes. Did I think she can plot well and really get inside a character's head? Of course.
But I'm one of those people who needs their narrator to stick to one type of narration. I don't mind being in two characters heads - I loved learning about both Kaede and Taisin; like I said, the characters are going to stick with me for a while. But every now and then we'd get a few lines in some other characters head, or we'd get to see something they didn't see, and as interesting as it was, it irked me a little bit. I didn't need to see those things, and for a few lines I was sucked out of the story.
That's my biggest complaint with the story, though. It moved rather quickly - no lingering on tons of camping scenes or on extraneous details - and I loved the way the plot was set up. I'm very picky with people who can see the future, but I thought it was handled extraordinary well in this particular story.
And the characters! I loved them. Each was well rounded - there were no perfect characters, and even the villains had their reasons for doing what they did. I thought the romance between Kaede and Taisin was adorable and very well handled; I liked their romance as much, maybe more, than some of the other stories I've read lately. (And no, I don't mind that I'm a straight girl reading about two girls falling in love. It worked for this story. Love is love.)
Overall Rating & Final Comments: 8/10. A solid fantasy with fantastic characters, though the writing was a bit off every now and again.
Cover Comments: I love the cover, but it has nothing to do with the story, besides being all awesome and snow-y and what have you. Especially as neither of the main girls use a sword or long stick thing...
Huntress comes out in stores on April 5. You can preorder it online or pick it up in your local bookstore the day it comes out! Or, if you want, you can read an excerpt from the book here.