Young Adult Book Reading Challenges discussion
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Angie, YA lovin mod!!
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rated it 2 stars
Nov 02, 2011 10:53AM
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Overall, I enjoyed Ash. But, I wonder about it's appeal to a teen audience. It's languid pacing and atmospheric language don't have the readability of most popular YA fiction, in my opinion. As an adult, I appreciated the literary-ness of the storytelling style, but I wonder if teens would stick with it. Are any teens reading it with the group? Or are any of the participants teachers/librarians/parents of teens who have read it? I would like to know how it is being received in its target reading group.
I read this when I was 20 I think, this is not a teen anymore but close enough I guess ;D I really enjoyed the writing, I thought it was quite beautiful but the story and characters fell flat for me. The pacing was too slow and the characters (especially Ash) too flat.
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You can get a signed copy of Ash! Stop by her site and enter!
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I really loved the fairy tales spun into the story! There was fairy tales within fairy tales! I like the addition in the story of the faeries in the forest. BUT I didn't like the ending. Sidhean let Ash go so easily and so fast. She goes to the forst to tell him she will only be with him one night and he just says OK. EVEN though he has granted two HUGE wishes. I feel like he wouldn't have let her go so easily. It's like the author was only allowed so many pages and just cut the ending out.
I find it interesting that our last two book clubs picks have been featured in Bitch magazine! How interesting: http://bitchmagazine.org/post/bitch-y...
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I am not sure how many teens actually read along with this group. I have been the moderator since day one and have had a few teens step in and out of monthly discussions. I would also like to know what teens think!!
This story didn't really work for me. The writing was quite skilled, but I never connected with the characters. I also thought the plot was rather meandering and all choices were too easy and the troubles were very conveniently resolved. Never for a moment did I feel something big was at stake.Speaking of Sedhean, what did you think happened during that night Ash spent with him? My understanding was, nothing happened at all, he just let her go.
Tatiana wrote: "This story didn't really work for me. The writing was quite skilled, but I never connected with the characters."This is exactly how I felt. There was a lot to it, and I really appreciated the twist on the fairy tale and how there seemed to be a real world beyond Ash's tiny part in it, but it was ultimately a little hard to connect to the story on a whole.
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Good question about her last night with Sedhean. I remember him saying that one night in his world is not the same as one night in her world. So how long was she really there? That is what I mean about the ending being too abrupt. There was nothing about that. I think she may have been in his world for many months!
When he said that, I thought that he meant that one night in fairy could be many months in the real world, not other way around.
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I must have misunderstood. That bit was pretty cryptic.
I finished it and enjoyed it as a whole. What I really enjoyed was the dreamy fairy tale feeling that we get throughout the story, which obviously, allows us to compare this story with Cinderella, but allowed Ash to compare her life with some of the stories that she had read.I though Ash was for the most part well developed and we do get a good sense of her frustrations.
I agree that Sedhean seemed to let her go too fast, but perhaps, because that last night, and really, most of the interactions between Ash and Sedhean are mysterious, I might have missed something.
The ending was interesting if expected and provides an interesting gender reversal to Cinderella. At first, I thought that it seemed rushed, I mean Ash and Kaisa obviously enjoy each others company, but they seemed to be mostly at the friend stage and not quite at the madly in love with each other stage. Then again, in fairy tales, people do seem to fall in love quickly and that's how the stories often end which is what we got here.
And no, I am not a teen, lol, but when I do read YA, I do ask myself questions along the lines of how would I have reacted to this as a teen? I think I would had liked the general story, but like someone said, it moves somewhat slowly and is dreamy, which isn't bad, but I think I might have preferred more action at that age. The LGBT elements are there, but at the same, time it isn't simply a story about simply a young woman's attraction to another woman. If anything, her sexual orientation is still open for debate, but she clearly appreciates Kaisa.
Angie wrote: "Sidhean let Ash go so easily and so fast. She goes to the forest to tell him she will only be with him one night and he just says OK. EVEN though he has granted two HUGE wishes. "Ash gave him MUCH more than just that one night. She released him from her mother's curse so that he could stop loving her. The only reason Sidhean wanted her was to mitigate the effects the curse had on him. It was agony for him to be in love with Ash. He thought the solution would be for him to possess her forever. She found a better way out for him and for her by lifting the curse.
If you think that's nothing, think about how it would feel to spend eternity with someone you were 'forced' to love. How pleasant would that be?
Oscar wrote: "And no, I am not a teen, lol, but when I do read YA, I do ask myself questions along the lines of how would I have reacted to this as a teen? I think I would had liked the general story, but like someone said, it moves somewhat slowly and is dreamy, which isn't bad, but I think I might have preferred more action at that age..."I'm not a teen either but I'm not sure my tastes when I was a teen were very different than they are now. What appealed to me then, and still appeals to me now, is a well-crafted story that makes me think - makes me look at something familiar from a new viewpoint. I don't necessarily like a fast-paced story just because it's fast-paced. There has to be more to it - no the least of which is a reason for the pacing. And I don't believe today's teens prefer fast-paced books either. If they think they do, it's because they haven't, yet, learned to appreciate language and how it can be used.
Tatiana wrote: "When he said that, I thought that he meant that one night in fairy could be many months in the real world, not other way around."I agree. She also asked him if she would die and he replied "only a little". I took that to mean that she was much older by the time the evening was over.
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As..."
This is why I love book clubs, I didn't even think of this. I had been so focused on him wanting to be with her that I didn't think about him not really wanting to be with her!! It is true, I can see him not really wanting to be in a forced love, especially with a human.
I was somewhat disappointed with this story. I feel it had a lot of potential, but I didn't find myself getting really interested until the end, which was quite abrupt in my opinion. The fairy tales were quite interesting, but there was just too much of them. And the dreams... There were so many dreams, sometimes I had to go back a few pages because I couldn't remember if what I was reading was real or not. If it had been a longer book it might have worked, but now if you break it down there's only about a quarter of the book that is Ash's actual story.
Stephanie wrote: "And the dreams... There were so many dreams, sometimes I had to go back a few pages because I couldn't remember if what I was reading was real or not. If it had been a longer book it might have worked, but now if you break it down there's only about a quarter of the book that is Ash's actual story. "But we really wouldn't understand why Ash did what she did if it wasn't for her dreams. Her dreams are her story.
Oh, I agree that I wouldn't cut any of the dreams because they're very important to the story, but I don't feel the ratio dream/real life is balanced enough. If anything I'd add more story, like I said if it had been a longer book it would have worked perfectly. After all the writing is excellent.
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Angie wrote: "Will anyone read Lo's second novel called Huntress?"Yes, absolutely! It looks really good, and I think I'll enjoy it a lot more than I did Ash (which wasn't bad, but didn't really grab me the way I imagined it would).
I really enjoyed this especially because it gave us a new opinion on things. I understand why a lot of people felt like it was not really a teen book, but honestly I think that's because there isn't really a age group for college aged people. I don't really like too many adult books (I'm 22) so I stick with YA because I can relate to it better. I did like this book, I would have liked to get more of a explanation on what happened when she went with the fairies for a bit, since we never find out.
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