Huntress

I loved Malinda Lo's first book Ash and was excited to about Huntress. I got this book through Book it Forward ARC tours. It was a wonderful book. The story was more complicated and expansive than Ash. It again features a romance between two women, there is also a lot of adventuring and some

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magic.

Kaede and Taisin are two girls in their late teens. Kaede is the daughter of a the King's Advisor and more knowledgable in fighting and handcrafts than the magic at that the academy she iattebds. Taisin is a progidy at the academy and has a vision involving her and Kaede and a castle of ice. The land the two girls live in has fallen on hard times and the situation is dire if winter is not brought to an end. The two girls end up being sent along with the King's son on a journey to visit the Fairy Queen in hopes that the Fairy Queen will be able to help them end the long winter that is gripping the land.

This book is written much in the style of Ash; so if you liked that book I think you will enjoy this one. Lo writes at a deliberate pace with beautiful descriptions that create lush images in your mind. The romance in the book is keep somewhat innocent and sweet, as it was in Ash. The two characters that fall in love are both women, but it isn't the same sex issue that makes their love star-crossed, it is more an issue of class and occupation. Lo gives us a wonderfully sweet and adventurous story that features these two women, each strong in their own way, and doesn't really make a big deal about their sexuality...which is how it should be.

There is a lot more action in this book than there was in Ash and a lot more adventure. Rather than being blunt about magic this book has more a tone of magical realism about it. This book is supposed to be the prequel to Ash; but, although the world is the same, the customs of the characters are distinctly Asian and the cultures have a very different feel to them. You definitely don't need to read Ash to enjoy this book.

Both Kaede and Taisin are admirable characters, they are strong and yet have a lot of moments where they doubt themselves. I enjoyed reading about them and found them likable. I love Lo's writing and while the pacing is slow at some points, especially when the characters journey through the Woods, I think that the pace is appropriate in that it helps the reader get a sense of their grueling journey.

The book ends well, although I think some readers will be a bit bothered by it. I personally enjoyed the ending, is wasn't fairy tale happy but it was realistic and kept with the tone of the rest of the story.

Overall a wonderful new book from Lo. I will continue to read Lo's works. Lo gives us deliberately paced novel, with beautiful description, heart-pounding adventure, and a sweet romance. If you loved Ash you will love this book. Fans of classic fantasy adventure with a thread of romance through it will find lots to love in this book.

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Huntress is a mediocre Japanese inspired fantasy, set in a preindustrial world. The world building is at best perfunctory, and uninspired. The characters are simplistic, and their interactions never more than approximations. The plot becomes increasingly unbelievable and immature, at the end it is

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remarkably bad.
The start of the story seems interesting enough, and the lack of background is fine at first, making the book seem more mature than it is. Later on when it becomes obvious that the author is unable to provide any details or complexity to neither the worlds or the characters, it makes the ineptitude of the author obvious. The inner voice of all the characters are interchangeable, and the very occasional shift to a 3. Party is really not helping at all.

The obvious Asian inspiration makes the book stand out from the gazillion European medieval inspired fantasy novels out there, as does the lesbian romance subplot. The vision that foreshadows the story, as the first violent encounter foreshadows the climax, is well done, but the last part of the book is truly atrocious.

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I wasn't sure if I wanted to read this book, because I was a bit bored when I read Ash. I definitely liked this book a lot better. The plot was fast-paced and the characters were much more interesting. Despite the long length of the book, the plot felt like it moved fairly quickly and kept the

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reader engaged. The story does not follow the traditional exposition-rising action-falling action-climax-resolution setup, but rather contains continuous climaxes as new problems are introduced.

At the start of the book, there is a pronunciation guide, which was helpful, given how much I hate not knowing how to say a characters' name.

And the characters themselves were so much better than in Ash. Here are characters that actually do things instead of waiting around for others to tell them to do something. I found the characters likeable, although a little annoying once the childish love element comes in.

But one of the things that really left me wanting more was explanations of some of the Chinese and Japanese traditions used in the story such as I Ching and qigong. References are made to oracle stones and meridians with no real details on what these traditions are or what they entail. I would have liked to see more details on such practices in the text instead of vague references.

Another thing that made this book a bit difficult was the constant shifting of narration. The entire book is in third person, but the focus of the omniscience narrator switches between characters so quickly that it is often difficult to follow and I had to reread sections to figure out who they were referring to.

In the edition I have, the short story The Fox, is included. I'd give this story three stars, because while the writing was nice, it was reminiscent of Ash in that not much happened and it left me wondering why I even read it.

Overall, I think Huntress was well-written with good characters and an interesting plot.

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There is one reason I tried to read Huntress and this is it:
I was tired of saying "I want more f/f not-coming-out romance" and seeing Malinda Lo's books recommended to me.

I liked Ash quite a bit, but more for what I put into the story than what was actually on the page. I was happy enough to see

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the worldbuilding and a f/f romance in fantasy that I was willing to overlook the serious flaws. But I knew that I would never want to read Huntress, unless Lo became leaps and bounds a better writer.

Unfortunately, the book is terrible. I say unfortunate because it has so much going for it and due to being one of a very small number of books with those features, it ends up on What To Read lists all the time. It's the f/f romance, of course, and fantasy, and clear Asian influences in the setting. In fact, from a distance, if you squint, the story and worldbuilding are incredibly appealing (if you like traditional fairy tale quests, which I do).

Someone else on LibraryThing summed up on the problem with the book very well, so I paraphrase: it's just off. The characters don't work. The romances are pushed but unearned. The technical aspects of the writing are just plain bad.

I got about a third of the way in before I gave up and started skimming, then just stopped at the halfway mark because nothing was grabbing my attention to delve back in. I would like to know how the quest ends and what all the Xi/faeryland stuff is about, but not enough to endure the terrible pacing and bouncing back and forth between POVs and the constant clunky explanations in POV of things that don't need explanations. ("She felt that" "He realized that" etc.)

But I guess now I can stop feeling aggrieved that everyone keeps telling me to read a book I don't want to read, and instead I can feel insulted that everyone keeps praising such a bad book simply because it's one of a very small number.

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The premise: ganked from the author's website: 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

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cast, and Kaede and Taisin, two seventeen-year-old girls, are picked to go on a dangerous and unheard-of journey to Taninli, 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.

My Rating: 5 - It's a Gamble

I was pretty dissatisfied with this book, and the only thing that kept me reading was the fact it was a YA and a fast read. And Lo's world-building is interesting. I liked the magic of the world, the peril it was in due to the constant cloud cover and bad weather, I liked the very simple fact that homosexuality was the norm and therefore not a source of conflict, which allows the reader to focus on the natural conflict of the plot. I just wish I was behind the romance itself a little more. While I really liked the resolution of it, sometimes I felt like the only reason these two girls fell in love was because of prophecy, and let's face it: sometimes, just knowing what the future holds means one is bound to make it happen, you know?

And the constant head-hopping, disguised as omniscient POV, drove me batty.

Still, it's a quick read, and fans of Ash may have fun making connections between the books, as this tale takes place many generations before Ash and unlike Ash, is not a re-telling of a well-known fairy tale. I'll keep my eye on Lo's work in the future, but I'm feeling pretty meh about this particular installment.

Spoilers, yay or nay?: Yay-ish. I really don't spoil anything that's not revealed in the prologue, but if you're spoiler-phobic, don't click on the full review below, which may be found at my blog. Everyone else, feel free!

REVIEW: Malinda Lo's HUNTRESS

Happy Reading!

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I really love Lo’s world she created in “Ash”, but she’s gone to an entirely new level in this companion-prequel, “Huntress”, which takes place several hundred years before “Ash” does. Either way, the imagery, the setting, and most importantly, the romances, are on entirely new

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level of storytelling compared to the earlier work.

I loved “Ash”, but to be honest, I think I love “Huntress” more. Everything feels so much more honed and heightened compared to the previous work, and while they take place in two totally different time periods, they’re still in the same world. And the romance between Taisin and Kaede is fraught with “oh no, this is so not going to end well”, unlike the happy ending given to us in “Ash”. I love how Lo is completely unafraid to give us an gay romance AND also unafraid to tell us that sometimes, ultimately, there are no happy endings.

Regardless, this is the story of how the position of the King’s Huntress (as seen in “Ash”, the girl she ends up with in the end) is established. This is Kaede and Taisin’s story – of two girls separately treading two very different paths, and how those paths will meet and merge and split again and again. There’s not enough of this reality in YA romance lit as it is – sometimes there aren’t always happy endings, but there is a happy now you can take advantage of even if the ultimate fate of your relationship is doomed to fail. I applaud Lo for reminding the YA audience of this really unpleasant reality, but even more so in presenting it in a LGBTQ-friendly way. There’s definitely not enough YA LGBTQ-friendly paranormal lit out there as it is, either.

I can’t wait to see what Lo does next, and I hope she stays within this world she’s created. I’d like to know what happens to Kaede and Taisin after the events in “Huntress” – maybe a few years later or something. Will Kaede stick to her post, and Taisin to hers? Lo seemed to leave this open-ended, and while I love stories with open-ends (if you could call them that), I’d still like another story/novella/anything to take the audience closer to Ash’s time period and tie all of the loose ends together. I guess I’m a bit OCD like that about my stories.

Looking for a refreshing summer read where you don’t need to read the first novel first? Pick up “Huntress”, and immerse yourself into a world long gone but fondly remembered.

(crossposted to goodreads, shelfari, and witchoftheatregoing.wordpress.com)

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First of all, 3rd POV! WOOT! LOVE LOVE LOVE!

The cover reminded me of a Japanese Mulan. Also I ADORED how every chapter, the first letter is intricately decorated. The map is beautifully drawn with great details but was also the simplest map I have seen. All the other maps I've seen always confuses

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me but this one actually made sense! :) WOOT! This book started out great because of how the parts were separated by a quote from The Book of Change. This totally reminded me of The Relic Masters series (and I LOVED that series) so Huntress had a fantastic start. If you love The Seven Realm series and the Grey Wolf Throne series, you will love this.
I love the writing style of Malinda. The words just form in such poetic way. It is so magical and captivating. The story is magical and mystical. The words seem to hypnotize me and dragging me deeper into the book. The world building is just amazing. I love how this book ultimately is a fantasy adventure book but there just a hint of romance. I think these types of book are my all-time favorites. It totally reminded me why I love the fantasy genre. The chapters are divided into little chunks that I adore. When I read, I read in small chunks. The mystery of the whole thing keeps you within the book. The creatures are like the Spiderwick Chronicles. The weirdness like the experiments from Fullmetal Alchemists. I love the Chinese and Japanese traditions in the book.

I love the development of the characters. Taisin, and Kaede's relationship grows at a sweet gentle pace. I wish all romances in books can develop so nicely. Most books just rush at the romance but leave everything else hanging. This book is just perfection. Taisin and Kaede's personalities are different but they cohere together very well. They are like a pair of duel blades, together in harmony, one without the other.

Shae, Con, Tali, and Pol were well developed. Shae and Con were strong and intelligent, and I ship them! They looked so cute together, a prince and a king's guard.

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Huntress is a well-written fantasy featuring two young women who travel to the realm of the Fairy Queen with the king's son, because the Fairy Queen has issued a mysterious invitation, the first in generations. Of course, the journey is full of dangers and hardships, and on the way the two young

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women find themselves attracted to one another, though they are from different stations and have different aims in life (one intends to be a sage, which requires a vow of celibacy).

I enjoyed the story, though it's a fairly typical hero's quest, and I wouldn't be surprised if the details don't stay etched in my memory. The romance stays fairly innocent, and even the fight scenes have a delicate and dream-like quality. I'd recommend it to fans of Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon, which has a similar feel to it.

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Ingeniously and beautifully written, it is truly unfair that Huntress has not received further awards and accolades. Being no stranger to the genre, I nevertheless found Huntress to be a wonderfully crafted coming of age story with surprisingly fierce “Woman Against Nature”

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structure.

Academically perhaps Huntress's most alluring quality lies in its setting: an amalgamation of Warring States Period Iron Age Chinese culture with European Fairy mythos. Although ultimately the Fae elements proved dominate, this combination of seemingly dispirit anthropology and folklore combined to create a wholly believable, compelling and startlingly teleological schema. Though given its bold move to incorporate ancient Chinese anthro into the mix, one might expect (in my case hunger for) more Tao proverbs, codes and ritual than what the reader is treated to. The burial rituals and protection spells were a nice touch though.

In addition, I’m blown away by the choice to create a plot that’s driven by Predestination Paradox. Seemingly very original for the genre (generally only seen in science fiction time travel stories), the plot hook which could have felt totally contrived actually feels appropriate and just plain cool.

Yet, the heart of Huntress lies not in its setting, but in its characters. Unlike Ash Lo’s second book in the “series” (for lack of a better word) offers the reader a fully-fleshed out understanding of both the protagonist and her love-interest. In fact all the primary characters are given their own small say as POV shifts continuously throughout the book (an odd but understandable choice). Naturally our heroine and huntress, Kaede, is given the primary focus of the story and her description and appreciation of natural beauty do not let us down. Yet, it’s really her... “companion” (not strong enough, more like her raison d’etre) Taisin who undergos the most dynamic character development. Taisin is a gifted young cleric who’s often unsure of herself and antisocial. Taisin lives in fear of a destiny she’s precognatively aware, but with enough hopes and dreams to allow Kaede to slowly draw her out. Eventually this bond helps Taisin realize her potential and decide who she is and who she wants to be. In the broadest sense the relationship represents a growing teamwork, as the girls come to recognize each other’s complimentary gifts. Through their internal psychological and psychic trials and external near-death journey together Kaede and Taisin eventually move beyond teamwork to something much greater and find destiny need not be avoided at all costs.

Additionally, I’d like to elucidate for a moment the ways in which Huntress is a natural progression from and improvement on Ash. In its ending (I do not intend to spoil), Huntress demonstrates how Lo has recognizes that a happy-ending is not always the most effective or desirable closure to a fairytale. As previously mentioned, Lo has chosen to offer the reader a better understanding of her characters’ hopes and fears and mental state. Also, by placing Huntress in the far past in relationship to Ash, Lo was allowed to greater explore who the Fae are and what species still existed at that time (the only detriment I can perceive by placing Huntress in the past is the loss of the lovely Renaissance diction and accent). Although it has recently become unfortunately endemic in young adult lit, the Wild Hunt is given form and the reader is treated to far fuller and more rewarding understanding of the Fairy Queen and fairy society (I wouldn’t have expected Taninli to so closely resemble Baum’s Emerald City, but whatever...). In terms of form, where Ash appears to follow a storybook/folktale fantasy aesthetic, Huntress has diverged into an adventure/suspense fantasy. Though both are wonderful reads, one gets the sense that Lo is moving slowly moving away from storytelling and incorporating more novel-like elements.

Yet, if Lo recognized the need for more character development, one must pause and consider why she chose to leave her antagonists all but voiceless and without any more concrete development. Naturally, being a young adult novel, the tendency is to relate to the heroine, but I’ve always thought this does little to prepare adolescents for the real world. In Ash the reader is treated to a clear cut understanding of who Aisling’s relatives are and how they perceive her. Although such an understanding is hinted at in Huntress, the reader is still left with something of an engima in its villain. Perhaps this was intentional, or a suggestion on the part of Lo’s publisher but if so I’d love to know why.

All in all, after reading Huntress I’m left feeling very satisfied with very few gripes. Huntress is simultaneously a breathtaking romance, a Tolkien-esque journey against unearthly monsters and incredible adversity and a fight against time to save the world (not to mention an adorable contribution to Young Adult Feminist and LGBT Lit) . Simply put, it’s incredible.

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Huntress had been on my wishlist for so long that I think I had forgotten what it was about. I knew it was a fantasy with Chinese influence and that's it. I think going into a book not knowing what to expect is good. Then every twist can be a total surprise. And I had plenty of surprises in this

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one! Good surprises!
This book was definitely a fantasy and I thought it was actually light on the Chinese influence (I was kind of comparing to Cindy Pon's books) which was fine. Not a big deal. It was definitely very different from Cindy's books, but almost as good (I still liked Cindy's books just a bit more, but they are so different that comparing really isn't fair ;). I thought that the story line was really good and only had a few issues with the book.
My first issue was POV. It was told third person and Malinda actually did a good job relaying the emotions and turmoils of the characters. A very good job, actually. But there were times, mostly in the beginning, that the POV changed so abruptly to relay what another character was thinking or feeling that it was a bit disjointed. It threw me just a bit. In the whole scheme of the story it really was a minor thing, especially since later that mostly cleared up. And I really was impressed with her ability to show each characters inner feelings so we were able to connect with them on a deeper level. That doesn't happen all the time with books in third person.
Another issue, minor issue really, was that the last bit of the book, the final conflicts, were really fast. Now the big conflict, that was okay. I mean I was wanting it to hurry cause I was about to have a hernia from holding my breath. But then there's one more little thing that has to be done for everything to be okay and that felt maybe a bit rushed. I think maybe a bit more suspense could have been thrown in. However, maybe she knew we were all getting light headed from holding our breath, so she decided to have it go more quickly ;)
This book has LGBT themes. I was surprised because for some reason I didn't know that, but I liked it. I liked how it was done and it felt natural and right for the story. I liked that it wasn't an issue in the book, it just was. I was glad that it was there and I think that it's important for teens to feel like it's just natural.
Overall I really liked this book. It was a fast read for a fantasy and it has a map (major bonus points!) which is nice to be able to follow where they go. It had adventure, (the whole thing was basically a long trip to the fairy lands) it had scary creatures and magic and the author wasn't afraid to take things in scary places. I definitely recommend!

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Huntress was my introduction to Malinda Lo. In fact, I only decided to put the book on my wishlist after I stumbled across it on Twitter and looked it up on Amazon. I hadn't even heard of Malinda Lo before, but the description of Huntress, not to mention the stellar reputation Lo seems to have

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among readers and fans, drew me in. After I found the book at my local library a few weeks after it came out, I had to pick it up.

Huntress tells the story of Kaede, a headstrong young woman who is training to be a sage. After finding a struggle was brewing, Kaede and Taisin are chosen to journey to the city of the Faerie Queen, where they encounter powerful magic, wonderful adventure and even romance. As they draw nearer to their mission, ultimately given to them from the Faerie Queen, the two girls are thrown into an unforgettable adventure.

Huntress was everything that I hoped for -an exciting, edge-of-your seat adventure brimming with action, magic and fabulous mythology. Overflowing with Chinese influences, Lo builds a fascinating world inhabited by unique characters. From the very beginning, I was draw into Kaede's quest and I wanted to know more about what was going to happen to her. More importantly, Lo's mythology is sold, unique and downright fun to read.

Recommended for fans of young adult adventure and fantasy. Huntress is a solid read that's worth the ride!

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Taisin’s vision leads her and her classmate, Kaede, to accompany their kingdom’s prince, Con, on a journey to visit the Fairy Queen in her faraway city of Taninli. A strange winter has settled over the kingdom, people are starving, and unrest is brewing. They believe that the Queen may have

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answers to their kingdom’s perils.

But the journey to Taninli and beyond is a dangerous one. As they encounter mysterious magical creatures, Taisin and Kaede also attempt to fight their attraction to one another. Love has no place, either on this journey or in their lives: Taisin must take a vow of celibacy if she is to achieve her lifelong dream of being a Sage, and Kaede’s father wants to arrange a political marriage for her. But the connection they fight may be just the thing that might save them when they finally learn what they are facing.

Malinda Lo’s beautifully written debut novel, Ash, was one of my favorite books of 2009, and I awaited the release of HUNTRESS with trembling anticipation. HUNTRESS turned out a little differently than I had hoped, but it was still a book that had me reading with bated breath and tearing up at the end.

The strongest part of HUNTRESS is, in my opinion, the romance between Taisin and Kaede. Their romance starts out hesitatingly: both girls are scared to acknowledge their growing feelings for each other. As the story progresses, however, their romance blossoms into an innocent and utterly beautiful thing, what they aptly describe as a warm gift in the middle of all their danger and worry. Taisin and Kaede’s relationship really makes you believe in the power of love without taking it over the edge and into unbelievability.

HUNTRESS is told in a sort of old-fashioned fairy tale narrative style, which employs omniscient third-person narration. The constant shirt in point of view may be a bit jarring, but it’s not wrong, especially considering the fact that books written in the nineteenth century used this literary technique all the time. However, I think it did contribute to my feeling of distance from most of the characters. I wanted more from all the characters: the constant switches in POV made it so that there didn’t seem to be a particular main character, and as a result everyone felt like a supporting character, with the potential for but not the actuality of depth.

Overall, however, HUNTRESS was a wonder-inducing fantasy read that spans time and distance. Don’t miss it particularly if you were a fan of ASH.

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Unicorns, fay, ancient China - put them all together, and you have Huntress. Malinda Lo's second novel is a definite pick-me-up with its gorgeous cover and writing full of metaphors.

I loved the magical, realistic storyline in Huntress. The characters were perfectly sculpted to fit the suspenseful

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plot. The descriptions were lush and vivid, though at times, there were too many descriptions, and I felt like the sentences were dragging on.

Malinda Lo's writing style is unique in young-adult fiction. I found myself comparing her writing to some short-stories I had to read for school in my English class. Its professional and falls perfectly under classics. The only thing I regret - I didn't feel as many emotions as I expected to. But nonetheless, there was that edge-of-your-seat-suspense in many places.

I have not read Lo's first book, Ash, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect of Huntress. Now I just have to pick up Ash! If you're looking for a read that weaves in hints of a different culture and a masterful plot, Malinda Lo's Huntress is definitely for you.

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This was a beautiful read. I really enjoyed reading this. I knew that this was a companion novel to Ash and that I didn't need to read it in order to read this one. So I dove into Huntress without reading Ash.

I must say, the love between the two main female characters is delightful. They understand

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that the mission comes first and that they cant be together no matter how much they like each other. Its interesting to see how their relationship develops.

Ignoring their relationship, their main goal is to get to the Fairy Queen lair and try to figure out why the world is an infinite winter. The journey is magical and harsh for them, but they endure it.

Beautifully written, would recommend to anyone.

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Stunning. Adventurous. Beautiful. Romantic. Lushly descriptive. Rich in culture and magic. High fantasy at it's very best. All of the above.

I could not wait to step back into the beautiful world that Malinda Lo built in her debut, Ash. In Huntress, we go back 200 years before the story of Aislynn

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and Kaisa, to see how the very first Huntress came about. Two students of the academy where sages are trained are called upon to make a perilous journey and meet with the Fairy Queen, hopefully to find out what she knows about the changes in the seasons that are destroying their lands. They are opposites, one is a devout student and a gifted seer who intends to become a sage. The other is a bit of wild child who will do anything to escape the fate her father has planned for her. Both of them were easily relatable, complicated characters. On this journey, they found bravery, adventure, strength, loss, friendship, and love.

The love story was perfect: tense and unsure, forbidden because all sages must take a vow of celibacy, they resist but dare to hope. They had this intense connection, each seemed to strengthen the other. As it played out, it was both heart-pounding and heart-breaking.

The language and flow and descriptions were just beautiful and completely effective in drawing up perfect visuals of what was happening in the story or the way something looked or sounded. One perfect example is this passage from the story:

The words were in another language---something brutal and dark, like a knuckle scraping against stone. She felt light-headed as her blood drained from her, making a slight hissing sounds when it struck the mixture in the clay pot. She couldn't look at the cut anymore, it was a mouth on her arm; it screamed at her.

One thing I did find slightly distracting was the quick changes in point of view. There were times when the POV would change so fast that I had to backtrack a few lines to be absolutely sure of who's head I was in, but it didn't take away from the story as a whole at all. I wouldn't have wanted it written any other way---all the different perspectives definitely added to the richness of the story.

This was another stunner from Malinda Lo---and I can only hope that she'll be writing these wonderful stories for a long time to come.

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This book was very different from anything I've read before- and in a good way. Huntress takes place in an ancient, mythical version of China were two girls, Kaede (kay-dee) and Taisin (tie-sin), along with Prince Con Isea Tan (Con Ee-say Tan), Con for short, embark on a long, mysterious adventure.

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Years ago, before any of their parents were born, the King of the Kingdom and the Fairy Queen had signed a treaty that stated that humans and fay must stay in their own territory, and one wishing to cross the boarder must be given a formal invitation.

When the current King receives an invitation from the Fairy Queen, the first in centuries, Kaede, Taisin and Con are the ones chosen to fulfill the task. The journey is long, dangerous and tiresome and more than one life is lost in the process. Struggling with the incredible task of surviving, as well as the girls' journey in deciding between embracing or rejecting their sexuality, these young travelers find themselves face-to-face with much more than they bargained for. Huntress is exciting, filled with magic and beautifully written, all the while laced with the journey of sexuality that people still struggle with today.

I really, really enjoyed this book. I have not read Ash, Malinda Lo's first novel, so I didn't know what to expect. But after reading Huntress you can bet Ash has secured a spot on my to-read list. This was my first venture into Chinese, or any type of Asian inspired fiction, and I really enjoyed it. I also appreciated the pronunciation guide listed in the front that names all of the characters and towns as well as the correct way to pronounce them.

One of my favorite aspects of this novel was the fact that one of the main characters was gay and another was struggling between submitting to her feelings and becoming a Sage, a high honor which requires a vow of celibacy. I liked this so much because, yes, it was different, but also because it was very real in this novel. It wasn't one of those novels that flaunt gay characters just to prove that they have gay characters. The lesbian characters in this novel added to the plot without being in your face. Lo wrote their relationship delicately, neither drawing the reader's attention to the fact that they are gay or letting their minds completely skip over the fact. I was very impressed by how natural it all seemed do me.

I would definitely recommend this novel as it constantly kept my heart beating and my hands feverishly turning the pages. If you like magic, action or chinese fiction, Huntress is a book you don't want to miss!

*Thanks to Little Brown Books for Young Readers for supplying me with a finished review copy

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Summary: Kaede has been chosen, along with sage-in-training Taisin, to journey to the land of Taninli. There they will find the Fairy Queen, a mysterious creature who has called to them for assistance. The world is deteriorating, and Kaede must be brave enough to do what needs to be done to stop

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the world from dying.

My thoughts: I must admit—I have yet to read Malinda Lo’s debut novel, Ash (it’s always checked out from my library, which really speaks to its popularity). I wasn’t sure what to expect going into Huntress, but I’m incredibly glad I gave it a shot. As with most high fantasy stories, Huntress starts off gently, introducing the world in which the story is set and developing the characters. About halfway through the book, things really start to pick up, and the last hundred pages or so flew by at lightening speed.

It was easy to invest in Kaede and Taisin. Both are likable characters, but together they truly shine. Their relationship builds slowly and sweetly—the way I think relationships should develop (no insta-love here!). Both girls have completely different personalities, and their strengths and weaknesses were believable and well thought-out.

I only have one complaint about Huntress, and that is the narration style. The perspective jumps erratically between all the characters, which quickly becomes annoying. Still, the writing is otherwise fantastic: Malinda Lo’s words are full of imagery and beauty.

Overall, Huntress is a lovely high fantasy. The Asian-influenced world that Malinda Lo crafts is stunning, and her characters are just as intriguing. Even more noteworthy is the journey that Kaede and Taisin embark upon; they encounter many obstacles, all of which leave the reader breathless. Huntress is an excellent addition to the fantasy section of YA, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in an introduction to the genre.

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I actually read this prequel (set centuries earlier than Ash) first. I’m glad I did.
Richly characterized, both protagonists and secondary players have distinctive voices.
A list of the wealth of themes explored in this almost-traditional quest fantasy gives no clue to its readability and romance.

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Ostensibly an exploration of how the huntresses became so important to Ash’s culture, it contains an unabashedly tense and sweet romance, illustrating how one’s plans can be thoroughly and totally demolished by love, and how that destruction, among others, is a necessary part of life’s cycle. With elements of myth and magic from many cultures, China being only one, Huntress’s coming of age/discovery of self narrative is pitch-perfect. .
My only - very minor - quibble was that it seemed to drag a bit in the middle, more a function of the form than the writing, I thought.

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I guess I'd give it more like three and a half stars. I was pretty into it for most of the way, but the ending was sort of rushed. On the other hand, it was nice to read a fantasy novel where I didn't have to worry that there was going to be be a bunch of cringy misogynistic bullshit.

Huntress is a page turner with rich characters. They all have personalities and something to bring to the table.
I like the differences between Taisan and Kaede's voice, and what they bring to their party. It is also really cool to see how they fall in love and what brings each to their love and

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admiration. I like how the relationships all defy the norms, and everyone is okay with it.
Huntress always has something going on, and things that make me ask questions. I like the visions in this book, it's interesting to guess and then actually read which decisions and actions end up leading them there.

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I felt really let down by the end of this book. The first around 250 pages are set up, the boss fight is like two pages (for as big of a baddie as she was, she went down awfully quickly), and then *after* the boss fight, a character has to go get judged by a unicorn? Really good writing for most of

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the book (although the use of "queer" was getting to me because I just knew it was there as a joke), but the ending felt phoned in. This would have been four stars except for the weak ending.

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Ash had a very smoky original fairy tale feel to it, Huntress has a different sort of clarity to it that is surprisingly accessible. I really enjoyed the read.

I really enjoyed this book. It has a lot of great elements for a romantic adventure. The plot moves along at a fast pace, I really cared about the characters, and everything seemed to fit together. Highly recommended.

Maybe it's because I listened to this as an audiobook, but I could never really get into the characters the way I did in "Ash". I enjoyed the world building and the plot as ever, and the style and words make this book definitely worth the Finished.