Ash- Response 1

One thing I noticed about this book that I particularly liked is that it is subtle in its portrayals of same-sex couples. At one point, the main character, Ash, goes to a celebration and she sees two women separate themselves from the crowd and kiss before going back in. But, rather than some big reaction, there is nothing; Ash just starts thinking about something else. Later, she is talking to a woman, Kaisa, who tells Ash her favorite fairy tale, one in which a woman falls in love with another woman. But, again, the focus is on the story itself and not on the women lovers. I really like this subtlety because I think that there is often a lot of drama surrounding same-sex couples in novels; that kind of shock and awe that comes with something that is outside the norm. This novel shows same-sex relationships as a normal, even mundane, part of society; that those women are no different from Ash's sister, who has so far spent the entire novel in search of a husband. I think that this is important for young adults to see, whether they are a part of the LGBTQ+ community or not because it helps to normalize same-sex couples so that there is no greater reaction than there would be to hetero couples. Although I haven't finished yet, I can say that already I would want to have this book in my classroom library.