Ash- Response 2

After finishing Ash, I'd say that I really liked the way the author wrapped up the whole story, returning to one of the central themes of the novel, which is the search for a true home. While I enjoyed the author's style of writing, I thought that the novel started off rather slow. The more I read, the more the story compelled me to read and I found myself getting through it faster near the end of the book. In my last post, one thing I didn't mention was that this novel is a sort of retelling of the story of Cinderella. There are a lot of major differences in this retelling, but the story of the girl trapped as a servant in her stepmother's home remains the same. A large part of why I like this novel as much as I do is because it is a twist on a classic fairy tale. The story of Cinderella is one that everyone knows, and most young girls wish at some point or another that they could be so lucky to find such a prince and go from rags to riches. But the problem is that it is only accessible to those girls that want a prince. The ones that want a princess don't have a classic tale to look to. While this novel is not as well known or well loved as the classic tale of Cinderella, it tells a story that appeals to young people within the LGBTQ+ community. And I think that it is important for those young people to have the opportunity to read a Cinderella-like story, to have those kinds of stories available to them. While I still absolutely would have this book in my classroom library, I do not think that I would specifically teach this book because it starts off so slow and because it is a fantasy novel; I think that a more realistic novel would hold more appeal. Overall, a good book that I would recommend reading.