Wednesday, December 19, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Huntress by Malinda Lo




Huntress is a stand-alone distant prequel to Malinda Lo's "Ash" (reviewed here), her YA alternate (F-F romance) take on Cinderella.  Huntress is no longer a spin on a famous fairy tale, but instead is a pure F-F romance and fae fantasy journey tale taking inspiration from East Asian myths and traditions.  It's also a significantly longer book than Ash, which I found quite beautiful but perhaps a bit too short to be satisfying.

Huntress is, as a result, a book I enjoyed quite a bit more than Ash, which is saying something considering I enjoyed Ash.  The romance between the two leads is lovely well done and the other characters in the book are also excellent, with the plot taking turns that surprised, despite everything kicking off with a prophetic vision.  Would definitely recommend this book to YA readers, as well as others.


-----------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
Times are desperate in the Kingdom.  The Seasons are no longer properly turning, and the lingering winter threatens to cause countless deaths through starvation and is stirring up unrest against the monarchy.  It is in this point of time that the King receives an invitation to visit from the Queen of the Xi, the Fairy Queen, who has long kept to an agreement to leave the human kingdom alone as long as no one crosses the border without an invitation.

Taisin is a student at the Academy for Seers, an organization of magic users who are wise and can use seer stones to see somewhat into the future, and is one of the most promising students there.  Kaede is one of the worst students, with nearly no talent whatsoever, and she knows that her destiny as the daughter of the Lord Chancellor is not to become a seer, but to be used a a pawn in a political marriage instead...to her dismay.

But when Taisin sees a vision of Kaede journeying with Taisin and the King's son, the Prince Con, to accept the Xi Queen's invitation, it becomes clear that the two share a destiny that will take them to the Xi Queen's lands.  But Taisin has seen more than just Kaede alongside her, she has seen herself in love with Kaede and heartbroken at Kaede's departure.  But Seers take an oath of Celibacy, so how can Taisin be fated to fall in love?

Yet as Taisin, Kaede, and Con journey towards the Xi lands, they find disturbing things occurring on the outskirts of human lands, things that threaten all of their lives.  And as the journey takes them on a path that will require them to do the unthinkable in order to save both the human and fairy kingdoms, they find themselves drawn to each other more and more...despite the demands of their duties.
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Huntress is a book that follows three main characters, Taisin, Kaede, and Con, but really the focus is on the first two.  Interestingly, the book isn't written from single points of view, instead it is written in third person omni (or it shifts perspectives so frequently at times so as to feel that way), and this might seem a little confusing at times, but generally it works really well at showing the main characters' feelings as they go on the journey.

And that's really the main focus of this book, the growing feelings between Kaede and Taisin, feelings that Taisin in particular doesn't know what to do with at first - whereas Kaede is not afraid to get into relationships, Taisin has never felt love or lust before and the very prophecy that shows her feeling it for Kaede scares her more than anything given a Seer's celibacy.  This isn't to say Kaede is extremely aggressive in seeking relationships - she's a lot more willing to get into one, but is unsure of what to do with her interest in Taisin, whose shyness and future is so unlike her own.  That combined with their own other traits - Taisin's uncertainty about her own powers and Kaede's want to become physically strong but disgusted at the results in a brutal world - make them a remarkable couple and the romance between them is really well done.

*Nicely, this world finds nothing unusual in a F-F relationship, even if a marriage for power reasons is still M-F.  Prince Con jokes with Kaede about whether he'll be fighting her for the affections of one of their guards and is essentially cheerleading Kaede and Taisin's relationship on, because none of it is abnormal in this world.   

 The plot is surprisingly...unpredictable for a story which begins with a prophetic dream - we may know what's coming eventually to some extent, but why that's coming is surprising and the way things resolve frequently came out differently than I would expect, including that of the central romance.  And yet, from what we learn about these characters, these resolutions work to be satisfying, even if I wanted to know what happened to the characters after the plot of this book (a snippet of Kaede's life after the book is in a short story included in the edition I read, but it's not enough and I wanted more!).

Huntress isn't perfect - this is a book about a journey and the romance and development that happen along the way, but the climactic actions at the end of that journey do come a bit abruptly (although not as abruptly as in Ash) - the fifth and final part of the book is only three chapters long and it really feels kind of quick.  And I wish there was an epilogue to wrap things up and to show how things turned out for the characters afterwards.  Still, it's a really fun and beautiful fantasy romance that I'd definitely recommend to YA or non YA readers.
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