Huntress

Written by Malinda Lo

Narrated by Emily Woo Zeller

A different kind of hero's quest.

Nature is out of balance in the human kingdom. The sun hasn’t shone in years, crops are failing, and families are starving. Worst 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 cast, and the destinies of two seventeenyear-old girls become entwined when they are chosen to go on a dangerous and unheard-of journey to Taninli, the city of the Fairy Queen. Taisin is a powerful
Sage-in-training, thrumming with magic, and Kaede is of the earth, without a speck of the otherworldly. 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 the sacrifice required could tear Kaede and Taisin apart forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781705048221

Reviews for Huntress

[payday1999-430350 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was action and adventure and I liked the characters. I heard that this is in the same world as her other book Ash, but I have never read that book before and you probably don't need to read the other one to enjoy this.

[elenaj-147457 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is kind of bleak, although also warm-hearted, but its real problem, from my perspective, is that it feels a little paint-by-numbers to me. The setting, theme, and characters are interesting and rich, but the plot lacked zing. There were points were the only surprise for me was that the plot went the most obvious and straightforward route. This is perhaps appropriate for the fairy-tale atmosphere, but it didn't really work for me. I like a bit more twistiness to my stories.

Disappointing, because a lot of the elements of the story are really cool and creative.

[isana-943166 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lo's writing is so enthralling. I was in love with all the characters and the story just made me want to continue reading. Ash was good, but you can see the great improvement in her skill here. This doesn't feel as rushed as Ash did and the story feels more fleshed out.

It's not overwhelming either, which is nice since I handle intense books very badly. There was action and a super cute romance, but I never felt like it was too much. It was a lovely light read. Perfect for young adults and those who like their stuff on the more relaxing side.

I'm happy I picked it up.

[gleipnir-318769 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I really wish I liked this book more than I do. It has pretty much everything that I could ever want or identify with in a novel: queer characters, Asian characters, positive female characters, fantasy elements, worldbuilding. As a queer Asian-American lady, I can dig that! Positive media representation is fantastic!

But despite everything that should have made me fall in love so hard with this book, I just couldn't. Now, I realize that this is a YA novel. I realize I can't be expecting David Foster Wallace levels of prose here. And I wasn't. But the writing here was so lackluster that I had to put the book down a good half-dozen times so that I could find something more invigorating to read, like, say, a technical manual.

This novel also suffers from the same poor pacing and uneven plot development that Lo's previous novel Ash suffered from. That is to say: things drag miserably for the first two-thirds of the book, and then everything happens within the final third in such a way as to seem improbable and strained.

Final verdict: 1.5/5 stars

[keristars_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[glitzandshadows · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kind of a 3.5. I loved the story and characters, but the writing did a lot of telling and not enough showing.

[carebear36 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I found myself swept up and engaged in this story of two people who fall in love, despite themselves, almost. Kaede wants to be a celibate sage, wants this desperately, her dreams are filled with Taisin, who wants desperately to escape her life, to engage in relationships with women, to not marry the man her father has chosen to further his career and his family. They go on a mission to help restore the seasons, something is off, the faerie seem to be involved and the two of them are drawn to help. Along with Con and some soldiers, they have to fight their way and learn to work as a team to fix this.I liked it, loved the characters and their story, left wondering what was going to happen next with Kaede and Taisin and what would they do.

[librarycatnip · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[mothwing-2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

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.

[pwaites_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Huntress is a low stress, fairly simple young adult book about two girls who go on a quest to save their kingdom and happen to fall in love with each other along the way.The book starts with Taisin, a seventeen year old training to be a sage, having a vision. She sees herself watching a girl she loves deeply row away to what’s probably her death. Taisin’s vision is proven to be crucial to a journey to visit the Fairy Queen, a visit that’s hoped to save the kingdom from starvation and the strange and dangerous creatures that have started to appear along the border. Taisin, Kaede, the king’s son, and three guards are thus packed off on this dangerous quest.Huntress has both its good points and bad points, but I’ll start with the good points. For one, I liked the atmosphere of the world. Lo was able to communicate well the threat the kingdom was under, the coldness, the perpetually grey sky… the Great Woods really evoked a sense of darkness and malevolence. I also liked how the magic was set up and tied into the world.I liked the major characters all right, even if they never really came alive to me. Taisin, Kaede, and Con (the prince) all had basic personalities and were at least distinguishable from one another.Huntress also benefits from being something different than the normal YA fantasy fare – how many books are there in an Asian based setting where the two female protagonists fall in love? I also liked how the drama between Taisin and Kaede wasn’t because they were both girls. The world Lo’s created doesn’t seem to have any homophobia, and the drama’s instead due to Taisin wanting to become a sage, which means taking a vow of chastity.Also, Con wasn’t in unrequited love with one of the lesbian protagonists. So kudos for that.For the bad points… Huntress has third person omniscient POV that shifts around constantly. I actually didn’t find it annoying in here as I have in other books.As a result of the vision that Taisin has in the beginning, there’s a sort of paradoxical instalove. Taisin has feelings for Kaede before she even knows Kaede. At least on Kaede’s part things were more gradual.The villain was incredibly weak and underdeveloped. Plus, there was a long monologue near the end. Urgh.Speaking of the end, the climatic Grand Confrontation felt very brief. It needed more depth and time spent on it. Most of the book was spent on characters traveling to the climatic Grand Confrontation, which also was pretty vague and mystical – sort of like what Robin McKinley writes for her confrontation scenes.This next paragraph is vague but might be considered spoilers, so read at your own risk. I wasn’t happy with the ending. I get that it was realistic in the the future is uncertain, I think. A choice may have been made at the end, but the character’s decision was not explained, which leaves me confused to as if there even was a decision. I also feel like the idea of a possible third choice was being set up, but it was not explored. Overall, I would have liked the ending to be more wrapped up.I would recommend this to people looking for a romance subplot between two girls, non-white characters, or girls going on an adventure.Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.

[nnschiller · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[raselyem7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[liveshipvivacia · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Huntress excels at demonstrating how a lesbian affair doesn't have to be tawdry and how everything can work out well. What it doesn't excel at, however, is pacing. The first part was very well done...and then she rushed through the end. The climax, in particular, was lacking. Sad to say, after I finished reading it, I had no concern for what happened to the characters after the book was done.

Malinda Lo might not have been able to relinquish Kaede and Taisin...but I was.

[daniexj · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was an amazingly written book. Much better paced than her first book, Ash. It flowed from the page and pulled me into the story, despite the fact that I'm not generally a fan of Fantasy.The novel is the story of a human kingdom that has not seen summer, even as the midsummer day approaches. The Fairy Queen that lives to the North of the human kingdom in the woods sorta summons the humans to her kingdom, everyone assumes it's so that the problem with the seasons can be fixed. And so the human King's son as well as two girls from the Sage Academy and some guards set out on the journey to the Queen to hopefully save the world.It's your basic coming of age story and journey story as well. But what makes the book impressive is the character interactions. They're very real, and at times hilarious.All in all, it was a typical Fantasy YA book, although maybe it wasn't totally typical since there wasn't a vampire in sight (phew!) A must read, even for adults.

[kcarrigan-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[jenneb_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[jami_leigh · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Plot: 3 stars
Characters: 4 stars
Style: 3 stars
Pace: 3 1/2 stars


This is really more a 3 1/2 star book. I wanted to like it. I really did. But it hits so many of the standard story tropes, and shifts with the omniscient POV way too often. If it had stayed focused on the two girls, it would have been better, but I half expected to get the pov of a passing rabbit or something, as often as it changed.

[deathsmistress · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[firestarbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[foggidawn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[pocketmermaid · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed Malinda Lo's "Ash" well enough to be excited for this companion novel. Lo only reuses the setting for this novel; it has nothing to do with "Ash" or any of its characters as it takes place long before."Huntress" has a lot going for it, since I enjoy reading YA, adventure, fantasy, magic, and LGBT characters/romance, I thought I would adore this book. Unfortunately, this book suffers from a lot of really amateurish writing flaws. The pacing was extremely off. It meandered the first three quarters, then suddenly the action picked up. Then it was immediately over. Yet the book continued. The story also had a severe lack of descriptive writing. I struggled to envision anything about the setting or the characters, like I was trying to focus in on a blurry dream.But the worst offender is the constant head-hopping POV change. Trying to keep up was dizzying. I was never pulled into the story because I was too busy being kicked out of it. I have read interviews with Lo in which she mentions not liking to write in the first person. That's fine. But if you're going to use the third person, especially in a story where the main love interests are the same gender, please use POV correctly. It's incredibly frustrating (and unnecessary) for the reader to keep up with what every character is thinking. One chapter in particular that starts off in a stranger's head (whom we never see again), then skips to one of the girls, then to the other. SERIOUSLY. The writing was such a jumble.This book could have been amazingly awesome. Instead it was a huge let-down for me.

[senbei_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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” 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.

[candacemom2two · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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 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!

[devilwrites · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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 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 GambleI 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 HUNTRESSHappy Reading!

[amberwitch · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[karenirelandphillips · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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. 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.

[usagijihen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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 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)

[stephxsu · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[bookaddictdiary · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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 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!