Huntress

There are really few works about lesbian fantasy, and this one was my favorite. I loved it even more than Ash. The development of the plot is really engaging. I wish I could bring this one to Mexico to be translated. I love the way Malinda intertwined the lore of different cultures in this novel. It made me so happy. I wish she wrote something else about Taisin and Kaede.

It seems like this is really a polarizing book on Goodreads. Folks either love it or hate it, and honestly? I enjoyed it!

I think it comes down to the atmosphere, for one. The setting has this foggy gloom over it, this sense of doom and despair that starts off strong as the setting is dying and only gets more intense as the characters come closer to the solution, even crossing into something positively otherworldly at the end.

The characters were easily the other high point of the book. Kaede is so tough and practical, a down-to-earth girl who has her mind made up at all times. On the other hand, Taisin is meek and mild, dedicated to her training as a sage and genuinely moving in her worry about developing romantic ties given the path she wants to take with her life. They circle one another and draw closer in the best ways, and I loved watching their relationship shift and change so clearly. Their relationship, and their interactions with the other main characters, were well-defined and entirely believable, and I loved the element of choice that ultimately defined their paths. There were things that had to be done, but they chose how to move ahead, and I love narratives that challenge fate with choice.

It was the style and pacing of the book that made it hard to give this book more than 3 stars, though, and it seems to be the sticking point for many reviewers. For starters, the POV is anything but concrete. There's a great deal of head hopping within chapters that can be more than just a bit jarring, especially when you're expecting one character's thoughts on the situation and it abruptly shifts to another character's head.

The other big stumbling block is the pacing. In the last third of the book, the quest at hand picks up, unfolding beyond what I initially expected. The trouble is that it takes two-thirds of the book to get there, and that two-thirds is largely spent traveling, a trope that is incredibly hard to do without turning boring. Thankfully, a lot of the travel scenes were still interesting, and they helped develop Kaede and Taisin in particular, but they still produced a good deal of narrative drag that took some willpower to get through on my part.

On the whole, though, Huntress was a good book, and on top of its other good points, I was delighted to find a fantasy lesbian love story that isn't bound up in layer after layer of tragedy. It's a book I would have loved to have had in high school, and I'm glad I've discovered it now.

I enjoyed this book fiercely and highly recommend it. I will say candidly that I wanted more of Kaede & Taisin's story.

The relationship between the two young women is sweet. The theme of growing closeness is handled wonderfully, extending beyond the emotional and romantic into the magical. The sense of love making two people into one was lovely. While I love when there is romance in the books I read, sometimes I find that an author is jamming a romantic subplot into a story that doesn't really need it. In this case I felt that the relationship made sense and enhanced the growth of both characters.

I was also pleased that the female to female nature of their relationship wasn't treated as something that society frowned upon. It was considered normal and acceptable by their companions. In fact, the very fact that the author didn't call out the romance as a struggle against society in their world was powerful for me. I found myself wishing I lived in their world.

I really, really wanted more of Kaede & Tailsin's relationship. I can't explain what I wanted, what I didn't feel I got enough of without spoiling the story to some degree.

The only flaw I found in this story, and it might not even really BE a flaw, was the change of PoV that happened suddenly within a chapter. In some cases it was a tad jarring, and pulled me out of the story briefly. However, by the end, I wasn't bothered by it as much.

While this story has the trappings of an epic quest, the actual journey doesn’t really seem to take that long. Two people die but we know so little about them the reader doesn’t feel any sense of grief. You never even learned what killed the first victim; he’s just found dead without a mark on him. You get the feeling that, whatever is tracking the intrepid band, they are targeting the strongest members first, possibly to make the weaker members easier pickings. Other than that, I experienced little sense of anxiety over the fate of the individual characters.

The villain is defeated and so easily the final confrontation is a disappointment. Elowen was supposed to be this creature of terrific power but she’s taken down in a matter of moments by a girl with an iron knife.

The book is more a matter of moods and set pieces: visions of an ice fortress; images of a dying world covered in ice, snow, dry vegetation and food scarcity; villages swiftly passed through and a mysterious academy that few people talk about after they’ve left it. So what is meant to capture the reader’s interest is the growing love between the two main characters: Kaede, a rebellious girl who doesn’t want to be forced into an arranged marriage, and Taisin, a mysterious scholar haunted by the fear of losing a girl she doesn’t yet know.

Giving away the love affair right from the start robs the reader of any anticipation. We know Kaede and Taisin are going to fall in love; all that’s left is to see how it happens. That affair turns out to be as lackluster as everything else in the novel.

I’m not certain either girl grows to respect or admire the other. They are written well enough so that the reader can like both of them. But they just seem to trade secretive glances and occasional touches while love and lust inches upon them, seemingly against their mutual wishes. I wasn’t blown away or convinced by their affections. The story might as well have been complete without it.

Nive

fantastic - just -- fantastic .

I'm so unsure of how I feel about this book - I loved the part of the book that involved the woods but the ending just seemed random; it was like the ending of two stories had been stuck together. I liked the beginning but it felt like the woods were going to be a build up to something really big & exciting, maybe even a sequel novel, but the ending just fell a bit flat & odd.

When I read this book I didn't expect to still be thinking about it years later, yet here I am. This is a great adventure romance with an intriguing mythology. I would have liked more development of the relationship and the two main characters' understanding of each other, but the setting made up for most character flaws. Enjoyable book, would love another in this world.

Title: Huntress

Author: Malinda Lo

Age Group: Teen/Young Adult

Genre: Fantasy/Romance

Series: N/A, standalone

Star Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

I bought this book and reviewed it.

I bought this book for myself at the end of 2014, as part of my yearly Christmas book haul. It's been sitting on my shelf, neglected, ever since. My husband finally put his foot down and insisted I read books I've purchased, as well as library loans and review copies I asked for. So I've started my cycle, and I couldn't really decide what I was in the mood for, so I just went hunting through my shelves and picked Huntress at random. I wanted to buy Ash, its companion novel, but I decided to buy Huntress instead, since it was longer. (I'm kind of mad that I didn't buy Ash with it, because now I need it!)

I was intrigued by the plot--two young women saving the world on an epic quest--and the cover really drove it home for me. This was the first novel I've ever read by Lo, and I wasn't certain what to expect. But reading Huntress has completely whetted my appetite for fantasy, all over again. Not just for any fantasy, but the kind that Huntress was: epic quests! Magic! Political intrigue! Romance--and the gay kind! To say that Huntress embodies all of these things is true, but it is so much more than that: I really loved this book for everything, for the sum of its beautifully written parts. There was real love put into this story, and it is one of the best I've read so far. Can I have more please?

The prose was gorgeous, the pacing breakneck, and it had just the right amount of sensuality and romance--I was literally swooning through the book. And I loved, loved, loved the way Lo gave two female characters a relationship that didn't revolve around coming out, or being themselves, it was just organic to the narrative. The worldbuilding was fantastic--solid and so full of mystery. But the characters were what really sold Huntress for me--it, and they, completely stole my heart. Kaede, the stubborn young woman who wants more to her life than her meager ability with magic, Taisin, the other young woman forced to choose between her life's duty and her heart's desire, and Con, the reluctant prince who journeys through the treacherous, magical Wood to save his people. I'm so happy that I bought this book, because it was worth it. The bottom line: A tale full of magic, romance, and adventure, Huntress is one of my favorite books of 2011, and probably of all time--Lo is now one of my go-to authors! A delectable treat worth savoring! Next on deck: The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock!

I had read Malinda Lo’s book Ash a long time ago and was looking forward to Huntress, which is sort of a prequel. I enjoyed this book. It was good, but definitely not as good as Ash. There were uneven and slow parts which I could have done without. Basically, it was flawed in many ways, but still completely readable and fun.

What I Liked:
- The world is heavily inspired by ancient China, which is a big bonus because we usually get to read about fantasy worlds inspired by European cultures. The names, the traditions…I LOVED all of it!
- The growing romance between the main characters, Kaede and Taisin, is a slow burner. I love slow burning romances. The initial attraction, the character being unsure of what to do, the small steps towards sharing their feelings with the other person. *sigh* Also, an added bonus is that there wasn’t a love triangle in sight. Oh yeah!
- Both of the main characters were strong, kickass women. Kaede was more of a warrior throwing her knife and learning how to use a bow and arrow, while Taisin could utilize magic. Together they were the perfect combination and I enjoyed reading about them working together, especially as a single unit.
- There was so much girl power in this novel! Women were in leadership positions and doing the same jobs as men. Let’s see, there were female guards, advisors to the king, healers, scholars…this was honestly nice to see. So often women as marginalized, but then again, this is also a world where female/female relationship are openly accepted and even encouraged, so it’s pretty progressive in that sense.

What I Disliked:
- The pacing was all over the place! It started off slow, picked up in the middle and then dragged on at the end. When it was good, it was good. The slow parts made me question why I was even bothering. That’s why rating this book was hard. I liked it, but then got frustrated with certain parts.
- The POV changes is what bothered me the most. And boy was there a lot of it! One minute you’d be reading about something from Kaede’s point of view and then boom…it would change to what Taisin was thinking, sometimes within the same sentence! This severely limited my ability to truly connect with the characters, especially secondary characters who were traveling with the two ladies of their quest.
- I wasn’t convinced that the villain was as evil as Lo was intending her to be. The quest didn’t fully make sense. A lot more needed to be explained to prove to me that the villain had evil intentions. In the end, she just seemed misunderstood. Like, a good conversation would have ended the whole issue. I don’t know.

So, in the end, while Huntress wasn’t perfect, it still had enough things going for it to be enjoyable. The combination of a Chinese inspired fantasy world and a sweet romance make this book one that I would recommend those who are fans of Malinda Lo. If you haven’t read her books before, you need to check out Ash.