When this year’s Hugo short list contained three books marketed as YA a lot of people complained about “dumbing down” and the like. That’s by no means necessarily the case. A book written for teenagers can be just as complex, if not more so, than a book written for adults. However, the writing in YA books is often very straightforward and transparent. Gene Wolfe could probably get away with writing like Gene Wolfe for a teenage audience, but if he was an unknown it is unlikely that he’d be able to sell such a book. And when you read a YA book that is straightforward and transparent you never quite know whether it being so is evidence of lack of skill on behalf of the writer, a conscious decision on behalf of the writer, or something that the writer has been bullied into by her editor.

All of which is necessary preamble to saying that I sped fairly quickly through Malinda Lo’s Ash because once you know the basic conceit (it is a lesbian re-telling of Cinderella) the book is straightforward and transparent. You know who all of the characters are, and what is going to happen, and Lo tells that story in a simple manner. That doesn’t mean it is a bad book. Indeed, it was cute and entertaining. And let’s face it, who would want Prince Charming when the most Charming thing about him is his wealth, especially if you could have his seriously sexy huntress instead?

So Ash is a fun book, and a good book for broadening the minds of young girls who might otherwise be reading Twilight and mooning over sexy vampires. It is very promising for a first novel. Malinda Lo isn’t in the same class as Robin McKinley yet, but give her time, or simply ask her to write for adults, and she may well be.