Huntress is a novel by Malinda Lo. It is set in the same world as Ash.
Finished on: 28.11.2025

Plot:
Times are tough as winter lasts longer and longer, and the sun barely shines anymore. Something is out of balance – and it is just then that the Fairy Queen sends an invitatio nto the human King. A group is put together to follow that invitation to the city of Taninli – and this group includes Kaede and Taisin who are both students at the same school, but otherwise have little in common. While Kaede does not have a drop of magic, Taisin is set to become the next great sage, her abilities to foresee the future unmatched. Going on this treacherous journey together will change everything.

Huntress is a great adventure novel with a good dash of romance (though, fair warning, no HEA) and some scary creatures that I really enjoyed.

I read Ash many years ago, so before delving into Huntress, I decided to give it a re-read (it still holds up nicely), expecting the two novels to be a little more connected. But they are really only set in the same world, and given that they take place centuries apart, those two worlds don’t resemble each other a whole lot. In fact, I’d say that Ash is obviously inspired by the Gaelic/Irish faeries, while Huntress leans much more heavily on Chinese mythology. That being said, it doesn’t seem impossible that one world would change into the other over time.

It definitely means that you can read one or the other without knowledge of each other, and it wouldn’t hurt at all. But it also seems a bit like a missed opportunity: with the wealth of stories that are told within Ash, one of those legends could have been a part of Huntress, but that’s not the case (unless I missed something). Or we could have met „Ash’s fairy“ (we might have, I had a sneaking suspicion with one or two supporting characters but Huntress never really makes it explicit).

But anyway, let’s get to Huntress on its own merits – and they are plenty. I loved the set-up for the romance here. I don’t think I ever read a romance story where one part of the couple has a vision of being in love with the other before they ever properly meet and struggling with knowing that in a few months time, they will be very much in love with this stranger. And Lo handles the romance so carefully and beautifully, it was a joy. That being said, the ending is a bit of heartbreaker, though so well crafted that you barely notice.

There is also a secondary romance plot with the King’s son Con and his guard, Shae who I both really liked, too – but there the book leaves us hanging a little. (Also, for a while there I thought we might be headed into throuple territory with Con, Kaede and Taisin and I wouldn’t have minded that at all.)

Lo chose an unusual perspective for her narration. It is not an all-knowing narrator who tells us of the viewpoints and feelings of the various characters, but rather Lo switches between personal perspectives of her characters frequently – sometimes from paragraph to paragraph. It does give the book a very dynamic feeling that worked very well for me.

The weakest point might have been the novel’s pacing. We take our time getting to Taninli and then the main showdown, including a new quest that arises from that showdown, happens in a handful of chapters. I would have liked it if that part had also taken more time, even if it would have meant another couple of hundred pages.

In any case, I am definitely looking forward to reading more by Lo. Huntress was definitely worth it.

Summarizing: very good.