Title: Ash & Bramble
Author: Sarah Prineas
Genre: Young Adult // Fairytales
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: September 15, 2015
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Edelweiss)
When the glass slipper just doesn’t fit…
The tale of Cinderella has been retold countless times. But what you know is not the true story.
Pin has no recollection of who she is or how she got to the Godmother’s fortress. She only knows that she is a Seamstress, working day in and out to make ball gowns fit for fairy tales. But she longs to forsake her backbreaking servitude and dares to escape with the brave young Shoemaker.
Pin isn’t free for long before she’s captured again and forced to live the new life the Godmother chooses for her—a fairy tale story, complete with a charming prince—instead of finding her own happily ever after.
Sarah Prineas’s bold fairy tale retelling is a dark and captivating world where swords are more fitting than slippers, young shoemakers are just as striking as princes, and a heroine is more than ready to rescue herself before the clock strikes midnight (goodreads).
Ash & Bramble is a unique take on where fairytales come from, this is one of the few instances that I wished a standalone were a series.
Plot: Pin wakes up without any idea of who she is or how she got to be in the fortress that she is currently living as a seamstress. The fortress if full of cobblers and candlestick makers who have one purpose in life- create. Pin isn't content in this life of servitude and takes her chance across the bramble to a world she never knew existed.
Sarah Prineas' creative juices were definitely flowing when she sat down to pen Ash & Bramble. The novel is broken down into three parts which made it a bit difficult to get into the groove of the story. My favorite part of Ash & Bramble was Part II which had mostly of the fairytale elements.
Characters: Pin was a character that was supposed to be strong, witty, and determined. Instead of really observing these qualities in Pin through her actions and decisions, I found that these qualities were forced on her. Our male lead, Shoe, repeatedly asserts that Pin is stubborn, but nothing Pin did spoke "stubborn" to me.
I found the characters to be the most lacking in Ash & Bramble, mostly because there wasn't a lot of time to get to know a group of characters before we're rushed on to another part of the story to meet a whole new cast of characters.
World Building: Whenever I think of the world that Sarah Prineas built, I think "white." I felt that the world was not used to its fullest capacity and that many chunks of the world were missing because it wasn't a focal point of the storyline.
Short N Sweet: Ash & Bramble is one of the most creative stories I've had the privilege to read this year, unfortunately, the creativity was not enough to distract me from the lack of character growth and incomplete world-building.
Labels: 3.5 stars, ash & bramble, book review, HarperTeen, review, sarah prineas
