MotherReader

Last year TeenReader did a book trailer for Ash, by Malinda Lo, as part of a contest. Sadly, she didn’t win the contest, but I’ve always been impressed by what she came up with completely on her own. Well, my voice and my husband’s hand are in there, and occasionally we pointed the camera where she told us to. But she did everything else, and I love that she did an ambitious, storylike version.


Recently, she got a comment asking why she didn’t include the character of Kaisa in the video. The reason was really logistical — she didn’t involve anyone else in her project — but it made me think about whether that was an essential thing to include. After all, Ash’s love for the huntress is what really set this book apart from other Cinderella stories. Made it the book with a twist, as it were.

But in thinking about it, what I liked about Ash — and the twist — was how matter-of-factly her love for another woman was handled in the story. It was a conflict for the character, certainly, but it wasn’t an Issue. Her choice wasn’t mired in wrestling with her sexual identity, but more of a struggle between holding on to the past or moving on, more about either escaping from the real world or diving into it with joy. The love story was true and beautiful and essential to the story. But maybe not in the book trailer, because that would have made it seem more of the point than it really was. In any case, it’s a lovely, haunting book and a good book trailer — in my humble opinion.