Malinda Lo Books In Order

Publication Order of Adaptation Books

Publication Order of Ash Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Malinda Lo is an American novelist best known for writing Young Adult novels the most popular of which were her first two “Huntress” and “Ash”. Lo was born in China but her parents immigrated to the United States when she was three years old. She went to Wellesley College before proceeding to Harvard, where she graduated with a Regional Studies master’s degree. She was not done with education and enrolled for a Cultural and Social Anthropology degree at Stanford, but soon quit without her degree. As one of the biggest voices of the LGBT Movement, she was made a member of the 2013 Writer Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voice, which was organized by the Lambda Literary Foundation.

Malinda Lo always knew she was destined to be a writer right from the time she was growing up in Colorado. She was born to a professional pianist mother who used to play in China, but left to come to the United States to find better paying jobs. She would work on a variety of odd jobs but never made ends meet until she quit again and went back to teaching piano. Unlike many of her contemporaries, her parents never thought that writing was a viable career opportunity, and always encouraged her to study and find a job. Nonetheless, Malinda always loved writing and by the time she was thirteen, she had written her first novel. She followed her first novel with two fantasy novels before the pressure of getting a good job became too much for her while she was in college. She majored in Economics with the intention of getting a job in investment banking, and even interviewed for an investment-banking firm, though she never got the job.

The rejection by the firm turned out to be a blessing in disguise as she soon moved to New York where she snagged a job at Random House as editorial assistant. However, it was not long before she realized that she was not cut out to be in the industry as an editor. During this time, she had enrolled at Harvard for an East Asian studies degree just to satisfy her parents that she was indeed serious about finding a job. After completing her degree, she went to Stanford for an Anthropology degree, but soon learned that she hated the course and almost immediately switched to study American Pop Culture. Nevertheless, the experience only made her realize that she hated graduate school and within a year, she had dropped out to pursue a freelancing career. Initially she did a lot of business writing before she got her big break when a friend asked her to write for her website named AfterElllen.com. The opportunity marked the start of her career as an entertainment reporter. Over the preceding years, she wrote a lot for LGBT publications before she quit in 2008 to pursue her passion in writing fiction.

Malinda Lo has always been interested in the Young Adult genre though she never made a conscious decision to place her novels as young adult. However, when she wanted to submit her manuscripts, she found that they were a better fit in the young adult category rather than in the adult fantasy genre. Her first two novels and her Adaptation series are star crossed romances involving a lesbian couple. The major motif in the novels is the theme of coming to age of the characters. Using the lead characters, Malinda tells the story of a young girl who realizes that she is either lesbian or bisexual. Oftentimes, the story line takes another twist as the girl realizes that she loves two people. Unlike your usual romantic story, the novels go beyond the usual stereotypes by showing how people can have a relationship or fall in love with two people. The lead characters in “Adaptation”, “Huntress”, and “Ash” are what may be deemed antiheroes. Most of the characters come with dark attributes that make them even more interesting. Nonetheless, while the novels write about unusual heroes, they are in the main likable characters with distinct personalities who make individual choices. Even as many authors have written about lesbians as villainous and predatory, Malinda’s novels go against this stereotype by writing about these characters as normal people with the usual human complexity.

“Ash” Malinda’s debut novel is a delightful Cinderella story retold. Ash the lead character has to deal with a cruel stepmother after her father’s death. Grieving from her loss, she is comforted by reading the fairy tales that her mother used to read to her by the hearth. She dreams of fairies coming to help her by taking her away just as they do in the stories. Enter the dangerous and dark fairy Sidhean, who makes her believe that he is the man to take away all her troubles. Things get even better when she meets the King’s Huntress Kaisa. She still loves her gorgeous fairy prince but also wants to learn to hunt, and Kaisa is too willing to teach her. While their friendship is bereft with the delicacy of a new bloom, it offers Ash the desire to live again and love as she once did. However, the fairy Sidhean wants Ash as his lover and now she needs to choose between true love and fairy tale fantasies. The novel is a romantic, empowering, and entrancing novel that shows how a person can experience transformation from death, and solitude to love and life.

“Huntress”, the sequel to Ash is a novel about a human world whose nature has fallen out of balance. The sun has not risen for years and the crops have been failing year after year. Even worse, hostile strange creatures have invaded the planet threatening the survival of the human species. In an attempt at finding a solution to the crisis, two seventeen-year-old girls are chosen by the oracle to go on dangerous journey to Fairyland, where the fairy queen may hold the key to the crisis. Fate brings together Kaede the humble and down to earth girl as contrasted with the magic loving and sagely Taisin as they journey to try to save their world. The two come to depend on each other’s strengths and ultimately fall in love even as many of their party fall to fairy tricks and paranormal attacks. Good as they are together, ultimately the kingdom needs only one huntress, and the implications of the decision to be taken may tear the two lovebirds apart forever.