Review: Ashes, Ashes

Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari

published by Scholastics

Genre: YA dystopian

$17.99 (US Hardback)

344 pages

What it's about:

Epidemics, floods, droughts--for sixteen-year-old Lucy, the end of the world came and went, taking 99% of the population with it. As the weather continues to rage out of control, and Sweepers clean the streets of plague victims, Lucy survives alone in the wilds of Central Park. But when she's rescued from a pack of hunting dogs by a mysterious boy named Aidan, she reluctantly realizes she can't continue on her own. She joins his band of survivors, yet, a new danger awaits her: the Sweepers are looking for her. There's something special about Lucy, and they will stop at nothing to have her.

My thoughts:
I'm madly in love with dystopia books at the moment. This one happens to be about something I've been really interested in since I took an environmental bio class a few years ago. What if all the horrible things that scientists say is going to happen actually happens? What if horrible diseases come back? What if the polar ice caps melt causing flooding, and the contents start to shift and change? How would people survive?

I was sucked into this book pretty fast. I found the details on how the main character, Lucy, was surviving and how she handled the loss of almost all of humanity, including her whole family. Most of the book really is describing what Lucy does on a day to day basis. How she catches food, makes a tent out of pieces of nature, that sort of thing. It is like the teenage girl version of Bear Grylls (aka Man vs. Wild on Discovery channel for all you non-discovery channel nerds out there). I really liked Lucy's character though I do feel like there could have been more to her. In that aspect the characters personalities were sort of lacking. They were not the focus of the story. The setting really was the focus.

I can think of a few things that I would have liked to see fixed up a bit in this story. For starters there were a few notable editing errors. I also would have liked to see more character development. The ending was sort of a surprise as well. The story starts out pretty slow and stays slow. Then all the sudden BAM! There is a bad guy and a bigger plot line. I would have liked to see a little more come from that and the ending. It just sort of hit you.

Even though I said I would have liked to see a few things fixed up, these errors really didn't bug me until after I finished the book. I enjoyed the whole book while I was reading it. I'm also a little confused, is this a stand alone or is this going to be a series? That is the other question the ending had me asking. I really can't tell.

My rating: 9/10