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Ashes-Ashes_cover.jpg

Cannonball Read IV: Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari

By Ashley | Books | May 9, 2012 |

By Ashley | Books | May 9, 2012 |


This time last year I had over 20 books read and reviewed, but I am in the middle of starting up my own event planning company and time has been tight. If anyone is in the Triad, NC area please check out Social Conceptions, LLC! ::shameless self promotion over::

A plague has wiped out most of the human population. For some reason it appears that children under 20 and adults over the age of 60 had the highest immunity rate. Lucy is a 16 year old girl who has lost her entire family and is struggling to get by. She has been surviving by reading survivalist novels and eating wild squirrels, turtles, and plants.

The novel begins detailing Lucy’s struggle to survive, and it’s a haunting story. Lucy then meets Aidan who has banned together with other survivors, and Lucy joins him at their camp. Then we are treated to all the different ways these survivors have started to build a home.

Then we get to the big antagonist. A group of people called sweepers who abduct survivors. The survivors are then never seen again. If this had just been a dystopian novel that dealt with how Lucy and the other people managed to survive, I think I would have enjoyed it a bit more. The “sweepers” were this big bad enemy, but all they did was stun people and take them away. I’m fairly certain in New York City the survivors could have gathered together some guns to protect themselves. The reason survivors were being abducted seemed ridiculous, and if the world has ended I seriously doubt the few survivors remaining would be kidnapping each other unless they wanted their provisions.

I would probably suggest skipping this entry in YA dystopian fiction.

This review is part of Cannonball Read IV. Read all about it, and find more of Ashley’s reviews on the group blog.