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| Published: June 2011 Publisher: Scholastic Age Group: Young Adult |
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. (From Goodreads)
Sigh. When I saw this book, I thought it would be absolutely amazing. Clearly I was wrong. not that this book was bad...just that it wasn't good either. Ashes, Ashes could have been so much better, perhaps an entire series dedicated to it but it's only a stand alone novel.
The beginning of the story started out well. If you can't tell by the cover, this is a dystopic novel and we findt he main character Lucy trying to survive in her shelter. What really struck me hard about this dystopic world is the fact that Lucy had forgotten who Alice, from Alice in Wonderland was. I'm pretty sure her shelter was located near/in Central Park in New York City because she was using the Alice statue a measure of how high the water is. It gave me the sense of sadness that in this dystopic world, people begin to forget information that they've know all their lives.
After the first 100 pages the story kind of goes down hill. First, SPOILERS ALERT, Lucy finds a boy, her first human contact in a year, and immediately it is evident that he is the romantic interest of her's in this novel. Then Lucy's shelter floods in and she has no choice but to seek out the boy again and hopefully stay with him. The reson the world was destroyed is because of a plague. The very few survivors are living together but there are sweepers who come and abduct them. Lucy runs in to quite a few of them.
Now her romantic interst, Aidan. I thought he was very well written, probably one of the only characters. I don't mean to bash the author but when I read the book, I found that the plot felt rushed and most of the characters weren't developed enough. The love rival doesn't seem like a love rival but it is evident that she is. Also, I guess due to the lack of people, it's really hard to have sub plots which might have been why the story was cut short.
The ending of this story could have been much longer. I was expecting much more and I got worried when I got to the last 50 pages and realized that this story would end and that it couldn't possibly end well in only 50 pages. I guessed right.
So I guess this is one of those books that really could have been good if it became a series.
BORROW
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