Early Review: Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari

*This title will be released on June 1, 2011*

Title: Ashes, Ashes Author: Jo Treggiari Series: Ashes, Ashes #1  Cover Art: Steve Stone Genre: Dystopian YA Excerpt: Yes (audio excerpt) Source: Publisher Reviewed by: Abigail Reading level: Young Adult Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Scholastic Press (June 1, 2011) ISBN-10: 0545255635 ISBN-13: 978-0545255639 Sexual Content: Kissing Rating: Excellent - Loved it! Buy it now & put this author on your watch list.

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Description

A thrilling tale of adventure, romance, and one girl's unyielding courage through the darkest of nightmares.

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.

Review

(This is a Genre Swap review, which means it’s not a paranormal book, but should still appeal to paranormal fans)

Are you ready for another dystopian novel? You should be. ASHES, ASHES by Jo Treggiari destroys the world and throws a sixteen year old girl into the ruins.  My favorite thing about ASHES, ASHES was the evolution of the character of Lucy.  In most dystopian novels, the characters have grown up in their dystopian world.  They don’t know anything else.  Not Lucy.  She grew up much like teenagers today.  She went to high school, worried about boys and bullies, had a normal family.  Until a series of environmental catastrophes brought civilization to it’s knees.  And before humanity could even begin to rebuild, a plague swept across the planet instantly killing 99% of the population.

Lucy didn’t grow up knowing how to survive in an urban wilderness.  But she learned.  After everyone she knew succumbed to the plague, she left behind a corpse filled neighborhood for an unrecognizable New York City, and she hung on to life by sheer stubbornness.  When ASHES, ASHES begins, Lucy has survived for a year on her own with little more than her father’s pocket knife and an old survivor’s guide from a ransacked bookstore.  She becomes like an urban Robinson Crusoe.  Alone with only her thoughts and memories until she meets Aidan. 

Those who survived the plague have banded together into one of three groups. The Scavengers, like Aiden, take what they can and make what they can’t to survive.  The S’ans are the pitiful leper-like people who somehow survived the plague that ruined their bodies. And then there are the Sweepers.  They patrol the streets abducting survivors and raiding Scavenger camps and stealing a few people each time for reasons unknown.   Lucy has chosen to live on her own, but when the Sweepers seem to target her specifically, she has no choice but to join with Aidan.

The first in a planned series, ASHES, ASHES deserves a spot on your dystopian shelf. It’s not as grand as some of it’s predecessors, but the portrayal of this ruined New York is vivid and haunting, and Lucy’s story of survival is both pitiful and inspiring.  I enjoyed every page.

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N/A	My Overstuffed Bookshelf Friendly Reader Girls in the Stacks.com