Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari
Ashes, Ashes
by Jo Treggiari
Reviewed by Megsly
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.
I bought Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari by mistake after hearing SusanAshlea rave about this book called Ashes and stupidly not realizing that the Ashes she was referencing had not yet come out. It was a dumb Meg moment, but a worth while dumb Meg moment.
Ashes, Ashes follows a young, but very brave girl named Lucy. She survived not only the fall of coastal civilization via tsunami’s, flooding, and horrific hurricanes but also lethal plagues that kill nearly everyone who contracts it, and leaves anyone who survives the infection with severe scarring. Lucy is lucky, not only did she survive the epidemic, she’s one of the 1% of the population who didn’t even contract the disease. But now she’s left with no family, no home, and no one to keep her safe. She has only herself to rely on, and after stealing a small survival handbook from a looted bookstore, she retreats into the wilderness of New York’s Central Park in an attempt to survive on her own.
Lucy is in the park, surviving—though barely—on her own for nearly a year when she encounters Aiden, a slightly older boy while running from a pack of starving dogs. One thing leads to another, and one tsunami later (which, by the way, was an amazing scene) Lucy is forced to flee her solitary home in Central Park and join Aiden in the settlement on the outskirts of the city, where Sweepers come frequently to collect survivors and carry them into the unknown. Lucy, being rather reckless and impulsive, refuses to see people disappear into nothingness and soon starts working to convince those she now lives with to fight the Sweepers and save those they love.
Ashes, Ashes is quite a fun YA novel. The plot is fast moving, intricate but not confusing, and full touching, scary or hilarious moments. The plot was definitely age appropriate for young readers, while still hitting on a level of maturity that can appease older readers like myself. I didn’t feel as if I was reading a book geared towards teens, but I had no problem relating to the younger characters within the books or the trials and tribulations they endure.
The main character, Lucy, was interesting…to say the least. I have a hard time believing that a teenager from New York City, who’s raised in a middle to upper class household in a family that does no recreational outdoor activities together would be able to survive in the wild, alone and by herself, simply through a survivalist handbook. It didn’t seem very realistic in regards to the character herself, but I will give the author credit, she did a good job of pulling it off so that it was believable to younger readers. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy Lucy’s big heart and unfaltering bravery. It didn’t matter if she was scared out of her mind (which, she was) she still refused to do anything that she didn’t believe in, and that included letting the Sweepers abduct children and other teenagers.
The other characters were a bit unappealing to me, with the exception of Aiden. He seemed like he was a truly good man, though there’s not much more to say about him than that. Del, on the otherhand, struck me as being a relatively useless character until towards the end of the book. There was much wasted breath discussing Del’s obviously infatuation with Aiden and obvious disdain for Lucy. In a world where survival was directly related to making good decisions and caring for one another, Del’s actions made absolutely no sense to me. As I said, until the end she seems fairly unnecessary as much more than a pity party for Aiden and a jealous rival for Lucy.
Over all, the book was well written, the plot was executed nicely, and the main character had a lot to admire. There are things I would have made changes to, but that didn’t alter the book from being enjoyable and a pleasurable read.
Below is my rating of Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari. These are reflective strictly of my opinion on the novels I’ve read and are not necessarily reflective of the other staff members at MVF.
Plot – 7.5
Character Development – 7
Grammar and Punctuation – 9
Paranormal Element – N/A
Prose – 8
Total Score – 7.9
Total is derived from the average of all 5 scores.
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