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 wild's 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.
When I read this blurb, I knew I had to get my hands on this book. It fits in perfectly in what I look for in a great end of the world story. It started off a little choppy and slow for me but I really feel that's because there's no back story provided. Even though the course of the story, there's hardly any explanation of what happened to Lucy's family or how she ended up in Central Park. Not to say I didn't enjoy it, cause I did. Lucy was a really great female character who came across as a normal teenage girl who feels things that normal teenage girls feel. I loved the slow tension that built between her and Aidan. The minor characters added just as much to the story as Lucy and Aidan did which made me want to know more about them.
But with all the great this book had, there were some things that were lacking of me. Like I said before, there was almost no back story about any of the characters. Sure, there was a mention of 'this person died or that person died' but that was it. It made me feel like the connections between Lucy and her family/friends or Aidan and his family/friends wasn't real. Like they were just strangers they knew at one point in time. Also, there was no real ending. It came up quick and felt very rushed to me (like 'Water Wars' did). I think if the last quarter of the book had been slowed down and there was some explanation was given as to why the Sweepers were looking for Lucy and how they actually found out about her would have added to the 'omg what is happening?' feeling. This could have been one of those really awesome grab-you-by-the-throat stories that you can't put down but it was a bit of a let down at the end. I would really like a follow up or a sequel to 'Ashes, Ashes' but after searching all over Jo Treggiari's website the only thing I found was that she's writing a companion book, 'Pocketful of Posies', to give more of the back story for Del, Aidan and Sammy. She says that it'll cover the time from the first case of the plague. So there's still hope I'll get my answers.
3.5 bookmarks out of 5
