Reading Level: Young Adult
Publication Date: August 2012
Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab
Pages: 344
Series: 1st in a series
Acquisition: NetGalley
Summary:
Sixteen year-old Lark Ainsley has never seen the sky.
Her world ends at the edge of the vast domed barrier of energy enclosing all that’s left of humanity. For two hundred years the city has sustained this barrier by harvesting its children's innate magical energy when they reach adolescence. When it’s Lark’s turn to be harvested, she finds herself trapped in a nightmarish web of experiments and learns she is something out of legend itself: a Renewable, able to regenerate her own power after it’s been stripped.
Forced to flee the only home she knows to avoid life as a human battery, Lark must fight her way through the terrible wilderness beyond the edge of the world. With the city’s clockwork creations close on her heels and a strange wild boy stalking her in the countryside, she must move quickly if she is to have any hope of survival. She’s heard the stories that somewhere to the west are others like her, hidden in secret – but can she stay alive long enough to find them? (from Goodreads)
My thoughts:
It's a little hard for me to pin down Skylark. It's a dystopian story of sorts but it almost feels like it's a dystopian world that isn't our own. Magic is everywhere and we never really find out why. Was it inherit in this world before disaster struck? Is magic a by product of the destruction? Trying to figure out these answers was only part of what made Skylark such a great read for me.
Lark has only known one life. She knows what will happen to her and she knows her place in her world. This all changes when she has her magic harvested. Everything she thought she knew about her society is thrown out the window and she has some tough choices to make.
I loved Lark as a character. I loved the fact that she knows her strengths and she knows her weaknesses. She never makes excuses for herself and even when she's terrified, she take full account of the situation and realizes that, yes, she might die but there might not be anything she can do about it. She doesn't whine or complain. She makes choices and she sticks to them.
Final verdict:
The world of Skylark isn't one I would personally want to find myself in but it is world I wish I could learn more about. There is so much unknown and so much to discover that I couldn't help but be sucked in.
A fantastic debut! My only regret is that I read it so early (thanks NetGalley :) It's going to be a long wait for book 2 - but I'm sure it will be worth it!
Overall Rating:
5 / 5 Stars
#1 Skylark
#2 Shadowlark (2013)
#3 Untitled (2014)
Author's website / Goodreads / IndieBound
Oooh...I have this to read this month and now I really can't wait!!
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