By: Meagan Spooner
Published by: Caroldrhoda Lab
To Be Released on: August 1st, 2012
Source: Book from author to review/giveaway
3 stars: It's A Good Read
Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound
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?
A well crafted story that's infused with elements of magic, science-fiction and given a dystopian feel, this is a book unlike any other I've read. Skylark takes readers into a dark, dangerous world where magic exists, and nothing is as it seems.
Skylark follows the story of Lark, a young teenage girl who lives in a world that's been crafted around her. Lark's city was built and runs on the harvested power it takes from it's citizens, something that's deemed honorable. When Lark is finally chosen for her harvesting she not only finds out the shocking truth behind the harvesting, but what she really is and what she's capable of doing. Lark has an fascinating group of characters who make up her world, and throughout her story she'll discover some shocking truths about them, including her own brothers. There's plenty of betrayal, shocking revelations, and a few secrets that she'll uncover on her journey for answers.
Lark for me was a hard character to really love. Given her circumstances, the world she lives on and all that's going on around her, I had expected her to be a much tougher, and stronger character than she is. It's not bad to get through every tough situation she faced with the help of someone or something else, but I wanted to see her get out some her situations by herself. Had I been able to do that, I think I would have connected with her and liked her more than I did. Instead I found myself more fascinated in both Oren and Kris, the two guys who enter Lark's life, and who both have this air of mystery around them. I liked not knowing everything about them in this book. It kept the story interesting, and more engaging for me as I tried to uncover what it is both of them are hiding.
The world itself is fascinating and unlike anything I've read about before. I like the interesting use of magic, and the dystopian feel Meagan's world had about it. While I enjoyed some the scenes that took place and the elements that Meagan included in her story, there were a few things I felt didn't really fit in with the flow of the book. I won't say what they are to keep this review spoiler free, but, I felt these few minor things could have been excluded from the book or should have addressed a little bit more to make them feel like they fit in with what was going on. Or maybe it was just me and no one will else will be bothered by them at all.
Over all I felt like this was a good debut from Meagan and I'm interested to see what she does with her storyline. Skylark's ending makes me think they'll be a second book, which I think would be great, because Meagan definitely leaves a few things unanswered she could create another story line with. Either way, Skylark has a fast paced plot line, plenty of surprising twits, and an original plot, that I think YA fans will enjoy. Don't forget to check out my interview with Meagan from earlier today.