review; skylark

Skylark
by Meagan Spooner

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?

Review:

After finishing Uprooted, I needed to find something to get me back into reading before I went into a slump. This was it. This was the perfect choice.

I already knew I would enjoy Meagan Spooner’s writing – the Starbound books were proof of that. But that her debut (?) novel was so great? I could not even begin to imagine.

Firstly, the world building is so perfectly done. Sometimes books do too much exposition when creating a world, sometimes not enough explanation is given, but this had the perfect balance of exposition and leaving clues for the reader to put together. The author does not imagine that her audience needs to be spoon fed, but does not give so sparse information that you’re left wondering how things work instead of enjoying the story.

And what a story it was. I like the fact that Lark is quite realistically not capable when she steps past the Wall. She’s never been outdoors, never questioned her way of life, so she is scared and rightfully so. She does not get things right on the first try, she needs to be taught and saved, but she is also determined to make her best of it and save herself. She is a rounded character that I am very much invested in.

I definitely got invested in all the side characters as well. Kris and Oren, who have similarities, I will not lie, but are also so fundamentally different. Tansy, who I hope we see more of eventually. And Nix! Nix is just so lovely. I just love the way as their relationships with Lark change, we learn more about them.

Some of the twists had me gaping in awe, because even though the hints were there, I did not put things together. Or maybe I didn’t want to put things together? Just, it was wonderfully crafted and I have managed to borrow books two and three from the library so I will be starting them soon.