Review: Skylark by Meagan Spooner

Title: Skylark

Author: Meagan Spooner

The Fairies Say: Dark and Dangerous!

Summary (from Goodreads.com)

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 a 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?

I'll admit, when I read this I was hoping for a taste of Shadow and Bone in a different world, and had a feeling that this supposedly "dangerous" world which would be difficult to survive in was actually going to be lame-ish. I was dead wrong. This is a pretty disturbing world, despite the very pretty cover.

It starts out with Lark sneaking into her school through the now-never-used sewer system. Tomorrow is Harvest Day, when the kids get told who gets harvested this year. Everyone in her age group got Harvested years ago, but not her. All the other kids know her name, and refer to her as the "dud", which makes Lark humiliated and hopeful she'll finally get Harvested. She finds the list... blahblahblah... and suddenly, when a mechanical, Institute-controlled pixie attacks her, she somehow smashes it with magic (aka Resource). No one should be able to do that. Especially not her, a "dud".

Lark is one of those characters who I didn't love or hate, she's just sort of there. While I did root for her, if she were to win I wouldn't go "YEAH BABY!" while simultaneously doing a victory dance, and if she were to lose I wouldn't do a rage-quit and go cannibal on anyone within a one mile radius.

Oren is the wild guy who's stalking her. Okay, I'll admit, it was a bit creepy. But I wanted to slap someone silly as the story progressed and Lark had, like, no romantic interest in him! I was like, "Girl, if I were in your position I wouldn't be so stupid to not see he cared about me!!!" and then I may or may not jump him. Because, really, who doesn't like a sexy sexy guy who is totally wild and slightly too moody and has really pale blue eyes and light brown hair beneath a ton of dirt? (mind you I'd find that dirt sexy too) So yes there's a plot twist I won't tell you but still I'd take him. Plot twist, dirt, and wildness all.

Yeah there are a few other characters that are probably important but they're not too amazing or jaw-dropping so I'm skipping over them.

The world is what we're really paying for here. It's rich in details and immaculately described so well that if read fast you will miss it and deem it horrible. But if you're really soakin' it up, you'll be amazed! It opens your eyes to a perspective that sees everything 'normal' as terrifying, awe-inspiring, yet strangely and darkly beautiful.

Good elements and I highly recommend you read this when you feel like being scared :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Cassie :)