The entire first chapter is given over to an exhaustive account of Lucy’s attempts to kill and stew a turtle, followed by a round of being chased by a pack of vicious dogs. Now she ekes out an existence in the remains of Central Park, and Treggiari spares her (and us) nothing in the way of hardships. When everything went to hell in a handbasket, it did so at breakneck speed. Sixteen-year-old Lucy is just old enough to remember the last few years of a normal world.

Still, I’ll freely admit you’ll find deftly executed suspense and action here. And there’s one thematic choice that irritated me in particular. However, Treggiari makes a smattering of unfortunate storytelling choices that, like Collins’ work, prevent me from embracing it as fully as the fans might. But Treggiari actually builds a far more convincing dystopian future than Suzanne Collins, whose Hunger Games trilogy has spawned a growth spurt of teenpocalypse fiction on the YA shelves. There’s plenty about this book to admire. Then you got your earthquakes, you got your floods and melting ice caps, storms, lions and tigers and bears, oh my! First comes the horrifically mutated new smallpox strain, that leaves only one person in a million alive (though how a bacillus can be so mathematically OCD is a matter left for speculation). In Jo Treggiari’s grim adventure Ashes, Ashes, Mother Earth is pissed, and has decided to give us a time out once and for all. A decade into the new century, and we’re now worried about cataclysmic climate change, our failed stewardship of our dear Mother Earth. Back when our calendar years began with a one and a nine, post-apocalypse usually meant post-nuclear war. “Post-apocalyptic fiction” means a very different thing in the early 21st century than it did in the 20th - as does “young adult fiction,” for that matter. Share book reviews and ratings with Thomas, and even join a book club on Goodreads. Book cover artwork is copyrighted by its respective artist and/or publisher. All reviews and site design © by Thomas M.

Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari