A review by badseedgirl
Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari

2.0

I enjoy reading YA fiction. Yes I'm an adult, but I find there is real joy and skill in some of the YA authors. Unfortunately this was not one of them. There was nothing wrong per se with this novel, but in the words of the immortal Gertrude Stein "There is no there there".
Ashes, Ashes was a perfectly fine novel for what it was, and I agree with other reviewers that there was probably a good novel in here somewhere. The beginning scenes where the main character Lucy, is living in the tattered remains of Central Park were good and showed potential, but when the author moves Lucy to the "Hell Gate" settlement, the novel collapses into another teen romance, and I lost all interest in it. Maybe if I was a 13-15 year old girl I might find the flirtations and teenage intrigues interesting, but as it is I found myself losing chunks of the story as my mind wandered on to other things. I listed to this on audio book in my car, and for that it was ok, but I would not have sat down and finished this book otherwise.