Skylark by Meagan Spooner

Title: Skylark
Author: Meagan Spooner
Series: Skylark #1
Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab
Date Published: August 1, 2012
Buy: Amazon

Goodreads Summary

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?

I am not sure why I finally decided to read this one. There were mixed reviews about it and so after a (long) while I finally decided to read it. I should say this first before going on. Initially after finishing the book I really did like it and gave it 4.5 stars… now I’d rather give it 3.5.

The mixed reviews made me lower my expectations for this book by a lot and I had this book on my shelf for quite a while before I finally gave in and read it. (The only reason I did finally pick it up was because I didn’t know what else to read) I was actually amazed by how much I liked it. I think it was the last few chapters that really made me like this book. That’s where some action and kickass stuff occurs. I loved the mix of fantasy and sci-fic in this. I wasn’t sure it would work because you know sci-fic and fantasy seem so different from each other but the author managed to pull it off.  Meagan had so many neat things in the world building it makes me smile like a geek  (like how iron is an insulator of magic.. that was genius). A lot of the stuff appealed to my geek side and I don’t think I had a lot of problems with the world building (although some things were slightly sketchy).

There were many things that could be appreciated about the main character. She isn’t a stupid girl falling for any guy. This book ISN’T in fact a romance, it’s about a girl on a journey to find her brother and escape her old home which she knows is no longer safe.  The little romance present, as I have said, is only hinted at and developed very slowly. He is a random stranger who she would like to know but then again she cannot trust him openly because she doesn’t know him well enough to do that.  She doesn’t know what she is dealing with but she doesn’t want to depend on anyone because she doesn’t know who the enemy is. But slowly she grows to like Oren and becomes close to him. One of the other things I appreciate about her is she always aware of the danger around her, including with Oren, I won’t spoil anything but yeah.  The thing that bothered me however was that I didn’t feel like I could relate to her, there was this distance of sorts between me and her and that’s one of the reasons I cannot this book a higher rating. This distance made it hard for me to connect with the book as much as I would have liked.

Oh and Oren. I am rather fond of him. He isn’t your usual Mr.Iamdarkandmysterious, he has issues that we don’t know about because he doesn’t remember a lot about his life before he met Lark (we find out why later). I really like how loyal he is. I think it’s his confusion that appeals to me. Despite everything, he is still trying to protect Lark, even when the two don’t get along.

I hope in the next book we find a lot more about his life before this and I really do hope he is in the next book or I would miss him a lot.

As for Nix.. I am in love with that Pixie. “It” is awesome beyond words. It was a loyal pixie and well I don’t have words for Nix. You gotta read all about him on your own.

I am not sure if my review makes a lot of sense but I cannot wait for the sequel and I know after reading this that These Broken Stars is going to be awesome as well. I cannot wait till both books are published.