Book Review :: Skylark, by Meagan Spooner

Skylark by Meagan Spooner
Published by Corgi
on February 7th 2013
Genres: Dystopian, Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 352
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Vis in magia, in vita vi. In magic there is power, and in power, life.

For fifteen years, Lark Ainsley waited for the day when her Resource would be harvested and she would finally be an adult. After the harvest she expected a small role in the regular, orderly operation of the City within the Wall. She expected to do her part to maintain the refuge for the last survivors of the Wars. She expected to be a tiny cog in the larger clockwork of the city.

Lark did not expect to become the City’s power supply.

For fifteen years, Lark Ainsley believed in a lie. Now she must escape the only world she’s ever known . . . or face a fate more unimaginable than death.

Last updated on 22 February 2022

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What is Skylark by Meagan Spooner about?

Skylark, by Meagan Spooner tells the story of Lark, and her escape from the only world she’s ever known.

This book was a bit of a mixed bag (do people still say that…?). The first few chapters were really great, and I was really enjoying learning about Lark’s strange world inside the Wall. I enjoyed reading about her crazy, and terrifying experiences on her Harvest day, and seeing her amazing escape out of the harvesting place…and out through the wall to the other side. That was great. But then there were about 4 chapters where it’s only Lark, discovering what really is on the other side of the Wall that she’s grown up in, and there’s no dialogue, only what is happening to Lark and the things she is seeing. Which is all fine and dandy, but it just went on a bit too long, and I had to force myself to read those chapters.

But then she meets Oren, a wild boy, who saves her life and helps her get to where she’s going: The Iron Wood. Back in the facility of the Harvesting, a Renewable (someone whose magic renews itself) told her to go there, and to follow the birds to do so. She eventually gets to the Iron Wood, where she meets normal people who have been there for a few generations and she’s safe from the cannibalistic monsters she had to battle through to get there. Or is she? Dun dun dun…

Because it was written in first person, there were things we didn’t really find out until later, because Lark herself didn’t know, or didn’t realise. But it also meant that there was a lot of description like I mentioned, so  I have to admit, some parts were forced reading. But I did really enjoy the overall story, and though I’m developing a there’s-an-inside-world-and-an-outside-world sort of feel with the books I’ve been reading recently (Pure, and then Under the Never Sky), it was cool to see a dystopian type genre mixed in with magical themes. There’s a second and third book (second: Shadowlark; third: Untitled, has yet to be released), and I might read them, but it won’t be high on my priority list.