Ashes of Twilight

October 1, 2012
Dystopian future plus steampunk plus romance: All these trendy ingredients are here plopped together in a plodding muddle. Wren is a shiner, a coal miner whose family has lived in the bowels of the Earth for generations. When a comet threatened the world back in 1878, the royals moved into a city domed in glass, bringing soldiers, servants and a workforce to keep their protected enclave powered. Two centuries have passed, and the world outside is still wreathed in flame--or so Wren has always been taught. But others in her world are convinced there's a better life. Wren, during a forbidden outing in the domed city above the mines, finds the dying, horribly burned body of her friend Alex, the words "the sky is blue," on his lips. Now Wren's on the run from the authorities, hiding away with a dreamy, blue-eyed boy. There's another boy, of course, but Wren doesn't want this one, who's at least partly responsible for the ever-present threat of sexual violence in her world. Wren can save the blue-eyed boy or protect her village; seek the blue sky or find safety in darkness. Maybe she can snuggle in a freezing cave for a long time while she thinks about it. Successfully evokes the sightless, slow-moving, claustrophobic, ever-present darkness of dystopian coal mines--but is that a victory in a romantic adventure? (Steampunk. 14-16)

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March 1, 2013

Gr 7 Up-In this first installment in a trilogy, steampunk meets up with dystopia in a domed underground world created to protect a frightened population and their royal family from the devastations of what we know today to have been Halley's Comet. Members of this society believe that the falling meteor set fire to the aboveground world and that they are the only remaining survivors. At the time of its inception, the technology used to create the domed world was considered advanced. Now, 200 years later, the mechanism is failing. Wren McAvoy, 16, has lived her whole life in this world as part of the lower-class shiner community, working day in and day out as a coal miner. After living complacently like this for years, she and others have begun to wonder what life beyond the dome is actually like. When her friend Alex attempts to escape to see for himself, he is caught, burned alive, and put on display as a public warning to others wishing to go against the society's way of life. Alex's final words, "The sky is blue," is woven hauntingly throughout the story as a motivational refrain for Wren and her friends as they are determined to find out for themselves the meaning of Alex's words. Tayler does an excellent job in the development of Wren and in the creation of the two distinct worlds. With an exposition reminiscent of Jeanne DuPrau's City of Ember (Randon, 2003), the plot at times can be somewhat predictable. Unlike City of Ember, however, Tayler's descriptiveness actually tends to slow the pace down, and it doesn't pick up until the final three chapters. Nonetheless, fans of Katniss will be able to connect with Wren's strong, defiant traits.-Sabrina Carnesi, Crittenden Middle School, Newport News, VA

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2012
Grades 8-11 Since a comet struck Earth in 1878, 16-year-old Wren's ancestors have lived under a protective glass dome. Almost 200 years later, little has changed as the royals above land continue to preserve their wealth and bloodlines, while Wren and her fellow shiners (so named for their eyes' adaptation to their life below) live in obscurity and mine the coal that generates their air circulation. When Wren is the last inhabitant to see a captured shiner return from outside, claim the sky is blue, and be burned alive as an example to would-be escapists, she begins to question her entire existence. Before she can find her own way out, she must evade the police force, filchers, and her own doubtful shiners, as well as hide Pace, a member of the police force who also knows too much. Reminiscent of Jeanne DuPrau's The City of Ember (2003), this dystopia's detailed descriptions of dark, tight underground passageways will give plenty of readers claustrophobia. Although not new territory, steampunk fans will welcome this series opener.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)