I received an ARC from the publishers as part of this tour in exchange for an honest review. It has not affected my opinions.
Genre: dystopia Age Range: YA Star Rating: 3 stars Series: first book
Blurb:
The Earth’s ecosystems have collapsed and only ashes remain. Is one girl’s courage enough to keep hope alive in the wastelands?
It’s the year 2123, and sixteen-year-old Adina has just accidentally killed fourteen thousand seven hundred and fifty-six people. Raised in the eco-bubble of Eden Five, Adina has always believed that the Amonston Corporation’s giant greenhouse would keep her safe forever. But when her own careless mistake leads to an explosion that incinerates Eden Five, she and a small group of survivors must brave the barren wastelands outside the ruined Dome to reach the Sanctuary before their biofilters give out and their DNA threatens to mutate in the toxic air.
They soon discover that the outside isn’t as deserted as they were made to believe, and the truth is unearthed on their dangerous expedition. As time runs out, Adina must tackle her guilty conscience and find the courage to get everyone to safety. Will she make it alive, or will the Nomalies get to her first?
Blurb taken from Goodreads. Add to your shelves here.
Review:
FEAST OF ASHES is an action-packed tale of discovering the lies about your purported haven and how it came to be, and a desperate race for survival.
This book fits well into the resurgence of dystopia, full of classic YA dystopia tropes (destruction of the environment due to greed, being lied to by the government, teens discovering the truth, strange monsters). It’s like going back to the early 2010s, but instead of it being war that caused all these issues, it’s human greed leading to tampering with the environment.
And there are some horrifying monsters in this. The small band who escape have to cross a wasteland on minimal supplies while being hunted by monsters that lead to some terrifying scenes. It’s a survival story that tends to horror at times (and what is dystopia but an apocalyptic sci-fi horror with hope that things might just ultimately change?)
This all leads to a big cost to the characters. I appreciate it when there is a steep toll to survival and change in books. It makes the antagonists feel valid, like the fear and the “these guys are hard to beat” is proven by the fact not everyone gets out happy and well at the other end.
At the same time, the book is setting up relationships so that the cost hits harder. There are broken family relationships that bring out the worst in the main character (she is no perfectly good hero, and I liked that she knew that from the start.)
However, though I enjoyed the story, there were also some things core to the story that I didn’t like – or made me uneasy.
You can absolutely tell what the author’s beliefs on GM food are, to the point that there isn’t any nuance in the discussion of them at all. This book takes every fear over them and then makes the worst possible part of that fear real (including a fair amount of inaccurate science!) The “moderate” views on GM are only ever given by the villains or as parroted lines Adina then “learns are lies”.
I wish there’d been more nuance and scientific accuracy rather than simply a deluge of fear. This is a big, divisive topic with many, many layers, but this book reduced the discussion to something one dimensional.
The other thing that niggled at me reading this is that it is a book about the West’s exploitation of Africa and its disregard for its people, told through the eyes of a Black girl, written by a white woman. The marketing is all “this is a Black protagonist in a genre that’s not very diverse, yay!” but I couldn’t help wondering what this book could have been if it had been written by someone who was Black, if they had been allowed to tell this story. Dystopia is very, very white and one of the few diverse dystopias I’ve read being told by someone white made me rather uneasy.
Read my reviews of other books by Victoria Williamson:
Middle Grade:
Standalones:
Sifa Elizabeth Reads 
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