Shards & Ashes (anthology) : review

Title: Shards & Ashes
Author: Melissa Marr, and Kelley Armstrong (editors) & stories by the nine authors listed below
Genres: ya dystopian, short stories
Rating: 5 stars overall!
Release Date: February 19th 2013
Summary: The world is gone, destroyed by human, ecological, or supernatural causes. Survivors dodge chemical warfare and cruel gods; they travel the reaches of space and inhabit underground caverns. Their enemies are disease, corrupt corporations, and one another; their resources are few, and their courage is tested.

Powerful original dystopian tales from nine bestselling authors offer bleak insight, prophetic visions, and precious glimmers of light among the shards and ashes of a ruined world.




This is my second YA anthology! I reviewed Foretold back in September, and if you haven't already, you can see that review here. :) Overall, I liked this just as much, maybe a little more. But these stories are longer, because there are fewer authors. Each story averaged at about 40 pages.

(In order)


Hearken - Veronica Roth
I'll read anything by Veronica Roth, because her Divergent series rocks. This story is beautiful, a little heartbreaking, but inspiring. It's about music, but in a very unique way, and I loved it a lot. Pick the book up, just to read this story, if not any of the others. (Though you'll probably want to keep going.)

Branded - Kelley Armstrong
Interesting medieval twist on dystopian, and reminded me of a kind of futuristic Evernight or something...definitely for the paranormal fan.

Necklace of Raindrops - Margaret Stohl
It took me almost the whole story to get into this one, but worth it because the ending was really cool. The problem I had was feeling connected to anything; characters or story. It's kinda far-fetched which is impressive, but almost too much to actually understand a lot of it.

Dogsbody - Rachel Caine
Not sure I really like this one. It wasn't bad, but nothing really impressionable about it for me, personally. But I'm sure if you're a fan of Rachel Caine, then you'll like reading her work. She's a new author to me. Again though, with the ending, it's a nice knife twist!

Pale Rider - Nancy Holder
I didn't like it. Too odd, and it had some strange fae aspect to a dystopian world...I think? Even for a short story, it felt a little underdeveloped.

Corpse Eaters - Melissa Marr
This is one of the creepier ones. I haven't read any of Marr's work yet, but now I definitely want to! It's a bit gross, what with all the literal corpse eating, but it's really good. So the idea is good, but I would have liked more, to build upon the characters more.

Burn 3 - Kami Garcia
Pretty okay! Didn't love it, but the story is a nice (if really disturbing) concept. Has to do with the ozone, abandoned subway systems, and skin...so ponder that.

Love is a Choice - Beth Revis
Eek!! For fans of her Across the Universe series: Just so you know, it's about Orion's little back-story! I cannot wait for Shades of Earth to come out! It was darker than I had imagined. Otherwise, if you don't read that series, you might still enjoy it, but I'm not sure.

Miasma - Carrie Ryan
I'll read anything by her. Great concept of smells and murky swamps causing disease/plague, and freaky flesh eating monsters and doctors with beaked masks...could give one chills! The story ends the whole book with an almost hopeful charm.

~

Shards & Ashes introduced me to a few new authors, so I shall move up/add to my reading list for these titles: Carnival of Souls, Unbreakable, Icons, and Crusade.

Should I do more anthology reviews? These are pretty fun! I like how there are easy stopping points between each story, to read other books. Anybody have recommendations?

-Jane