Skylark by Meagan Spooner
Book Description:
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?
WHALE-TASTIC!! COVER
Author behind Skylark
1. Tell us a
little about yourself?
I grew up in Northern Virginia, though I’ve
lived temporarily in other places—New York and Australia, mainly. I travel a
LOT, and am actually headed to southern Africa in a few weeks. I used to read
books under the covers when I was a kid, so often that my parents had to
regularly sneak in and replace the batteries in my flashlight so I wouldn’t
realize they knew exactly what I was doing. I’m a cat person, though I’ve been
known to fall for the occasional dog.
2. Books you currently have on your shelf?
Hmm… a random sampling would include The
Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, Inside Out by Maria Snyder, The BFG by Roald
Dahl, The Healing Spell by Kimberley Griffiths Little, and The Dragonriders of
Pern trilogy by Anne McCaffrey.
On my to-read list is Daughter of Smoke and
Bone, by Laini Taylor, The Curiosities, by Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton,
and Brenna Yovanoff, and . I’m DYING to read Bitterblue by Kristen Cashore,
when it comes out.
And right now, I’m in the middle of reading
Something Strange and Deadly, by Susan Dennard, which comes out later this
summer. I’m loving it!
3. What
inspired you to write a Dystopian novel?
I never actually set out to write a dystopian
novel. If anything, it was post-apocalyptic more than dystopian—it doesn’t have
that same structure as a traditional dystopian novel. In the course of writing
it, though, it became much more fantastical than your average dystopian book. Now,
it’s a mix of fantasy, dystopian, survival—even a little steampunk at times. I
wanted to create a world that was unique and different, and a book with the
same elements of identity and relation to society that are often highlighted in
dystopian books, while also hitting the epic hero’s journey so often depicted
in fantasy.
4. Who is your
favorite character from your book?
Oh, that’s a tough one. I love Oren, the wild boy that ends up helping
Lark when she’s surviving in the wilderness—he’s a complicated guy, and has
that whole “raised by wolves” wild man thing going for him. But I think my
absolute favorite character has to be Nix. And I won’t spoil those who haven’t
read the book by explaining who that is—you’ll have to read and see! (It really
is a spoiler, I swear I’m not just being a troll! Well… maybe a little.)
5. Favorite
Starbucks drink?
Iced soy chai latte. I don’t do coffee
(though sometimes I SO wish I liked it, for the caffeine!) and I think I’m
probably the only person on the planet who actually genuinely loves the flavor
of soy milk in drinks!
"Thank you for your time, Meagan!"
