This review was first posted on http://rubysreads.com. 
 These days, Dystopians are a dime a dozen. Sometimes, when I'm surfing Goodreads, looking for new titles, I almost hope to find a zombie story. Er, kidding. Sort of. Anyway, I find Dystopians increasingly difficult to get into. After a while, everything starts to feel samey. When I started Skylark, I thought it was going to be one of those Dystopians. Right off the bat, it reminded me of Enclave, by Ann Aguirre. Fortunately, it didn't take long for the action to spin off in a new direction, to catch me up in its whirlwind and carry me away in its story. 
 Skylark has a number of familiar Dystopian elements. There is a corrupt government that exploits its people, and lies and misleads them. There are cannibal/zombies. The population goes hungry while the PTB grows plump with their spoils. There's lots of talk about what's good for the population at large. What's a little bit different is the quality of the narration, and the element of Steampunk that she injects into her world-building. As an added bonus, Spooner's ability to bring the reader into her setting is remarkable. I had clear visual images of Skylark's ruined world, particularly the Iron Wood. 
 The heroine-whose name, delightfully, is Lark-was less enjoyable. For the first part of the book, she's mistrustful, whiny and squeamish. Never mind that I'd probably be the same way. This isfiction, y'all, and I expect my MCs to have more backbone than I will ever possess. I think my frustration with Lark was based on one major thing: She doesn't trust Oren, the wild boy who saves her from certain death. She gets all judgy and turns up her nose at his attempts to feed her, to help her survive. I (and I say this with my nose thrust firmly in the air) loved Oren from the start. Lark was just a little late to the party, though she arrives in the end. Is it too late? You'll have to answer that one for yourself. 
 I mentioned that Skylark has Steampunk elements. Besides the large machines endemic to Steampunk tales, Skylark also has a small shapeshifting machine called a pixie. Originally designed to be spies for the corrupt government, Lark eventually gains one as a follower. This pixie-ultimately named Nix-is maybe good and maybe bad, but all fun. The parts where it tries to resemble a bee tickled me pink. I love small companion creatures-like Gogu fromWildwood Dancing and thePerspicacious Loris from the Leviathan books. 
 Skylark ends with a couple of surprises-some predictable and some not-but mostly leaves me with a desire to read whatever comes next in this series. I'm excited to be able to see another city in Lark's ruined world. I like to think about how cities and cultures grow when they're isolated from one another, so I can't wait to follow Lark further on her journey. I'll make it to 2013-but just barely!