Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Shards and Ashes

by Melissa Marr (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Kelley Armstrong (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Veronica Roth (Goodreads Author), Kami Garcia (Goodreads Author), Margaret Stohl (Goodreads Author), Rachel Caine, Nancy Holder (Goodreads Author), Beth Revis (Goodreads Author) , more…

3.57 of 5 stars 3.57 · rating details · 523 ratings · 151 reviews

Gripping original stories of dystopian worlds from nine New York Times bestselling authors, edited by Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong.

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,...more

Paperback, 384 pages

Published February 19th 2013 by HarperCollins (first published February 13th 2013)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

YA Novels of 2013

125th out of 920 books — 6,558 voters

Can't Wait Books of 2013

221st out of 1,861 books — 9,889 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Mar 12, 2013 Skyla rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories, paranormal, dystopia, dystopia-romance-fail, books-i-own, apocalypse, fucked-up-science, insta-love-tastic, kids-killing-kids, creepy

Find more reviews here:
http://happygolucky-skyla.blogspot.com/

Introduction by Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong

This may be one of the blahest intros I have ever read. It didn't explain what they were going for with this book. I loved the intro in AFTER as they explained exactly what they were going for and since this book has no synopsis on the back I was looking forward to reading the intro.

0.5/5 stars

Hearken by Veronica Roth

I liked the idea of the sound implants, the world sounded interesti...more

1 like · like · see review

May 15, 2013 Lilian Cheng rated it 2 of 5 stars

I’m obsessed with dystopians, so coming across Shard and Ashes was like Christmas for me (despite the weird cover that made me think it was a paranormal anthology instead.) But I find that short stories can be hit or miss for me. On one hand they allow me to explore many different worlds, but on another hand sixty pages is sometimes not enough to develop a world or to make me invested in the characters (which explains why it took me a week to finish this one.) There were also moments were I felt...more

like · see review

Apr 27, 2013 Fly To The Sky rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who like dystopia or fans of some of the authors

This review first appeared on my blog, Read Books and Live Green

So you have some of the biggest names in the book world, writing short stories. Each story is a take on a dystopian future. Each is unique. Many are exciting. Some are heartbreaking. Not all of them are amazing. You would think that each and every one of these stories would be filled with perfect amount of action and adventure. With the kind of characters that you can immediately connect to. Well that is an overrated notion. There w...more

like · see review

Apr 24, 2013 Brooke rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-reviewed

Hearken by Veronica Roth 4/5

Favourite Quote: “Everyone was both dying and living at the same time”

I liked learning about the Hearken’s and I thought what they could do was beautiful, I would love to have that gift. I like the main character a lot, I felt her feelings and reactions were realistic. However I felt the rest of the world buildings was a little too minimal, and I didn’t fully understand what had happened to the world but this story was really good for only being 38 pages! Wouldn’t...more

like · see review

Apr 23, 2013 Rach rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, short-stories, after-the-end-of-the-world

My main problem with short stories is I always want to know more. What's going to happen next? Where do they go from there? With a good short story, just when I get sucked in, it's ending. All in all, most of these stories were entertaining, but I was nearly always left wanted more, whether it was because the story was so good that I wanted to know what happened next or because the story felt incomplete and unfinished. Here are some brief thoughts on each story, and u have ranked each story from...more

like · see review

Mar 19, 2013 Dark Faerie Tales rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed-by-kayla

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales.

Quick and Dirty: Nine heart breaking and creepy and all together compelling short stories tell the tales of the broken, the desperate and the clever.

Opening Sentence: “Black or red?”

The Review:

This is a great collection of dystopian tales – some old worlds and some new ones. Some leave you bawling and some just in awe of the authors’ ingenuity. All of these short stories have clever twists and heart-wrenching moments (whether from romance or family moments o...more

2 likes · like · see review

Feb 24, 2013 Abby is currently reading it

This review is going to be different because this is a dystopian anthology containing nine different stories in nine different future worlds. As I go through this, I am going to add a short paragraph review of each story with my thoughts on it.

Hearken
by: Veronica Roth
This was a great way to start off this book. In this story Veronica Roth created a hauntingly beautiful world. This story was just under forty pages long, yet it had characters I became invested with and a plot that kept me inte...more

1 like · like · see review

Feb 22, 2013 Suzan rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who enjoys YA Paranormal

I really bought this for Kelley Armstrong and Melissa Marr's stories so they are the ones that stand out for me! Branded by Kelley Armstrong dealt with the possible consequences of the supernaturals from her Otherworld Series (though not the actual characters as this was set in the future) revealing themselves to the world as well as the consequences of scientists messing around with supernatural DNA and trying to give it to humans to create super soldiers except that they make the mistake of th...more

like · see review

Apr 03, 2013 Diana rated it 4 of 5 stars

Creepy, heartbreaking, compelling, extraordinary and so much more.

Hearken
Veronica Roth
★★★★★

This is one of my favorites! I love the idea of hearkens especially the idea that music could be the only thing to save the world. I just think it was really fast paced and it would be better if it will be a book. I'd definitely read it!

Branded
Kelley Armstrong
★★★★☆

The idea of the fortress was really great. What I liked the most was the reality in it that was presented. People getting tossed outside, b...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 03, 2013 Meike rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, fantasy, short-stories, not-finished

I'm so fed up with books (or rather blurbs) promising what the books actually don't deliver and others not telling a truth that's obvious - after you have bought the book and started reading.
And I am starting to hate on YA, because that's what this book is: YA.
Another YA I suddenly found myself with, another book I would have never bought if I only knew *before*.

Please do not get me wrong: I bought this book because I love Kelley Armstrong and because it sounded awesome: Dark and imaginative. A...more

like · see review

Jan 25, 2013 ShyleeJ rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-releases

First I would like to thank Goodreads for sending me this free Uncorrected (not for sale) copy of the book!! I was so excited when it came in the mail and I probably wouldn't have gotten to read these stories without it. I Also would Like to thank all the authors for coming together and putting this amazing book together!!

but anyways... basically there are 9 different stories in this 362 page book all the stories are about 30-40 pages. Each is its own unique idea. So for this I will be individua...more

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 28, 2013 ❤Rosa❤ added it

Shelves: wide-reading-logs-2013

In this review I will talk about why I read this book and the category this book fits into collectively, but for each story will give my opinion on quotes, characters, things I have learned and general opinions on the story. Keep in mind each review may be a little smaller than my normal review size- these are short stories after all!

The cover of Shards and Ashes didn’t particularly stand out in a shelf full of dark and murky looking novels, but on closer inspection I couldn’t help but issue thi...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 15, 2013 Ruth Silver rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm rating the book on the first two stories. I gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Hearken by Veronica Roth

A great start to the Shards & Ashes anthology of short stories.

Pros:

compelling story-telling with realistic characters
the beginning choice of red or black and then as the story unfolds it just clicks with the reader what this means
string-theory (science) mixed in with fiction makes it believable and almost understandable
Cons:

As it is a short story there's a lot of questions let about those tha...more

like · see review

Mar 03, 2013 Khanh rated it 3 of 5 stars

It wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't read any of these authors again had I first read their work in this anthology. For the most part, the stories here needed more background to work, and a couple just made absolutely no sense in the context of a post-apocalyptic world.

For example, the first story, The Hearkeners, had me scratching my head. Ok, so you have a world in which you have to wear gas masks to protect against some attacks that aren't really defined, by people whose agendas I don't quite u...more

2 likes · like · see review

Feb 23, 2013 Coranne (The Best Books Ever) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished-need-review

Shards and Ashes is a collection of dystopian stories by popular YA Authors. I think the easiest way for me to write this review is to go through it story by story, mainly because I had such drastically varying feelings for each story. I didn't look to see who wrote which story until after I had finished the book, but it was interesting which stories I liked and didn't (because I am not a huge fan of some of the authors in this compliation).

Hearken by Veronica Roth

I knew right away reading this...more

like · see review

May 11, 2013 Liv rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: dystopian-fantasy

This book was a compilation of YA short stories with post-apocalyptic themes.

For full disclosure upfront, I didn't read all the stories, but only selected a few for which the authors' names I recognized. So my review would only be based on ones that I actually read. Overall, I'd give the book 3.5 stars in rating.

Hearken, by Veronica Roth - 4 stars
This was a simple story about people with perfect pitch talents who would be later on trained and converted into "Hearken". Hearken people can "hear"...more This book was a compilation of YA short stories with post-apocalyptic themes.

For full disclosure upfront, I didn't read all the stories, but only selected a few for which the authors' names I recognized. So my review would only be based on ones that I actually read. Overall, I'd give the book 3.5 stars in rating.

Hearken, by Veronica Roth - 4 stars
This was a simple story about people with perfect pitch talents who would be later on trained and converted into "Hearken". Hearken people can "hear" songs of people - life vs death. Darya, the protagonist of the story, became a Hearken. Her relationship with her mother had been estranged from early childhood but it wasn't until she acquired the abilities of the Hearken, and being able to hear her mother's death song and then later hearing her own life song through someone else's replay, that she realized that her mom was always connected with her in ways that she never truly understood or appreciated. It was a simple, beautiful, and emotional story.

Branded, by Kelley Armstrong - 4 stars
As a faithful reader of Kelley Armstrong, needless to say, this short story was the primary reason why I wanted to read this book in the first book. Despite the short length of this story, it delivered a clever and adventurous plot through the heroine's (Rayne's) intelligent scheme and manipulation. Through her clever plotting, she and her boyfriend, Braeden (who was a werewolf, something that was despised and feared within the fortress in which they lived) were able to escape the confines of the fortress and was able to join the branded outcasts who were supernaturals like Braeden. The story was engaging, had a simple but interesting plot and characters that were vividly portrayed. I was not disappointed at all with this short work.

Dogsbody, by Rachel Caine - 2.5 stars
In a post-apocalyptic world in which the world was dominated by corporations and humans were valued based on their ranks and usefulness, Dogsbody was written from the POV of a boy, Zay, who became an employee of a corporation. Humans were seen as a burden and resources had to be rationed. When people became over-popuplated, they were decimated as it was an easy solution to the scarce supplies. As part of his revenge, Zay wanted to climb the "corporate ladder", with the ultimate goal of killing the executive behind the ordering of the execution of his neighbours and friends. During the final showdown, he met up with his childhood friend, Virtue, who convinced him to assist the man whom he thought was behind the execution order many years before. Not unexpected, after the conflict was won over, they discovered that they had been tricked and were rewarded with their own deaths... The ending was so predictable that I didn't find it that interesting. The world-building of this story was also a bit weak, but that was likely due to its length more than anything else. In any case, while I thought it was more than okay but I didn't like it.

Burn 3, by Kami Garcia - 3 stars
Phoenix and her sister, Sky, lived in Burn District 3, after a good part of the world had gone up in flames, literally and the sun rays had become too harmful for humans to be in direct contact with him without protective gear. Water had become a scarcity and they lived in a camp that was completely secluded and away from the outside. Phoenix came home one day to find that her sister had disappeared, with apparent signs of abduction. No one believed her and so she decided to venture underground to the "forbidden" places where criminals and the lawless lived. Later she discovered that Sky was kidnapped by a group of people called "Skinners", who basically took children so that their skins could be used for grafting, for fixing rich people's skins since they had been burned and scarred by the sun. The plot was quite suspenseful and Phoenix was certainly admirable in her courage, perseverance, and resourcefulness. The only thing that I would remark negatively upon would be the ending, which I thought could have been a little more definitive. The way it was left made me feel somewhat unfinished. Nonetheless, this was a good short story and I liked it.(less)

like · see review

Mar 17, 2013 Terri Jacobson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories, young-adult, dystopian

I normally only give 5 start to excellent literary works that affect me powerfully, that have beautiful writing, powerful stories and characters, and extraordinary metaphors and symbolism. I am somewhat new to the genre of dystopian works, and I decided that these qualities do apply to this collection of short stories, though in a somewhat different way. I don't think these works are great literature, but to be excellent I have found that it doesn't have to be. All of the pieces in this book are...more

like · see review

Mar 20, 2013 Lianne Burwell rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library, short-stories, ya

Shards and Ashes is the second young adult anthology of dystopian stories I've read recently (the other being After, edited by Ellen Datlow). There is even a little overlap, including a story by Beth Revis set in the same world as her story in After, and her Across the Universe series.

So, rather than go into detail on all of the nine stories, I'll highlight some of the things that stood out for me.

Branded (Kelley Armstrong) was a little brutal, but an interesting world I wouldn't mind seeing rev...more

like · see review

Mar 11, 2013 Belle rated it 4 of 5 stars

When I add up all of the individual ratings I got 3.66 stars, but I rounded it to 4. It's weird because the people who put the entire thing together (Kelly Armstrong and Malissa Marr) did not have very good stories. I got a grossed out a lot in this book. I understand that for these kind of stories there is going to be some stuff that is well... gross, but I am easily disturbed by that sort of thing. Now, I know that it is hard to fit a lot of detail into a short story, but I use the word "confu...more When I add up all of the individual ratings I got 3.66 stars, but I rounded it to 4. It's weird because the people who put the entire thing together (Kelly Armstrong and Malissa Marr) did not have very good stories. I got a grossed out a lot in this book. I understand that for these kind of stories there is going to be some stuff that is well... gross, but I am easily disturbed by that sort of thing. Now, I know that it is hard to fit a lot of detail into a short story, but I use the word "confusing" a lot in these reviews. Anyway, I am going to rate each of the stories on their own. So, here is what I thought:

"Hearken" by Veronica Roth, Five Stars- this was one of my favorite stories, which is not that surprising considering that Veronica Roth is one of my favorite authors. I was not confused once! She managed to explain everything easily, even the way to pronounce Darya's name (she sneakily hid it into the story by having someone misspell it it)! It was even depressing without making me want to stop reading. I have zero complaints.

"Branded" by Kelly Armstrong, Two Stars- just for the record I do not enjoy reading a story where the character has not even one good quality, but that is just me. Not only was the character a little TOO unlikable but it was confusing! This was not a story to be in first person. Rayne would say things like "I knew that it could not be _______ because ________" and then later say, "I knew it was _______ all along." And my reaction wasn't like 'Oh you got me!' it was more '...huh?' Overall I did not like this story very much.

"Necklace of Raindrops" by Margaret Stohl, Four Stars- I really liked this one. My only complaint is that i was a little confused as to what the world at the end was that they were supposed to go to. I don't think that you are supposed to but I found it a little odd. I loved this one, though!

"Dogsbody" by Rachel Caine, Three point five Stars- This one was really interesting and I actually liked the depressing ending which is weird because I usually don't like sad endings. It is not a perfect story though. It was (forgive me) confusing. The time went a little too fast and when he saw virtue again i didn't like how it was never, "I always wondered what had happened to her," it was more "Oh, hey! Whats up?" Also the story just felt like it was missing something, but I am not really sure what. Still, it was very good.

"Pale Rider" by Nancy Holder, Two Stars- what the heck. Really, I have no idea what I even read there. This is what I got "Batteries, some dude, lost things, castle, anger, "why does it want me to kill you?", "I think I like this guy now," explanation, "i find lost things," the end. Yeah, but that's just me.

"Corpse Eaters" by Melissa Marr, Three Stars- this one was just a little too much for me. All of the crazy stuff and her sister and... I just got a little lost. I also did not really get the character of her dad. At the end I was more like "Oh," but I still do not get why he was mean when he was all drunk and stuff. And this one was not only confusing, but gross. When they talked about the soup, just... eww. It was an okay story, really. Just okay.

"Burn 3" by Kami Garcia, Four point five Stars- this one was very good. It was interesting and exciting. It was great! It was just missing something, some spark that I was looking for but didn't find. that is why its 4.5 and not 5 stars. I loved it, though!

"Love is a Choice" by Beth Revis, Four Stars- WARNING if you have not read the first Across the Universe book this story will ruin some stuff. It is one of the characters that we don't know very well's back story. I liked it, but it was not perfect. It helped me understand the character a lot better though, and I really liked Mag. I understand why Orion did what he did in the end, but I do not agree with what he said about love being a choice. It just shows how insane he is, really! It was an interesting story.

"Miasma" by Carrie Ryan, Five Stars- They totally saved the best stories for first and last on purpose. I loved this one! I got so sad at the end (a good sad). It was amazing. I loved hearing Frankie's story and I understood what was going on and it was emotional. SO, great!

Overall, my favorite story was veronica Roth's, but most of them were very good! It was hard to go from story to story, so it took me a few days to get through, but it was worth it!

(less)

like · see review

Apr 14, 2013 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Hurray for post-apocalyptic story time! Since there are only nine stories in this dystopian collection, I’m doing a mini review of each tale. If you just want to know my overall thoughts on the book as a whole then scroll on down to the bottom.

Hearken by Veronica Roth
Hearken was an innovative tale set in an earth ruined by chemical warfare. It was an unexpected and truly creative story. I was impressed by the author’s ideas. But, I feel that the actual storytelling could have been improved upo...more

like · see review

Apr 16, 2013 Penelope rated it 1 of 5 stars

I guess I can't really give a review to a book filled with about seven stories I honestly didn't even understand. But here goes:
The stories liked any type of body altogether and I was confused from the story, and my confusion just seemed to grow, really. The thing I hate most about reading a book filled with short stories is the fact that it takes the really big ability of being able to tie the story together in about sixteen pages or so, and to me about two of these Authors excluding one of my...more

like · see review

Apr 29, 2013 Kimmy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I don’t often read short story collections, but when I heard that these were dystopian stories, I knew I had to check it out.

The book is edited by Melissa Marr (whose Graveminder I read and loved) and Kelly Armstrong, and contains stories by Veronica Roth, Kelley Armstrong, Margaret Stohl, Rachel Caine, Nancy Holder, Melissa Marr, Kami Garcia, Beth Revis, and Carrie Ryan. I’ve read works by some of these others, but others are new to me.

Here is the Goodreads summary:

Gripping original stories of

...more

like · see review

Feb 07, 2013 Kandie rated it 5 of 5 stars

*I recieved an ARC of Shards & Ashes through Goodreads First Reads. Thanks to HarperCollins and Goodreads for the chance to read this beautiful collection of dystopian short stories.

I'll start by saying I love the title of this collection and think it fits perfectly for these stories, I quite like the cover as well.

I really enjoyed these nine short stories, I haven't read a majority of these authors before and reading this really made me want to go out and buy their individual novels.

I also...more

like · see review

Feb 03, 2013 Alexis rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shards & Ashes, a collection of dystopian short stories penned by many of the prominent female authors in YA fiction, is an unsettling read that provides a solid sampling of the genre.

Starting out the book, we have Veronica Roth (of Divergent fame), with Hearken, the tale of 8 year old Darya, whose new-found musical aptitude has afforded her the opportunity to bring beauty to a world ravaged by doomsdayists hastening the apocalypse with biological warfare. Darya's kind are known as Hearkener...more Shards & Ashes, a collection of dystopian short stories penned by many of the prominent female authors in YA fiction, is an unsettling read that provides a solid sampling of the genre.

Starting out the book, we have Veronica Roth (of Divergent fame), with Hearken, the tale of 8 year old Darya, whose new-found musical aptitude has afforded her the opportunity to bring beauty to a world ravaged by doomsdayists hastening the apocalypse with biological warfare. Darya's kind are known as Hearkeners, musical prodigies trained in various instruments and at 16, outfitted with a brain implant that allows them to hear either "life songs" or "death songs" depending on their preference. While each person has both, the life song plays strongest in the healthy, and in people who are dying, the death song prevails. As in Divergent and Insurgent, an aspect of Roth's writing that sets her apart from other authors in YA fiction/fantasy is in the way she is able to tie her plot together with real science. With light cameos from neuroscience and string theory, her stories sound smarter and have an air of credibility, albeit still undeniably science fiction [think Fringe]. I'd say that Hearken is one of my top choices of the collection.

Next is Branded, by Kelley Armstrong. In a story with a more supernatural flavor, Rayne and her fellow humans live in a fortress protected from all varieties of hybrid monsters, magic users, vampires, etc. that roam the outside world. Her love interest, Braeden, has been identified as a werewolf and is banished to the outside, but Rayne, believing she cannot live without him, enacts a plan to sneak out of the fortress and find him, no matter the cost. Occasionally stilted dialogue and unlikeable characters somewhat hampers the execution of this story, but an interesting story all the same.

Necklace of Raindrops, by Margaret Stohl, is told alternatingly through the perspectives of Jai and Z, citizens of a [Chinese?] dystopia in which one's lifespan is dictated by how little they indulge in the pleasures of their world. At birth, each person is given a "necklace of raindrops," as described by Jai, with a predetermined number of beads that are cashed in for things to experience and enjoy. When the beads run out, members of this society are forced to make "the drop," jumping from a plane, with or without a parachute. Z, a reckless spender, and Jai, a conscientious saver, are polar opposites that come together through the course of the story.

Rachel Caine's Dogsbody is set in a corporation-dominated dystopia where lower-class citizens are treated as expendable labor, snuffed out at a moment's notice to pad the bank accounts of company executives. Xavier Grey fortuitously survives a mass extermination of his peers and makes it his life's mission to work his way up the ranks to seek revenge on the parties responsible. Caine does a fantastic job of setting the scene, with a few memorable metaphors that make for vivid imagery.

In Pale Rider, by Nancy Holder, Delaney and a few other teenagers have managed to survive some sort of apocalyptic scenario and are holed up in a house, using every day to scrounge for supplies. On one such supply run, Delaney meets Alex, a mysterious German man, who tells her that she is somehow involved in this apocalypse by blood and is a missing link to reversing the damage. Now, while I have liked the other novels I have read by Holder, you can probably tell by the vagueness of this description that I found the plot to be rather confusing. It's one of those "struggle through the mystery with the protagonist until the last possible moment" stories, but I found the explanation at the end too out there to accommodate this format. Perhaps this would have been better suited to being a longer novel.

A god has come to earth in Melissa Marr's Corpse Eaters, but unfortunately, he's not human. Nidhogg and his followers [Nidos] eat people, and lately, the natural death rate has not been enough to satisfy their appetites. Harmony and her partner, Chris, have been dedicated to the dangerous mission of taking out as many Nidos as possible, knowing that humans can no longer thrive on earth as long as this god and his people still live. I found this story to be a bit confusing as well, but primarily due to a twist at the end that probably would have been a bit better explained in a longer format.

Kami Garcia is one of the few authors I didn't recognize on the bill for this book, but I found Burn 3 to be the most fleshed out and engaging of the stories. Phoenix lives in a world where the sun's intensity has magnified, leaving the outside almost unlivable. Her parents killed off in the early days, she is responsible for looking after her little sister Sky, the rare blonde-haired, blue-eyed child not fatally burned by the sun. But when Phoenix comes home to find Sky has been drugged and taken from their home, she must take up with some undesirable people to find out what happened and try to bring her sister home.

Love is a Choice, by Beth Revis, is set on the Godspeed, a ship in outer space and details the progression of 19 year old Orion's plot to overthrow the Elder. The Elder, fearing mutiny from his ship's passengers, has been drugging their water supply, with only higher ranking ship workers provided a pill to inhibit the drug's effects. While inhabiting the ship in secret, Orion meets Meg, an employee that shares his vision of revolt aboard the Godspeed. Initially appearing to be a love story, a twist at the end leaves both the integrity of our narrator and the status of the revolution up in the air.

In the final story, Miasma, by Carrie Ryan, Frankie, her mother, and sister are a poor family in a world slowly being consumed by "miasma," a substance that encompasses the earth, the smell of which infects its inhabitants and eventually kills them. Before that happens, however, the infected are much more likely to be rooted out by "the doctors," masked men that arrest the sick and feed them to mutants called "plague eaters." Frankie's mother is taken [geez, kids in YA dystopians simply cannot hold on to their parents, can they?] and her sister falls ill as well. In an effort to keep the household together, Frankie dons her mother's uniform and goes to work in her place as a maid for the wealthy Oglethorpes, where she soon becomes entranced by her employer's son, Charles. While Charles may have taken notice of Frankie as well, she has bigger concerns; she can only keep the doctors away from Cathy for so long. Miasma was a nice choice to end the book with because it's the big romantic of the bunch, and ends on an uncharacteristically optimistic note for a dystopian work.

Shards & Ashes is a great sampler of some of the bigger names in YA sci fi/fantasy/dystopian fiction for those who are new to the genre, or people already well-acquainted with the genre who would like to read a bit more from their favorite authors. Or, of course, stories about orphans :).

*A courtesy copy of this book was provided to the reviewer by HarperCollins.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Apr 14, 2013 Claire (Cem) rated it 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars overall.

Hearken by Veronica Roth - 4.5/5
Branded by Kelley Armstrong - 4.5/5
Necklace of Raindrops by Margaret Stohl - dnf
Dogsbody by Rachel Caine - 3.5/5
Pale Rider by Nancy Holder - 3/5
Corpse Eaters by Melissa Marr - 3.5/5
Burn 3 by Kami Garcia - 3/5
Love is a Choice by Beth Revis - 3.5/5
Miasma by Carrie Ryan - dnf

All very different, most of them engaging and from a excellent collection of YA authors. The two stories I didn't fimish, I may read at a later date but at the moment didn't app...more

like · see review

Feb 15, 2013 Siobhan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have always been a lover of short stories, and I always thought that if an author could write a very compelling and engaging short story then that is a marker for a great author. I am not saying that if an author in this collection didn't capture me with their stories that I don't love them as an author, that is not true at all. There were some stories in this collection that fell a little flat for me, and they were from authors that I loved very much, but it does not mean that their story cha...more

like · see review

May 06, 2013 Tanya rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Obviously I can't use my normal rating system as this book has multiple writing styles/characters/plots/etc. I'm not usually a fan of short stories. That said I did enjoy this book. At the minimum it has shown me that some of the authors I've been continually pushing to the bottom of my to-read pile are really worth moving to the top. My favorites were Veronica Roth's Hearken, Rachel Caine's Dogsbody, Kami Garcia's Burn 3 and Beth Revis' Love is a Choice. I enjoyed these the most because they we...more

like · see review

Mar 14, 2013 Gina rated it 5 of 5 stars

What a GREAT read! If you like dystopian stories, you will easily be able to find several stories in this book to entertain you. I was a little leery at first, wondering how you could come up with so many different stories based around the same theme: end of the world. I was afraid that they would all be the same and that I would not want to finish the book, which tends to happen in anthologies for me. Each story, however, was unique and created a totally different world. I loved this book!

I can...more

like · see review

Feb 25, 2013 Sil rated it 4 of 5 stars

4 stars for Hearkener by Veronica Roth
Hearkeners have the special ability to hear life songs or death songs. The family dynamic aspect of the story was very touching. I was just baffled why, in a society where bio-suicide-bombers lurk in every corner, more money is spent on devices to fine tune hearkeners abilities instead of finding devices to detect bio-bombs.

5 stars for Branded by Kelly Armstrong
I'm not into stories about werewolves but this was told in a way that got me interested. This sto...more

like · see review

Sep 04, 2012 Mary Catherine rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed some of these short stories, to the point that I'd love to read some other works of the authors. Not all of them were my cup o' tea but that's a normal situation in an anthology such as SHARDS & ASHES.

The dystopian setting has fast become popular and these stories manage to create an entire universe in approximately 30 pages. Talented authors, some incredible stories.

The worst part of this collection is that I'd love to read MORE of some of these worlds. That's not necessa...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (4)

Genres

Young Adult

88 users

Science Fiction > Dystopia

69 users

Short Stories

51 users

Anthologies

50 users

Fantasy

25 users

Science Fiction

23 users

Apocalyptic > Post Apocalyptic

13 users

Romance

11 users

Young Adult > Teen

7 users

Fantasy > Paranormal

6 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

Defy the Dark
by Saundra Mitchell (Editor)
Pulse
by Patrick Carman
Revel
by Maurissa Guibord
Control
by Lydia Kang
Reboot
by Amy Tintera

About Melissa Marr

5 stars= If I love you, I'll buy you a copy from this list of books. (Pls note, if you are my family or dearest friends, feel free to remind me to do so. I am lousy w remembering birthdays/holidays.)

4 stars= Don't even ask to borrow it. You should prob buy it though.

3= If you borrow it, you better not lose it, mangle it, or keep it too long.

2 or 1 star= I don't use these. If it's not a 3 star or...more

More about Melissa Marr...

Books by Melissa Marr

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Shards and Ashes

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from Shards and Ashes

“Life's something we already understand. Death is a mystery.” — 12 people liked it

“Sometimes you have to do things you don't like in order to make a change in the world.” — 3 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Shards and Ashes
avg rating	preview: Shards and Ashes Goodreads rating: 3.57 (523 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14811468-shards-and-ashes?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1341338879l/14811468.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14811468-shards-and-ashes?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Shards and Ashes by Melissa Marr[/url]

Shards and Ashes

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website