Never a dull moment even when the action has lulled to simple mundane tasks. In an attempt to save the kidnapped she also learns why the Sweepers will stop at nothing to have her.Īshes, Ashes is an ensnaring tale that reaches out, grabs readers and leaves them wanting more. Soon after, the camp is raided and Lucy is not part of the kidnapped and is left behind. Unbeknownst to her, there is a traitor in the camp that seeks to keep things in “order” and informs the Sweepers of their current position in hopes that they will take Lucy away. Aiden immediately takes a liking to her and invites her to join what little is left of civilization, instead of sleeping outside all by her lonesome.Īlthough skeptical at first Lucy follows him to this camp and soon learns of her special circumstances. And if that didn’t get you regular smallpox did, leaving only one in 100,000 alive.Īfter all this death and carnage Lucy is found by a boy named Aiden while on the run from the Sweepers. It is said that if you were not vaccinated then you were a part of the 100% mortality group. Even if you were vaccinated as a kid, you still had a high risk of infection from the hemorrhagic smallpox. Lucy has survived the end of the world, hemorrhagic smallpox epidemics, droughts, floods, the S’ans (people infected by the plague that survived) and last, but certainly not least, the Sweepers.Īs a result of the hemorrhagic smallpox epidemic, only one in 1,000,000 survived.

Skipping the ever-so-stereotypical escape at the end of the world, Treggiari instead opens with the protagonist Lucy Holloway hysterically laughing over a corpse. This is appropriate for Treggiari’s book due to its very cynical outlook on what the future holds. In many places, especially the UK (where the author is from), this rhyme is believed to be about the Black Plague. Jo Treggiari’s novel Ashes, Ashes kicks off with the infamous nursery rhyme, “Ring around the roses A pocketful of posies Ashes, ashes We all fall down”

Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari