Suz @ Bookish Revelations
Written on Oct 5, 2013
A cataclysmic event. A dramatically changed world. A zombie army. Can three kids really survive... and who can they trust?
Alex has run away and is hiking through the wilderness with her dead parents' ashes, about to say goodbye to the life she no longer wants to live. But then the world suddenly changes. An electromagnetic pulse sweeps through the sky zapping every electronic device and killing the vast majority of adults. For those spared, it's a question of who can be trusted and who has changed...
Everyone still alive has turned - some for the better (those who acquired a superhuman sense) while others for the worse (those who acquired a taste for human flesh). Desperate to find out what happened and to avoid the zombies that are on the hunt, Alex meets up with Tom - an Army veteran who escaped one war only to find something worse at home - and Ellie, a young girl whose grandfather was killed by the electromagnetic pulse.
This improvised family will have to use every ounce of courage they have just to find food, shelter, while fighting off the 'Changed' and those desperate to stay alive.
A tense and involving adventure with shocks and sudden plot twists that will keep teen and adult readers gripped.
- ISBN10 0857382624
- ISBN13 9780857382627
- Publish Date 29 September 2011 (first published 1 January 2011)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Hachette Children's Group
- Imprint Quercus Children's Books
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 352
- Language English
Reviews
nannah
Written on Feb 16, 2013
I was so ready to give this book 5 solid, beautiful stars. I was so ready.
Until I got about halfway and it was as if some undistinguished dystopian author ran up to Bick, snatched her pen, said, "I got this," and wrote the rest of the novel in the style of every other YA book out there, adding a second love interest, 15+ unnecessary characters, what seemed like a whole other plot, and took away what I loved (did I mention absolutely loved)about the book's first half.
Basically, the first half of the book: 5 stars.
Second half: 2 stars. Maybe less. I can't decide right now. Talk to me later after I recover from this heartbreak and betrayal and downed at least 3 cups of tea.
However, let's return to the glorious, dark, and awesome 250 pages of Ashes. Gosh, I wanted to run up to my friends and shove this thing into their faces, waving it around and screaming. I wanted to wail its praises and everything. I mean, it's not without its flaws, certainly--the prose is somewhat clunky, especially in action scenes, where sentences continue to be very long and flowery, taking me out of the scene and the energy; not to mention that the Minnesota was described literally as a "lumberjack" wearing plaid and a turtleneck. I'm surprised Bick didn't take a swing at his accent, too. But maybe I'm just sore because I'm a Minnesotan myself . . .
In any case, I loved the slow and simplistic approach to the beginning, especially with Alex's brain tumor and the introduction of the zombies and the three main characters' predicament. And what I love most is that the zombie cause is explained here, and in a way that's actually quite possible, or more believable that in most stories. Not to mention I actually get to experience it happening! That's so fascinating (in a sick, horrid way). Still going on about this brilliant first half, the character relationships were amazingly done. The growth between all of them made me melt into this puddle of emotions. Really, it did. I absolutely adored the relationship between Tom and Ellie, I can't emphasize that enough. It was so real and sweet, and so refreshing compared to most relationships emphasized in YA books published today (AKA: romance romance ROMANCE ROMANCE DID I MENTION?).
So the most disappointing aspect about when the book switched gears completely was when all that was lost, and Bick gave up those subtle and beautiful relationships for the shallow standard YA garble that's swarming the shelves everywhere. Around page 250, I swear that's when it happens, smack in the middle of the book, everything changes. I wanted to run up and help the Ents release the river and drown what was once beautiful but now had started to stink (forgive me for this reference, I really just had to say it!).
Had the author just decided three characters weren't enough to carry a plot? I was shocked. Really, I was completely thrown when I had to deal with all these new characters thrusted upon me with no warning and was expected to care for them in some way. Why would I care? Why should I care? This whole town of Rule is just another dystopian city setup, a horrible city disguised as something nice (a ruse everyone can see through right away, so why the lengthy shtick at all?) that carries on for another 200 pages. Like I said earlier, another love interest is added, I assume because the concept of two love interests is soin fashion right now, with a whole bunch of random super powers and random dogs and random side plots and characters that really don't seem to have any immediacy or point right now. Maybe they do in the future, but it doesn't seem all that important to me. The plot in the beginning was so tight, so pressing and beautiful (yes, that's probably the 50th time I've used that word to describe the first 250), and then it's completely disregarded for a disorganized mess--for what? To set up something else? To add some sparkle?
The zombies seemed an afterthought in this part, even. Really, an afterthought; as in, mentioned at the very end. Oh yeah, this book has to do with zombies! I forgot!
I almost want to cry I feel so betrayed.
Jordon
Written on Oct 28, 2012
Ashes had me addicted from page one!
I couldn’t put this book down for the first half. It was riveting , exciting and plain scary to read. I was dragged along with Alex trying to figure out what had happened to the world when everyone dropped to the ground in the most excruciating pain. With most never getting back up, and the few that did get back up had either ‘changed’ or had been ‘spared’ for some unknown reason.
Since I first opened Ashes right up until I finished reading it my every waking moment was thinking about this book; and I’m being quite serious. That is how much I enjoyed reading this book, and that doesn’t happen often with me as I do get bored easily sometimes. It had action, mystery, fear, a bit of blood and guts, romance, bravery, fear and obviously world changing events. Cataclysmic is the right word to describe it. I just loved it.
But while I definitely thoroughly enjoyed Ashes there were more than a couple of things that did not gel well with me and kept me from rating this a 5 club book, which I would have undoubtedly done otherwise.
The main problem I had with this was that I could barely stand the attitude of the characters. I found Ellie to be incredibly bratty, annoying, and selfish. I seriously do not know how Alex and Tom kept their cool around her because I wouldn’t have been able to not tell her to “Shut up and stop acting like a brat”, for as long as they did. Every time Ellie talked I cringed. I just could not for the life of me even begin to like her as a character because of her attitude.
Yeah I get that she’s a little girl that recently lost her father in a war, she saw her grandfather die, and now she’s in this world changing event where she herself could be killed, but her attitude? Seriously? She really needed an attitude check earlier in the game. And that really sucks because if she hadn’t of been so bratty I’m sure I could have really liked her.
Then: I really liked Alex up until three quarters of the way through the book, due to certain events it led her to start acting selfish and annoying. To me it felt off that she changed that way, it didn’t feel natural considering the events and the things she had been through. It was weird because the character development went in the opposite direction from what I find usually happens, which is from: annoying -> really likeable. For me it went from: really likeable -> annoying.
Another thing that stopped me from rating this book any higher was that the middle of the book felt like the plot changed direction from where the reader expected it to go; it flipped 180. The pace slowed right down, I got a little bored and I felt like if the author had gone in another direction with the plot it would have been a lot more exciting, more likeable and the pace wouldn’t have dropped.
Ohhh, but there’s one more thing that I need to get off of my chest. There was a love triangle that I did not expect to happen at all. I’ve never really thought about love triangles before, yeah sometimes they annoy me and other times they really work. But this love triangle felt forced, unnecessary, out of character and like it was put there to make the story more interesting rather than move the story forward. Instead it broke my heart a little. In a bad way.
You might argue that all of these points mean that the author was able to surprise the reader and it means book isn’t predictable. In my opinion these points didn’t feel like they worked as well as one would’ve expected if that had been the case. They frustrated me, angered me and lowered my rating overall. Therefore they hindered rather than furthered.
BUT in saying that, I found that I really, really loved this book. Yet at the same time there were a few things that just annoyed me too much. It’s like parts of this book are at the “Best book ever” side of the scale and then other parts are on the “Worst idea ever” side. This book stretches to both ends of the scale and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.
Regardless, I still think of this book as one awesome book!
Overall this book was the most exciting book I’ve read in a while. It was simply just thrilling to read, I could hardly read fast enough. I just loved it and devoured it within two days. So even though there were the few points that I felt like I needed to rant about they didn’t deter me from dying to read the next book as soon as possible!
Ashes was one of those books that I seemed to eat, live and breath until I was done reading. But then right when I was done I realised I needed to read the next book straight away. By description: Addicted.
I definitely recommend reading this book!
inlibrisveritas
Written on Mar 11, 2012
I love how this book starts off, it’s not the same as other books where everything is perfect and then goes to hell…instead you get a main character who already thinks she’s in hell and with good reason. You immediately feel for Alex and her situation, but just when you are getting use to the pace it suddenly revs up. I’ve read one other zombie book that mentions the use of EMPs and in that one it didn’t add much to the story, but that’s not the case here. Ashes is based solely around what happens after a massive EMP hit and the direct effects of it on our world. The zombies are far more animalistic instead of mindless and it gives them an extra eerie quality that makes you realize that normal zombies are easier to deal with.
The writing is certainly a different style and it makes it a little more personal as you read it. There were moments that I hated though, at times the reader is completely excluded from conversations and so you feel left out of the loop while everyone else knows what’s happening. It really bothered me and I don’t think it really added too much to the story, you end up having to figure it out for yourself or having to wait until someone happens to mention whatever it was. I love the “superhuman” element that was added, it gives a new depth to the story and it’s really unique in it’s execution. Emotions in this book are also something that was handled fantastically, and it does a great job of evoking them in the reader as well. A fair warning though, it has some fairly brutal moments that are meant to make you cringe. There was one main incident of direct violence on a dog that really got me, and the others were some what tamer but if that is something you don’t think you can handle then I suggest not reading this. I felt that it is meant to be horrific in cases and so all I can suggest is to be prepared for some gore, most of it is not sickening but it is there.
The main character, Alex, is one tough girl and I really feel for her right from the beginning. Her back story is unique and rather sad but it gives her an emotional edge when it comes to survival. Ellie is possibly the most annoying little girl I’ve ever read about but since she’s so young it’s kind of understandable. There were times where I questioned her age but it was few and far between. Tom was also a fantastic character and felt that he and Alex had a great base to being with. I enjoyed reading about the connection between Alex and Tom, and I felt that their relationship was both real and interesting. The village of Rule as a whole was one that I didn’t enjoy it, which is probably just because it was so strict and orderly. For me it made the second half of the book kind of boring and I just want Alex to move on somewhere else. It makes perfect sense in the storyline, I just personally found it to be a drag. I did not enjoy the character Chris or his part in the story. It seemed odd and his relationship with Alex was kind of tossed out of the blew at me. I just wanted him and Rule to disappear.
The last few chapters were oddly confusing for me and I’m still not quite sure what’s happening or what’s going to happen with Alex. It did however make me want to get the second book when it is released. Overall it was enjoyable but a few things kind of held it back for me.
wyvernfriend
Written on Jan 1, 2012
There are a lot of twists and turns in this story and I found it very interesting, I'm not a fan of zombie stories but this one sucked me in and kept me reading.
anne
Written on Nov 12, 2011
Kelsenator
Written on Oct 10, 2011
rakesandrogues
Written on Oct 1, 2011
ASHES is a non-stop sensory overload. And that’s how you know that Ilsa J. Bick is a fabulous writer. It’s one thing to see a scene unfold right before your eyes, but it’s on a whole different level when you can actually smell and taste what’s going on. She’s an unbelievably descriptive writer especially when it comes to the gruesome zombie scenes. The book gets quite graphic and violent so if you tend to get queasy, I wouldn’t pick this up… but then you’d be missing out.
One of the many reasons why I loved ASHES was the fact that Bick tries to get the characters to come to a scientific reasoning as to why everything is happening. Bick doesn’t take the easy way out by saying that everything happens just because she says it did. Alex’s knowledge is limited to what she knows from her AP Bio science class and random tidbits that she’s picked up over the years. She may not be a scientist, but she’s also not an idiot. I think it gives ASHES a more realistic feel because I think that people would definitely try to figure out what on earth is happening if they were in this situation. You can’t always be running from zombies. There’s definitely a lot of time to think about what’s going on. As to the question of if this can really happen? I’m not sure about that. I’m no science expert, but Bick’s writing definitely makes me hope that it never does.
Believe it or not, there’s actually a love triangle in this book. Uh oh. But for once, I can actually say that I did not mind. I know we’re all tired of the silly and unnecessary love triangles that are taking over the YA market but it actually works in ASHES. Why? Because ASHES does take place within a few months and SO MANY THINGS happen in that amount of time. I’d hate to give out spoilers, so trust me when I say that it works and it’s quite a dilemma.
So now that I’ve been properly exposed to a zombie book, I want more! Specifically, I want more ASHES. I felt satisfied once I completed ASHES but I feel an insane urge to find out what happens next. There is no cliffhanger ending, but you will be left with a ton of questions that will be dying to be answered.
Why I’m Biased: I’m almost immediately turned off by anything that sounds remotely dystopian / post-apocalyptic just because there were so many of them this year. I’m obviously way too quick to judge.
Angie
Written on Jul 20, 2011
Tired of the failed treatments for her brain tumor, 17 year old Alexandra heads off to go backpacking in the wilderness. While she's away an electromagnetic pulse devestates the Earth, and leaves few survivors. Soon Alex finds herself hiking through the woods with the world's most obnoxious 8 year old, trying to find help and figure out what the hell had just happened. Oh, and running from wild dogs and zombies! Eventually, they meet Tom, a military man who also survives the blast. What should have been an adventurous tale of survival and an intriguing mystery of what "the zap" was, was just a boring story of three relatively unlikeable people on an unconvention camping and road trip. Then the tale of one unlikeable person living in the safety of some weird-o cult town.
First words of praise: Short chapters! I never stop reading in the middle of a chapter, so I was happy that I had many options to take pause when I waned to, which was often. For a post-apocalyptic zombie novel, not a whole lot of action takes place. The ends of many of the chapters give the feeling of "oh now something's going to happen," but when the next chapter starts, it's a fews day later, and the author just vaguely states what had happened before the time jump. It was very frustrating and kept me from enjoying this one very much. The ending was interesting though, which is why I bumped this up to 3 stars instead of the 2 I was going to originally give it.