Ashfall (Ashfall, #1)

by Mike Mullin

[Angie]

Ashfall kind of scared the crap out of me. The volcano under Yellowstone National Park erupts and it is the worst disaster the world has seen in...ever. Alex is home alone for the weekend when a chunk of rock collapses his house. His neighbors take him in as they try to block out as much sound as possible. Eventually the noise from the eruption stops, but then comes the ash and the rain. Alex is desperate to find his family who are about two hours away by car. He packs up supplies, straps on some skis, and heads out for a two month journey.

I loved how Ashfall was based on actual science. Sure, there's been no supervolcano eruptions in human history, but there is still data on previous ones, including from Yellowstone. That's what made this so scary. It can actually happen! And I'm a bit closer to the volcano that Alex was! I couldn't help but think about what I would do in this situation, and really, all I came up with was to grab the closest puppy, sit in the closet and cry. Alex goes through hell! In the beginning, I had a hard time accepting a 15 year old heading out into that chaos, not knowing if he even had a family left to find. But eventually I just settled in and enjoyed the ride.

My only complaint about Ashfall, which kept me from loving it, was all of the food talk. We're told about every single morsel that Alex puts in his mouth during these two months. I know food is a major concern in a disaster like this, but I really didn't need that level of detail. It was also annoying in the first half, because Alex eats whenever he's hungry, and then notices that he's probably going to run out of food sooner than he thought. Well, duh! This boy doesn't know how to ration! You can't just eat whenever and however much when you have a limited supply and no way to get more! He does learn once he's empty handed, starving, and scavenging for Skittles.

Ashfall was pretty great overall though. Natural disasters are terrifying things, and reading about Alex's trials made them more real. While this is categorized as Dystopian, I think it's more of a survivalist novel. It's all about staying alive, and the government plays a very small, almost non-existent role in this one. Although I'm sure that's going to change in the following books. This is the immediate aftermath of a supervolcano eruption, and I can't wait to see what happens next!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.