Title: Ashes
Author: Ilsa Bick
Publisher: Quercus
Publication date: 29th September 2011
Paperback: 465 pages
Source: Received from publisher
Young adult: Horror
My rating: 10/10!!!
Summary:
No, she thought. No, please, God, I'm not seeing this.
Seventeen - year - old Alex is hiking through the wilderness when it happens: an earth-shattering electromagnetic pulse that destroys almost everything.
Survivors are divided between those who have developed a superhuman sense and those who have acquired a taste for human flesh. These flesh-hunters stalk the land: hungry, ruthless and increasingly clever...
Alex meets Tom, a young army veteran, and Ellie, a lost girl. They will fight together and be torn apart, but Alex must face the most difficult question of all: in such a vastly changed world, who can you trust?
A story of high-wire tension, gut-wrenching twists, and burgeoning love, Ashes will leave you breathless.
My thoughts:
I can't even begin to describe how much I loved reading this book. I never wanted it to end!
It literally had everything I personally love in books. It had loads of twists and turns, great characters, horror that isn't for the fainthearted and such strong emotions that a reader can actually feel as the characters experience them because of the desperate situation they are in.
Alex was by far my favourite character. Not because she's the main protagonist, but because she's the no-nonsense, tell it like it is sort. She was smart and she wasn't afraid to act when the time came down to it. There was no 'acting the hero' sort of thing with her, it was just doing what needed to be done and to keep other people safe before herself.
Tom and Alex were great companions along with Ellie. They both fit well together and worked well as a team which made them both likeable. I felt that I couldn't really get to know Tom as a character properly though before the end of the novel for reasons obvious when you read the book. There were little tidbits of Tom's past that were revealed but not enough! I want to know more!
That's another thing, about halfway through the book, the plot takes a dramatic turn which I'm sure not everyone will appreciate. It did work for me though so I can't complain. It was one of those moments where you keep reading, sort of get a little confused for a second at the way the story is developing, and then just accept it as the way the author wanted it to go. I thought it was a brilliant turn of events and it made me read just that little bit faster!
The plot itself was amazing! An electromagnetic pulse? That could have gone either way, I'm sure, but in Ashes it worked so well. Plus, it was a read that made me cringe quite a bit which doesn't happen very often anymore with the amount of horror I read! I seriously loved every shiver that went down my spine and every revolted gasp I made!
One thing I can't believe though, was the ending. For obvious reasons I won't say how it ended but it took me so completely by surprise that I was kind of in shock for a while and couldn't read anything else! I really can't wait for more from Ilsa Bick because Ashes was a truly glorious read that gave me goosebumps! One of my top favourites of the year so far!
Ilsa Bick:
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