Monday 13 July 2015

DNF Review: Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick

It could happen tomorrow . . .

An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions.

Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom—a young soldier—and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP.

For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it’s now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.

Author Ilsa J. Bick crafts a terrifying and thrilling post-apocalyptic novel about a world that could become ours at any moment, where those left standing must learn what it means not just to survive, but to live amidst the devastation.


Review


I was really in the mood for a good horror story when I picked up Ashes and I did enjoy it for the most part...until I completely lost interest in it. This is something that tends to happen when you're trying to get through a book for 3 months.

My main problem with this book, I think, was that it was way too easy to put it down. Not once did the story really pull me in. So I kept putting it down and then trying to pick it back up again. Which, after a certain amount of time, made reading the book feel more of a chore than anything else.

Another problem was that, for me, the atmosphaire of the entire book completely changed when I reached a certain point. It lost the survival feeling I liked about it and became overcrowded. The story shifted from Alex, Ellie and Tom to a whole cast of people I didn't really care about which made me lose interest.

Lastly, while I liked Alex, I never really felt any kind of connection with her.

I don't necessarely consider Ashes a bad book. It just wasn't the book for me. I guess I would recommend it more to people who like zombie apocalypse books or maybe Hunger Games fans.


 Book info:

Hardcover, 465 pages
First Published: September 6th 2011
Publisher: Egmont USA
Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Zombies

Rating: 2.5/5

4 comments:

  1. I'm sorry to see that you didn't like this one. I've been curious about it for a while, because I love dystopian reads. I may still give it a chance. Thanks for sharing!
    Krystianna @ Downright Dystopian

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    1. It really was great for the first half, maybe the rest was just not for me. You should really give it a try anyway if you like post-apocalyptic books and zombies :)

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  2. Ashes started of very amazingly for me, I really loved the atmosphere and was rooting for the characters. And then that part you mentioned came. It was such an unexpectedly huge change in the story that I felt like I accidently picked up a different book. The writing became sloppy and the characters, who were not the best of the best before either, became annoying and one-dimensional. I nearly put the book down because of this, rated it two stars in the end, even though when up until that part I wanted to give it 4 or 5 stars...
    Great review. :)

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    1. Exactly! It was 4-4.5 star book for me too until it took a complete 180 turn out of the sudden and I became really confused with what I was reading! I thought about trying to power through it in case it got better towards the ending but I just couldn't do it!

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