ASHES By Ilsa J. Bick

ASHES
Author: Ilsa J. Bick
Publisher: Egmont (September 6, 2011)
Source: Library
Rating: 5/5

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 crushed 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 novel about a world that could be 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 would not survive this. I'd be eaten by a zombie, they wouldn't even have to chase me down because out of fear I would never sleep and pass out right in front of one.

But the zombies have to eat someone right?

The other possibility is because I've read so many books about survival, my inner heroin would come out and knowing exactly what to do, save everyone. That's what I hope for anyway. Well actually I hope we never have to deal with this kind of stuff, but if we did...

ASHES is one of the darker YA novels I've read that really makes me think: What if that happened? Ilsa J. Bick created a beautiful book, with so many emotions in it. My heart was pounding at some parts, I could not put it down. There's a few really chilling parts in the book, but it actually wasn't that scary, sometimes I did think Eww. But Bick jumped right to the next action scene and I had to continue on.

When the EMP goes off Alex is hiking in Michigan (Bick gets bonus points for setting it in Michigan). Trying to decide what to do with her life, what to do with her brain tumor ('the monster'). She sets off to find help with eight year old Ellie, and along the way teams up with a guy named Tom who saves them from the cannibals. As it goes on a slow, sweet relationship develops between Alex and Tom, and Alex now fights to live, no longer going against her tumor but the horrors of the world.

In the middle of ASHES everything changes dramatically, almost making it seem like a different book.

At the end Ilsa does what all great authors do with great edge-of-your-seat books, she makes the end a cliffhanger. I can't wait to see what happens to Alex and her friends next in SHADOWS. So. Far. Away...



NEXT REVIEW: Forever by Maggie Stiefvater.