Book Review: Ashes

Author: Ilsa Bick
Series: Ashes Trilogy #1
Publisher: Egmont USA
Release Date: September 6, 2011
Pages: 465
Read it in: 3 days
Source: Won in Zombie Craze Giveaway 2012 from the Bookish Brunette! :)

Summary: 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.

LC's Take:

"So far this book is AWESOME-- just don't read it and eat at the same time."

(my first Goodreads update)

So, have you ever come across a book and your first reaction to it is: "UGH! No WAY am I ever reading that one!" But then... something about it intrigues you, and you sorta can't stop thinking about it, so eventually you're just like, "OK, what the hell, I'll give it a shot."

Yeah, that was me with Ashes. The cover quite frankly scared the living daylights out of me, but for some reason, I was still interested in it-- then I won it in a giveaway, so at that point it was like, well now I have to read it-- and I'm really glad that I did. I mean, where do I EVEN begin?? This book was gory, intense, horrific, and FREAKING SWEET. It gave me chills, it grossed me out, and it had me on the edge of my seat for pretty much the entire time I was reading it!

A brief synopsis: Alex is in the woods when it happens-- the "Zap"-- the shock that sends everyone into a terrifying Post-apocalyptic world where teens Alex's age start to go crazy... and cannibalistic. But Alex is no stranger to near-death experiences and fighting to survive, because with a giant brain tumor slowly eating away at her, Alex has always felt like it's only a matter of time before the silent "monster" defeats her... but while so many others are either dead or eating the dead, the Zap has actually given Alex the superhuman ability to sense, or more specifically smell, when danger is around or when people's emotions change. Most importantly, she can tell the difference between who's still human and who has changed and gone berserk...

Alright so first of all, Alex was such a kick-ass main character. Strong, independent, and armed with an arsenal of survival skills and a dry sense of humor, she was one of those characters who you just LOVE to read about. I could relate to her, I became invested in her story, and so I was pretty much hanging on every word. Not to mention the fact that the girl has a brain tumor that is slowly killing her, and yet she doesn't have any major self-pity or cynicism to make her unlikable. She goes through some of the most horrific and painful experiences and yet there is no whining from her-- this was a YA character who I completely respected and was thrilled to be reading about!

Ellie and Tom, the two main supporting characters who Alex meets in the woods, were equally as intriguing. For example, when Alex first meets 8-year Ellie on the mountain, I couldn't stand her. She was a whiny little brat who caused about 50 million problems for Alex and was ungrateful that Alex saved her life a bunch of times. However, around chapter 12, Ellie decides to stop being a major pain in the rear and then she actually becomes a very endearing character. And Tom worked well as far as a love interest goes because his interactions with Alex were so interesting, and because the romance that builds between them was very gradual and not forced.

My only *one* caveat with Ashes was that I felt the story slightly lost its momentum in the latter part of the book. For the first part of the story, I got so deeply involved with the three main characters, and how they interacted together-- Ellie, Tom and Alex were interesting themselves, and I was loving seeing how their relationships played out. PLUS the first part of the story was so freaking scary and suspenseful, and I loved that feeling like just around the next page could be something else truly horrific. But then... the plot takes a turn, and Alex, Ellie and Tom get split up-- Alex winds up in a small town called Rule, where she becomes stuck in their strict society and religious fanaticism, and at this point I kind of felt like the plot lost some of its original intensity. It's not that the story got to be boring, but I did somewhat lose interest in it and I wasn't as invested in the new characters. However, then there was the MAJOR cliffhanger at the end-- OMG the ending!!

So even though Ashes was not even a book I had originally planned on reading, I am so glad that I made the decision to give it a shot-- it was an action-packed thriller filled with heart-stopping scenes, horrific and gory descriptions that gave me the chills, and complex characters that I couldn't help but become attached to. Not to mention, the writing was amazing. This one definitely stands way out from a lot of other YA, and if you love a great story, great characters, and aren't too squeamish, I would absolutely recommend that you give this one a chance as well!

~Cover Talk~

Let's not beat around the bush-- this cover scares the living bejeezus out of me. In fact, the cover art on this book is so insanely creeptastic and disturbing that I had to take the book jacket off the book while I was reading it just so I wouldn't have nightmares. No, I'm not joking. But let me also say that it was BECAUSE of the fright-level of the cover art that I eventually came around to reading this one-- it's just one of those images that you can't really forget once you've seen it.

I'm also a huge fan because it appeals not just to girls or YA-lovers-- don't get me wrong, I love covers with the pretty models in pretty dresses, but those books are really being put in a box and are limited in their appeal to a wider reading audience. The cover of Ashes however is awesome because it is not only extremely eye-catching; it crosses over to many different reader groups.

Find it!

LC's Rating:

Don't let the cover fool you-- Ashes was more than just a horror story. It had interesting and complex characters, awesome writing, and tons of plot turns to keep you guessing what will happen next. This is one book that will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat!

Book Review: The Replacement

Author: Brenna Yavonoff
Release Date: September 21, 2010
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 343
Read it in: 3 days

Summary: Mackie Doyle is not one of us. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a tattooed little princess. He is a Replacement-- left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood and consecrated ground, Mackie is slowly dying in the human world.

Mackie would give anything to live among us. He just wants to play bass guitar and find out more about an oddly intriguing girl named Tate. But when Tate's baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the slag heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs.

LC's Take: 

So to put it simply, I was not a fan of this book. Like, at all. Actually, I kind of hated it. I'm really not sure what I was expecting it to be, but I definitely wasn't thinking it would be a lame high school drama mixed with painfully dull characters and even more painfully boring and lackluster writing. I guess the cover is what attracted me to read this book in the first place, but honestly, great packaging and poor content does not equal a good book.

First, there were the thoroughly unlikable characters: Tate was an angry stalker full of contempt towards Mackie, Roswell was a total perv who treated women like pieces of meat, Mackie's parents were typical and stereotyped and completely unwilling to do anything useful, and everyone else was easily forgettable. I didn't like these characters, therefore I didn't care what happened to them.

Then there was Mackie Doyle, the "tortured soul" main character. Usually I love reading from a guy's point of view (Ship Breaker, Leviathan-- amazing.) but I could not connect with him at all. All Mackie seemed to do was a.) be pale and emo b.) get nauseous or faint every time he was around metal or blood or loud noises or strong smells or slight air currents, or c.) lust after Alice the slutty hot girl in school, or d.) talk about how incredibly fake everyone is in town. It got old very quickly. I have a difficult time sympathizing with a character who does nothing but whine and complain all the time, even if it's for a legitimate reason. In the end, Mackie was just a male version of Bella Swan-- empty, dull, bland, vapid--  and I couldn't bring myself to care about what happened to him either.

Speaking of tortured, the writing was just awful. It was serious work just trying to slog through each chapter. To give you some idea of what I'm talking about, imagine reading something like this for 340 pages, and you'll get the picture very quickly:

"I yanked off my T-shirt and pulled the shades down. Then I lay down with my face to the wall and pulled the covers over my head. I woke up with a jolt. It was dark. My phone was buzzing on my bedside table, and I rolled over.... I wanted to go to sleep. The phone just kept buzzing."

Soooo... have you fallen asleep yet? I don't know, but for me, this kind of writing is incredibly bland and formulaic: I woke up and did a. It was b and c. Then I did d. I felt e. Then... blah, blah,blah. I just can't stay focused on writing like this! It's almost as exciting as watching paint dry. 

And then, how about character dialogues like this?

"Come on, you don't want to miss this. 'Tis the season for girls to dress like hookers. We'll catch up with the twins, get a little socially lubricated. I have this feeling that Alice is particularly looking forward to your company."

Are you kidding me? First off Brenna, nobody talks like that. In my 4 years of high school and 6 years of college, I've not once heard anyone use the term "socially lubricated." Second of all, no one is going to like characters who either are hookers or who label girls as being hookers or obsess over girls because they dress like hookers. Maybe people do this, but that doesn't make me want to read about them, and it sure doesn't lead me to care about what happens to them. Furthermore, I would not recommend a book that makes women out to be hoes or treats sex so casually. I'm not being unrealistic or a prude-- I just find it to be completely unnecessary when it has nothing to do with the plot or the characterization. If you have an awesome story and brilliant writing, you don't need to waste your time or the reader's with cheap add-ins about getting trashed and banging the popular girls at school. 

Another aspect of the writing that drove me crazy were all of the contradicting statements. I'm guessing they were intentional, but I didn't understand the point of them, except to make me really confused:

• "She looked strange and fantastical and startling and normal." (How do you look strange and normal at the same time?)
• "...when I glanced in the mirror again, I recognized myself, and I didn't." (So... did you or didn't you?)
• "As soon as I reached the bottom of the ravine, I felt desperately relieved. And much, much worse." (Umm... relief means alleviation and the removal of pain, so... how would you feel worse if you were relieved??)

Finally, I hate obvious plot holes-- even little ones. I consider myself to be a halfway intelligent person, and I don't appreciate books that try to breeze over contradictions like I'm too stupid to notice. So, if I'm reading along and something clearly makes no logical sense based on what the author has already laid out, it drives me right up the wall. For example:

• Mackie is supposed to act like a "normal kid" and not get noticed. Yet some days he has completely black eyes-- don't you think that someone would maybe, just maybe, notice something that freaky?
• Mackie is hypersensitive to loud noises, like doors that close too fast-- and yet he can go to heavy metal rock concerts with mosh pits and be just fine. WHAT?
• So, Mackie can drink beer out of a can, huh?? I thought he was deathly allergic to metal in any form.
• Every seven years the town gives one of their children to the underworld demon-creatures and they, in turn, make the town "prosper." So I was picturing something like out of the Stepford Wives-- beautiful mansions, manicured lawns, everything perfect to cover-up something ugly. But not once is the town described as perfect or prospering-- in fact, it's run-down and poor. So I don't get it-- what was the point of sacrificing a kid every seven years?

I will end by just saying that this book wasn't for me. That doesn't mean it isn't for anyone, but I personally disliked it to no end. The writing was stale and stilted, the characters were completely unlikable, the dialogue was fake and cheesy, and the premise-- while intriguing-- was never able to reach its full potential. I did finish this book, trying to give it a chance, but in the end, there really was nothing about this book that I liked. 

LC's Rating:

Poor writing and bad characterization ruined this book for me. Which is sad, because the plot could have worked. Altogether, a big disappointment.