Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick
My rating: 5/5 cats
yeah, i loved it. i mean, wilderness survival and zombie survival? it’s like this author knows all about me. i was so eager to get this, i even read her other book, draw the dark, while i waited. but this one was so much better.
i have been excited for this book for a while now, even though i read so many reviews on here about how the second half of the book is such a letdown. fortunately, by the time i actually got my hands on a copy of the book, i had forgotten specific complaints, and only remembered that people were not crazy about it.
but i reread the reviews after i finished the book, and while i agree that there is a definite shift in the action between the first and second halves, i think she addresses this shift in a way that totally satisfied me. on page 399:
View Spoiler »so for me, the shift made sense; it was a deepening maturity, in a way, a realization of her situation and her limited options, but also a very understandable inward retreat. so no worries there, for me.
and as for the the complaints about the shift that weren’t character-based, but pacing/setting based, that didn’t bother me at all. i like the rebuilding, the mobilizing. i really liked world made by hand for this, and this was similar, only way darker.
so i totally understand what people’s complaints with the book are, but i was thrilled throughout, and while i noticed the split, it barely slowed me down.
i saw the second half as an extension of the first. it is simply a different kind of survival. survival alone vs. survival in society, even if that society is a cult. it is a different skill set, is all. the transition from simple wilderness survival to zombie survival to cult survival; i saw it as a progression rather than a jarring shift. i think there is definite character development – she tests out different defense mechanisms as she adapts to her ever-changing surroundings, and i like her adaptability, which she has been honing ever since that moment with ellie on the mountain.
**oh, and lemme interject – there has never been a fictional 8-year-old i have wanted to murder more than ellie.**
i don’t read romance novels, because i don’t care about people overcoming obstacles in love. i do care about people overcoming more high-stakes obstacles. like zombies. and organized dog-attacks. i love watching the solutions to unexpected problems.
other complaints involve the conveeeenience of tom having the specialized skills he has. and that’s true, but – hey – someone’s gotta be one of those, right?? in the world?? and their story is more interesting than the people who have no idea what they are doing and die in a day or two from bad decisions. so i was glad to have him as a character. and for every convenient coincidence like this, there are a thousand unresolved plotlines that give a really nice truthiness to the story. certain details give it a shiver of reality, things that disappear or whose reappearance is hauntingly unexplained; her mother’s letter, the whistle, mina. the inventory of the lost. i like that these remain questions, instead of being given tidy, contrived answers for everything.
i also love that her response to her failing cancer treatment is to go off into the wilderness alone. this makes perfect sense to me. when i was younger, i read all of those melodramatic lurlene mcdaniel cancer books, and i loved them. but the big triumph in one of those books, the way you knew this character was ready to fight to live – to beat her cancer was, she ordered a watermelon milkshake to be brought to her. that was her turning point, her giant triumph. “i am going to gain back this chemo weight and fight my cancer. with a drink!” and that’s fine. i just thought this was a more meaningful response. and she had a plan, she was prepared, i have cancer, nothing is working. my parents are dead. i am seventeen. this is what makes sense to me. it made sense to me, too. the reason i enjoy survival lit so much is i like to watch characters adapt to the situation. and this book had so much of that. she starts out relatively solid, supply-wise, and from that point on, it was a constant shift between having and losing and the way she handled the difference.
to me, this is about accepting loss and moving on. this is a character who has lost so much. both parents, her health, her future. she is accustomed to taking stock and working with what she is left with. also, zombies. zoooombbieesss.
and i’m sorry, that was a fantastic ending. loved it.
i probably could have done without the supershort chapters, but that is something that comes with the territory of YA lit, and that’s my only real complaint. i am amped to read the next book.
(if i am still allowed in the YA pool after my lack of discrimination.)
now i will go to school to hide out from potential name-calling backlash.
