I can’t wait to see what Bick has in store for the kick-butt heroine or any of the other characters you’ll come to know and love. Will I be in line for the second book? YOU BET.

Overall I have to say the more I think about it, the more I REALLY enjoyed this crazy ride of a read. ASHES is book one in a trilogy and the second installment (currently called SHADOWS) is due out in the fall of 2012. While I’m never a huge fan of ending a book on a cliffhanger, in this instance (after throwing things and drinking things and smashing things.okay, not REALLY but I thought about doing those things) it worked. When I closed the book I sort of sat there all huh, WTF. The ending is not at all what I expected, which isn’t a bad thing, but it definitely left me unsatisfied…at first.

Just when you think you’ve got it figured out, BAM! You’re wrong. But still, as a reader, you can’t stop reading – if only for the simple fact of NEEDING to know where Bick is taking you. I’m NOT saying for the worse, I’m just saying shiz gets weird. I enjoyed the action/suspense and overall creep factor A LOT, A LOT. Her writing is the perfect balance of giving the reader a clear picture of setting/emotion/ without slamming them over the head with weighty details. I’m normally not the HUGEST fan of third person narratives, finding it hard to really get into the main character’s head, but Bick did it right. Bick’s post apocalyptic/thriller/horror mash-up, ASHES. This improvised family will have to use every ounce of courage they have just to find food, shelter, while fighting off the 'Changed' and those desperate to stay alive.Ī tense and involving adventure with shocks and sudden plot twists that will keep teen and adult readers gripped.Over the weekend I read Ilsa J. An electromagnetic pulse sweeps through the sky zapping every electronic device and killing the vast majority of adults.įor those spared, it's a question of who can be trusted and who has changed.Įveryone still alive has turned - some for the better (those who acquired a superhuman sense) while others for the worse (those who acquired a taste for human flesh).ĭesperate to find out what happened and to avoid the zombies that are on the hunt, Alex meets up with Tom - an Army veteran who escaped one war only to find something worse at home - and Ellie, a young girl whose grandfather was killed by the electromagnetic pulse. and who can they trust?Alex has run away and is hiking through the wilderness with her dead parents' ashes, about to say goodbye to the life she no longer wants to live.īut then the world suddenly changes.

Ilsa j bick ashes series