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Anna's Reviews > Ashes
Ashes (Ashes Trilogy, #1)
by Ilsa J. Bick (Goodreads Author)
by Ilsa J. Bick (Goodreads Author)
Anna's review
bookshelves: ladies-with-strength
Aug 17, 11
bookshelves: ladies-with-strength
Recommended for:
post-apocalyptic YA fans
Read in July, 2011, read count: 1
The beginning of this book sucked me in immediately with a very different sort of beginning compared to the average YA novel. Bick seems to create a well fleshed out character in Alex effortlessly. She is vulnerable for reasons I don't want to spoil, yet capable and independent. Like Alex, Tom quickly comes across as a real person, a genuinely good, real person. And Ellie. Ellie is a kid with issues. (I actually pictured Chloe Moretz as Hit-Girl from the movie Kickass--attitude, not violence--when I read Ellie.)
Not only are the characters intriguing and unique, but the plot! The plot is so different from what I've come to expect in the YA genre. It is gritty and suspenseful and plausible enough to willingly suspend my disbelief. It basically starts right before an apocalyptic event that changes most of the population in a catastrophic way and takes us beyond it into the very new post-apocalyptic landscape.
The problem with this book (why I didn't give it 5 stars) comes in just past the middle. I'm not exaggerating one bit when I say it reads like Bick had two VERY different versions of this manuscript and just spliced them together. Midway through everything about the focus of the book shifts. All of the existing plot threads and characters (with the exception of Alex) are basically cut and all new ones manifest the way they should in the beginning of a book.
For me this was a huge let down for the plot. Because the initial story arc basically gets severed, the resolution at the end of the book only addresses the new arc, challenges, and characters introduced halfway through the book. Another problem, that may just be personal preference, is that the first half was far superior to the second, so the drastic shift was even more disappointing. Also the strength I loved in Alex through the first half seemed conspicuously absent in the second half.
It's hard for me to discuss the details of this book without giving too much away, and half of the enjoyment for me with this story was the discovery. It's part sci-fi, part post-apocalypse, part zombie, part wilderness survival, and the telling was extremely visual and well-paced.
This is the strangest 3 stars I've ever given a book. What it really breaks down to is 5 stars for the first half of the book and 2 stars for the second half. I am very optimistic for the next book, hoping Bick can get the story back on track, and personally hoping she returns to some of the characters and plot threads she ditched halfway through.
Not only are the characters intriguing and unique, but the plot! The plot is so different from what I've come to expect in the YA genre. It is gritty and suspenseful and plausible enough to willingly suspend my disbelief. It basically starts right before an apocalyptic event that changes most of the population in a catastrophic way and takes us beyond it into the very new post-apocalyptic landscape.
The problem with this book (why I didn't give it 5 stars) comes in just past the middle. I'm not exaggerating one bit when I say it reads like Bick had two VERY different versions of this manuscript and just spliced them together. Midway through everything about the focus of the book shifts. All of the existing plot threads and characters (with the exception of Alex) are basically cut and all new ones manifest the way they should in the beginning of a book.
For me this was a huge let down for the plot. Because the initial story arc basically gets severed, the resolution at the end of the book only addresses the new arc, challenges, and characters introduced halfway through the book. Another problem, that may just be personal preference, is that the first half was far superior to the second, so the drastic shift was even more disappointing. Also the strength I loved in Alex through the first half seemed conspicuously absent in the second half.
It's hard for me to discuss the details of this book without giving too much away, and half of the enjoyment for me with this story was the discovery. It's part sci-fi, part post-apocalypse, part zombie, part wilderness survival, and the telling was extremely visual and well-paced.
This is the strangest 3 stars I've ever given a book. What it really breaks down to is 5 stars for the first half of the book and 2 stars for the second half. I am very optimistic for the next book, hoping Bick can get the story back on track, and personally hoping she returns to some of the characters and plot threads she ditched halfway through.
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Wendy Darling
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rated it 3 stars
Aug 19, 2011 12:54pm
It's so weird how different the first half is from the second, isn't it? I still can't get over it. I had to average out my scores for the two parts, too!
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The shift was so abrupt that I was stunned, and then I spent the whole second half waiting for her to pull Tom & Ellie back into the story. It never happened, and the second half took on a whole new plot of its own. So strange.
Still about 50 pages from the end; reading it out loud to an 8th grade class (their choice) - and they generally love it. But I am also befuddled by what seems to be two separate novels glued together . . . I keep thinking it's going to all come together, but as we tackle the closing pages, I'm thinking now we're just going to be scratching our heads.
You will definitely be scratching your heads. The only redeeming aspect, really, is that there will be a sequel, which will hopefully find some way to tie it all together. I love the concept, character development and the writing style, but as a stand-alone book, I feel like Bick lost the plot.I'm impressed that you're reading this to 8th graders--that's ballsy because this is not a sugar-coated story. Where were you when I was in 8th grade? You would have been my favorite teacher.
Well, I tell you, YA Lit has changed considerably over the 19 years I've been teaching. A lot more risks taken, many more dicier topics. But all for the better, in the long run, I think. As for Ashes, I do have to gloss over a bit of language here and there, and the kids never know the difference. Once in a while, we encounter a YA novel that we have to abandon (by executive order) due to content. It is amazing the directions some of the novels will go; maybe OK for the kids to read on their own, but I'm not going there out-loud.
So really? -- Ellie and Tom don't even re-enter the story? That's unfathomable that Bick would do that. Talk about not following the norm. I agree, it's very well written. Good for the kids to hear good writing like that.
No more Ellie and Tom in the first installment, which was such a huge disappointment for me. I was so equally attached to all three that, even though it's told from Alex's POV, it was like losing 2/3 of the central focus of the story. I also struggled with Alex's choices in the Stepford (latter) half of the book. That whole scenario made it hard for me to even care about any of the new characters.
