Ashfall (Ashfall, #1) in 2016 Hub Reading Challenge

Apr 23, 2012 Bethany Miller rated it really liked it

Alex is home alone when disaster strikes. He has won a prolonged argument with his mom about whether or not he should be forced to travel with his parents and sister from their home in Cedar Falls, Iowa to visit his uncle who lives several hours away in Warren, Illinois. Alex sits in his room playing video games when he hears a low rumble and feels the house begin to shake. The power goes off and suddenly the floors tilts and Alex goes flying across the room and is pinned to the wall by his desk Alex is home alone when disaster strikes. He has won a prolonged argument with his mom about whether or not he should be forced to travel with his parents and sister from their home in Cedar Falls, Iowa to visit his uncle who lives several hours away in Warren, Illinois. Alex sits in his room playing video games when he hears a low rumble and feels the house begin to shake. The power goes off and suddenly the floors tilts and Alex goes flying across the room and is pinned to the wall by his desk. Just as he is getting his bearings, he smells something burning and realizes he needs escape the house quickly. Alex manages to fight his way out a burning house but he has no idea that this is only the beginning of the dangers that he will encounter. The supervolcano that has been lying dormant under Yellowstone has erupted and caused destruction at least as far as 900 miles east in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The air is filled with ash that makes it difficult to breathe and the sound of the explosion is a constant roar. Alex decides that his best shot is to travel east to try to find his family. He hopes that the farther from the volcano he goes the better the conditions will be. But the journey is not easy. There is no electricity, no cell phone service. Food and clean drinking water become increasingly scarce, and the ash in the air is blocking the sun’s rays making it both dark and cold. And perhaps most dangerous of all – people who are desperate to survive at any cost.

There is a blurb on the cover from Michael Grant – “The scariest apocalypse is the one that could really happen,” and I have to agree. Ashfall is much more frightening than the grimmest of the futuristic dystopian novels that I’ve read because it does seem like it could really happen. It made me want to stock up on bottled water and canned food. The government response to this disaster is also believable given the criticisms of FEMA and other government organizations after Hurricane Katrina and other recent natural disasters. The action pulls you in from the very beginning of the book as disaster strikes within the first ten pages. The plot continues to move at a pretty brisk pace. Overall, this is a great survival story, and readers will root for Alex and Darla to overcome the many hardships in their path.
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Mar 05, 2016 Ms. Pansulla added it

Shelves: 2010s, american-authors, dystopian, series, action-adventure, midwest, yalsa-hub-challenge-2016

For readers who prefer their survival stories requiring a strong stomach and an unflinching ability to look at the darkness people are capable of in times of chaos and uncertain resources. This moved in a steady, grim march from the first awareness of the eruption of the super-volcano under Yellowstone, through the ash-covered new reality of life as a survival contest. Alex is a winning protagonist - likable, believable - and this is the sort of book for folks who prefer action to inner dialogue ...more

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Feb 04, 2016 Julie Trapp rated it it was ok

Maybe 2 1/2. Not sure what I didn't like, but it did not grab me at all. I thought the beginning was fine - start out with a bang, literally - but then it started dragging in places. The author spent a lot of time building up to a situation, then in the span of 1 or 2 sentences, it was over. I didn't realize this was the first book of a series so was surprised when the "ending" came. ...more

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