A Goodreads user asked Ilsa J. Bick:

What inspired the Ashes series?

Ilsa J. Bick I read this YA apocalyptic book that was very good but just way too tame. Like NO ONE broke into this girl's house; roving gangs only ransacked a neighbor's (empty) place...stuff like that. I thought that was just way too tame. All you have to do is look at what happens in a disaster to know that people become animals pretty fast. So I wanted to do a book series where some people are noble and a lot are not; where people would be counted on to live down to their worst impulses. I also thought that plagues and viruses had been done to death and decided to go for a very plausible scenario where civilization craters in a heartbeat and things go to hell fast.

flag