Ashes by Ilsa J.Black

Another great addition to the dystopian/apocalyptic genre. Ashes claims to ‘leave you breathless’ and it actually does. I found myself gasping out loud more than once, usually from sheer terror but there’s a lot of shock tactics involved too.

After reading the first couple of chapters I almost couldn’t continue, the tension hits you straight away and builds the whole way through. For a horrible moment I was sure I was going to have to face another Manchee scene (Knife of Never Letting Go). I’m overly sensitive though and forced myself to get a grip, I just about managed to and I’m so glad I did. Bick’s writing packs a hard punch, but it’s worth it. The story and the strong characters are brilliant. It isn’t all just terror; there are friendships and a likely angst-ridden love triangle forming too. I never tire of these!

We join Alex as she is struggling to come to terms with the ‘monster’ growing instead her head. As she embarks on a personal mission that doesn’t become clear until half way through, the world is thrust into complete devastation. Animals go crazy, power cuts out and people either drop dead, change into murderous brutal zombies, or become ‘chosen’. Few people of a certain age, providing they escape the zombies, seem to remain unchanged. They live in fear of a world full of uncertainty. Those that ‘change’ seem only to be adolescents, yet Alex has remained in control of her mind. What has made her different? What has made her one of the chosen? I’m still not sure about the answers to these questions, the plot intricacies slowly develop and deepen, we’re given some answers and some clues, but these just lead you to more questions and a certain hungery desperation to discover the truth. To me, Bick’s writing is competitively strong. This destructive world seems so eerily real, like what’s happening to Alex could happen to us at anytime. I feel invested in this story and I literally cannot wait to find out where it’s going to go next.

I warn you, this book ends on the most gut wrenching cliff hanger I have ever read and I’ve made it my personal mission to get hold of the next manuscript as soon as it’s ready. There’s no way I can wait until autumn 2012 – no way!