Hey, guys!
Some of you may have read my review over the summer of Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick. Recently, I finished reading the second book in the trilogy: Shadows. For those of you who have not read both or either, there will be spoilers. You have been warned.
At the end of Ashes, Alex was banned from the town of Rule, which is basically one of many settlements established after the apocalypse. Most of the citizens are elderly because they are the majority of the population not affected by whatever it was that made adolescents into zombie things.
The rest of the citizens are called the Spared because they are adolescents who never changed. Yet.
There's a theory going around that maybe the Change (as it's called) is only delayed in certain youth, but that at some point, they will succumb. This causes some upset in Rule and also explains why there are huge rewards for any bounty hunters who manage to find any Spared who could be used for some malicious reasons.
Now, back to Alex. She was thrown out of Rule and collected by a gang of Changed. At first, we assumed they were zombies, but they've proven that they can learn - after all, these kids who take Alex are using guns, working together, and learned to have a few "unchanged" humans to follow them around so that they have food in the winter. Basically, Alex has become part of a cattle herd.
And with all of this going on, we also hear from a long-lost favorite character from book one (at least, he's my favorite). Tom the soldier was found by an older couple who nursed him back to health, but now he has to leave so he can find Alex and Ellie, the little girl that Tom and Alex were travelling with and protecting.
For those of you who don't know, Ellie was taken by some older adults, possibly bounty hunters, for reasons unknown. She may have been a brat, but she had it rough. Her father died and then lost her grandfather during the apocalypse. Like I said, she was a very difficult kid, but the reader should cut her a little slack.
So, what's going to happen to Rule? Will Alex escape the clutches of the Changed? Will Tom ever see her again? Read the book and find out.
Like book one, Shadows is fast-paced and hard to put down. My only criticism is that I believe the writing is a bit lacking. Certain descriptive words seemed a little out of place.
And, while I understand that Bick tries to make the thought process of her characters realistic in tense moments, it bugs me that Alex continually tells herself that she has to "go go go" or "move move move" or whatever it was she said. I could have forgiven this if it happened only once or twice in the book, but it happened often enough to drive me crazy.
The plot, however, helps make up for the flaws in the writing. If you're a fan of the first book, I recommend you continue the series, especially since it ended on a major cliffhanger.
Hope you enjoyed this review.
Happy reading!!!
Some of you may have read my review over the summer of Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick. Recently, I finished reading the second book in the trilogy: Shadows. For those of you who have not read both or either, there will be spoilers. You have been warned.
At the end of Ashes, Alex was banned from the town of Rule, which is basically one of many settlements established after the apocalypse. Most of the citizens are elderly because they are the majority of the population not affected by whatever it was that made adolescents into zombie things.
The rest of the citizens are called the Spared because they are adolescents who never changed. Yet.
There's a theory going around that maybe the Change (as it's called) is only delayed in certain youth, but that at some point, they will succumb. This causes some upset in Rule and also explains why there are huge rewards for any bounty hunters who manage to find any Spared who could be used for some malicious reasons.
Now, back to Alex. She was thrown out of Rule and collected by a gang of Changed. At first, we assumed they were zombies, but they've proven that they can learn - after all, these kids who take Alex are using guns, working together, and learned to have a few "unchanged" humans to follow them around so that they have food in the winter. Basically, Alex has become part of a cattle herd.
And with all of this going on, we also hear from a long-lost favorite character from book one (at least, he's my favorite). Tom the soldier was found by an older couple who nursed him back to health, but now he has to leave so he can find Alex and Ellie, the little girl that Tom and Alex were travelling with and protecting.
For those of you who don't know, Ellie was taken by some older adults, possibly bounty hunters, for reasons unknown. She may have been a brat, but she had it rough. Her father died and then lost her grandfather during the apocalypse. Like I said, she was a very difficult kid, but the reader should cut her a little slack.
So, what's going to happen to Rule? Will Alex escape the clutches of the Changed? Will Tom ever see her again? Read the book and find out.
Like book one, Shadows is fast-paced and hard to put down. My only criticism is that I believe the writing is a bit lacking. Certain descriptive words seemed a little out of place.
And, while I understand that Bick tries to make the thought process of her characters realistic in tense moments, it bugs me that Alex continually tells herself that she has to "go go go" or "move move move" or whatever it was she said. I could have forgiven this if it happened only once or twice in the book, but it happened often enough to drive me crazy.
The plot, however, helps make up for the flaws in the writing. If you're a fan of the first book, I recommend you continue the series, especially since it ended on a major cliffhanger.
Hope you enjoyed this review.
Happy reading!!!
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