Wake Me Up When Winter Is Over...

Expected Publication:  October 16th, 2012
Ashen Winter (Ashfall # 2)
By: Mike Mullins
Tanglewood Press
ISBN-13: 9781933718750

It’s been over six months since the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Alex and Darla have been staying with Alex’s relatives, trying to cope with the new reality of the primitive world so vividly portrayed in Ashfall, the first book in this series.

It’s also been six months of waiting for Alex’s parents to return from Iowa. Alex and Darla decide they can wait no longer and must retrace their journey into Iowa to find and bring back Alex’s parents to the tenuous safety of Illinois. But the landscape they cross is even more perilous than before, with life-and-death battles for food and power between the remaining communities. When the unthinkable happens, Alex must find new reserves of strength and determination to survive.

Review

 

     When we left Alex and Darla at the end of Ashfall, they had finally made it to his Uncle's farm only to find out that Alex's parents had already left to find him shortly before they got there.  This book picks up six months later and his parents still haven't returned to the farm.  When they are attacked by a bandit who has gun that belonged to Alex's Dad, they decide to get any information they can and follow a trail that will (hopefully) lead them to his parents.  They thought it was bad when they were out on the road before, but in the last six months things have only gotten worse.  Food is scarce, some of the surviving factions have turned cannabalistic, the weather is twice as brutal and morality has pretty much been thrown out the window with slavers snatching people up to make a profit.  When Darla is shot and kidnapped, it's up to Alex to rescue his parents from the government camp where they're prisoners and prevent Darla from suffering a fate worse that anything they could imagine.  I was truly looking forward to this one since the moment I finished Ashfall, which I thought was probably the best dystopian book I read this year (that was published in 2011).  Darla is still a very strong and rational balance for Alex's less thought-out and more emotional actions/schemes.  I liked that they finally decided to go after his parents, but I was mad that Darla was gone for almost half of the book's main narrative.  Her kidnapping did provide a lot of pivotal action for the plot though, and Alex's struggle to get her back kept things moving along.  I liked the inclusion of Alyssa (a desperate teen girl, forced into prostitution to protect her autistic brother) and Ben, her brother who has high-functioning autism.  How would such a thing be handled during the apocalypse?  Mullins gives a very respectful and realistic look at the possible answers to this question.    One of the things that really irked me were the way Alex's parents treated him like some helpless kid who had been playing video games through the apocalypse and was too stupid to take care of himself/understand danger.  Seriously?  He'd been separated from them for SIX FREAKING MONTHS!  What, did they think the stork took him back while they were gone and took care of him again?  Puh-lease.   Also, the way Alyssa persisted in trying to seduce Alex while Darla was missing and she knew he was taken, plus she'd basically been raped repeatedly and completely traumatized rang very false.  It also made her come across as a mercenary, unsympathetic whore (at least to me personally).  The non-stop action with no even pacing also got on my nerves.  I felt like things were constantly being thrown at me and I should take notes or something.  It lacked balance.  I liked this book overall and felt that it managed to escape the sophmore slump of most second books in trilogies.  But it wasn't nearly as good as the first book.  I will be eagerly awaiting the third book though, to see what happens next! :)

 

VERDICT:  3.25/5  Stars

 

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is October 16th, 2012*

Evil Is Lurking Beneath the Surface

Expected Publication:  July 12th, 2012

Lies Beneath

By: Anne Greenwood Brown

Delacorte Books for Young Readers

ISBN-13:  9780385742016

Calder White lives in the cold, clear waters of Lake Superior, the only brother in a family of murderous mermaids. To survive, Calder and his sisters prey on humans, killing them to absorb their energy. But this summer the underwater clan targets Jason Hancock out of pure revenge. They blame Hancock for their mother's death and have been waiting a long time for him to return to his family's homestead on the lake. Hancock has a fear of water, so to lure him in, Calder sets out to seduce Hancock's daughter, Lily. Easy enough—especially as Calder has lots of practice using his irresistible good looks and charm on ususpecting girls. Only this time Calder screws everything up: he falls for Lily—just as Lily starts to suspect that there's more to the monsters-in-the-lake legends than she ever imagined. And just as his sisters are losing patience with him.

Review

   Calder White is the only brother to four beautiful and mysterious sisters.  On the surface they are no different from most families - except for the fact they happen to be murderous mermaids on the prowl for human energy to steal.  But this summer they are after a specific person : Jason Hancock, because his Father reneged on a bargain and killed their Mother in the process.  Now the son has finally returned to the family's lake house with his wife and two daughters, giving the perfect opportunity for revenge.  They plan to get to him by using one of his daughters.  But when Calder starts to have feelings for Hancock's oldest daughter Lily, it begins to cause problems for his family's revenge plot.  Also, Lily is smarter than they thought and starts to realize the truth to the stories about monsters in the lake.  Calder's sisters are on the verge of taking over and getting revenge for themselves - the one thing that could ruin his rediscovered humanity.  Can he save Lily and her Father from the jaws his family's hatred or will they all be destroyed?  This seemed like a book that had a different viewpoint than most YA mermaid books - the mermaids were NOT the good guys in this one.  They consistently killed humans and stole their energy.  It was an interesting twist, but it led to some major disconnect from the main characters.  Also, Lily felt a bit 2D in terms of personality.  Calder was practically stalking her for most of the book and she still communicated with him and ended up falling for him.  Seriously, yet another girl with Bella Swan syndrome.  Calder was a decently fleshed out character, but most of the book was spent with him searching for a way to still get revenge and save Lily - not much time left to get to know him very well as an individual.  His sisters were stereotypes at best and I especially despised Maris.  But that seemed to be the point and is therefore acceptable I suppose.  Also the love triangle was annoyingly present in this one.  The two guys were both in love with the unremarkable, average in every way girl.  I am so sick and tired of the usage of this as a plot device in YA novels.  The resolution was totally predictable and while I did manage to read the whole book, I ended up very much unimpressed with it.  I would not recommend this to anyone, unless they are highly obsessed with books involving mermaids.  

VERDICT:  2.35/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is July 12th, 2012.*

Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down

Published: October 11th, 2011
Ashfall
By: Mike Mullin
Tanglewood Press
ISBN-13: 9781933718552


Under the bubbling hot springs and geysers of Yellowstone National Park is a supervolcano. Most people don't know it's there. The caldera is so large that it can only be seen from a plane or satellite. It just could be overdue for an eruption, which would change the landscape and climate of our planet.

Ashfall is the story of Alex, a teenage boy left alone for the weekend while his parents visit relatives. When the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts unexpectedly, Alex is determined to reach his parents. He must travel over a hundred miles in a landscape transformed by a foot of ash and the destruction of every modern convenience that he has ever known, and through a new world in which disaster has brought out both the best and worst in people desperate for food, water, and warmth. With a combination of nonstop action, a little romance, and very real science, this is a story that is difficult to stop reading and even more difficult to forget.

Review

   Alex doesn't want to go visit his Uncle's farm with his family and subsequently die of boredom.  So his parents actually agree to let him stay home alone for the weekend.  After being a jerk to his family all he wants to do is be alone with his computer.  But then Yellowstone has a volcano erupt and ash travels to Alex's hometown, destroying his house and much of everything in the nearby area.   Feeling panicked about his family's safety (even his bratty sister), Alex decides to make his way on foot to his Uncle's house (140 miles) and find out if they made it through the disaster.  Along the way Alex is forced to deal with the descent of humanity into looting, killing and evil.  Food is in scarce supply and many farm fields have been ruined by the ash.  Also, prisoners have escaped in the chaos and Alex almost dies after an encounter with one of the brutal inmates.  He is saved by a girl named Darla and her Mom, who nurse him back to health.  He learns a lot about helping on their farm to harvest the corn that's still edible and how to build machines to simulate modern conveniences.  But when Darla's Mom is murdered and Alex is forced to leave with her in tow, will Darla and Alex be able to safely make it to his Uncle's?  Even after the government turns out to be yet another threat?  This was the best dystopian book that I've read since finishing the Hunger Games series.  I loved how dark it was and the terrifying part was how viable such a future is.  The people portrayed have real feelings and reactions in dire situations.  I especially enjoyed the fact that while most dystopians focus on the world quite awhile AFTER a major disaster, this was the immediate aftermath.  Alex grows and changes so much over the course of the book that by the end he is such a different character it amazes me.  Darla is a wonderful comparison to Alex, because she had major adult responsibilities from the beginning, before the crisis.  She still manages to learn new things about who she is and her place in the new world order.  I would go as far to say that this will be in my Top 10 for books that I've read when 2012 draws to a close.  Highly recommended to anyone with a sense of adventure, who doesn't shy away from harsh content.

VERDICT:  5/5  Stars

*No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores and online.*