A weathery mix of "The Day After TOmorrow" meets an "I am Legend" infection mingled with the pocket kife of "Survivor Man".Sounds cool right?WRONG!Or at least on my end.I found myself kinda hoping that the main character drowned or fell into a volcano.Not my cup of Pepsi but you might like it ;)I really thought I would have liked it..... RATS! Hates it when the description is better than the words inside.

This book is a very intriguing read. The main character, Lucy, has survived a virus that killed off 99% of the Earth's population-including her family. Lucy is a very industrious girl; she lives on her own and survives by herself. The action begins right away in this novel; the reader will not be bored. Lucy meets Aidan after he helps her evade a pack of wild dogs. She joins him and the other survivors; the reader will enjoy meeting the various different personalities. Of course, there is always the danger aspect. Lucy is not entirely safe; there are "sweepers" on the loose. Sweepers work for the government to round up survivors like Lucy to study them and attempt to discover why they survived the virus. It is not long before Lucy catches on that she is an integral part in discovering a cure. The book is not written entirely in the present tense, there are flashbacks to the past. The reader will experience, alongside Lucy, how life was before the virus. Lucy and her family were happy and "normal." There are a few different qualities to this story: action, romance, mystery, drama, etc... Lucy is a strong female character; readers will appreciate this since strong females leads are not common in survivalist novels. Lucy and Aidan have a bit of a budding romance; however, this is not the forefront of the story. The author allows the reader into this post-apocalyptic world; the environment is tangible to the reader. There is a lack of dialogue in the beginning of the novel as Lucy is alone for the first portion, but there is dialogue throughout the rest of the novel. The story is very fast-paced and new developments occur to hold the reader's interest. This novel is highly recommended for young adult/teen readers, specifically those who enjoy science fiction and action-filled novels.

Post-apocalyptic books and I just do not mesh- and this was a great example of that. I just found this book to be really weird, not to mention that it bored me to the point when I almost fell asleep while reading it. Since I read this book over a month ago as I write this, I have already forgotten so much of the story. If it weren't for the handy synopsis, I wouldn't even have been able to remember the main character's name. The characters were just so bland and so was the plot- or lack thereof. As much as I wanted to catch onto the big picture and underlying message of this novel, the details and descriptions were just too much for me to enjoy. Unfortunately, Ashes, Ashes wasn't for me, but I would recommend it to readers who are more into post-apocalyptic and darker reads.