Ashfall - Mike Mullin

Title: Ashfall
Author: Mike Mullin
Pages: 466 (ARC copy)
Genre: Young Adult/Post-Apocalyptic
Publication Date: 10/11/2011

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. (Goodreads)

There is a dormant (though capable of awakening) super-volcano lying underneath Yellowstone (which this is actually true). If that fact right is not enough to put some fear in you, I don't know what will. This novel was terrifying, gripping, and I couldn't put it down for anything (okay, I had to for work but that is irrelevant here). I will say now that although this is put into the genre of young adult fiction, I think it should be geared more toward older teens and adults due to the nature in some parts, i.e. some of the descriptions of violence, some sexual nature (although generally a fade to black type situation, but either way...), etc.

Alex is a fifteen year old boy who, until the Friday his parents and sister leave to visit family in Illinois, has lead a pretty normal life. After his parents leave, all heck breaks loose -- a super-volcano heck that is. In this novel, we follow Alex in the search for his parents after the eruption of the super-volcano that rests underneath Yellowstone, causing a cataclysmic reaction; ash, lightning, rains, volcanic winter, deafening thunders lasting for hours. Along the way, Alex runs into some of the more hospitable people in the world -- and unfortunately some of the nastier specimens we still label as human. Luckily for him he meets Darla. I loved Darla. She was sarcastic, witty, but still had a good heart underneath her tough exterior. Alex really was a typical teen boy, but through the chaos we see him grow and mature in a lot of ways, if not wholly. Even with it being written from his perspective, I still feel like it had a more adult tone.

All in all, I would recommend this, even if bits were disturbing and violent. If you think about it, this probably is pretty realistic for a situation this extreme. However, I still would not recommend for younger readers (under 16/17).




What I give this book:

This World We Live In - Susan Beth Pfeffer

This World We Live In
Susan Beth Pfeffer
239 pages

The heart-wrenching companion to the bestselling novels Life As We Knew It and The Dead & The Gone.

It’s been a year since a meteor collided with the moon, catastrophically altering the earth’s climate. Miranda and her two brothers spend their days scavenging for food and household items, while their mother stays at home and desperately tries to hold on to the ordinary activities of their previous life. But they all know that nothing is truly normal in this surreal new world they live in.

The struggle to survive intensifies when Miranda’s father and stepmother arrive with a baby and three strangers in tow. One of the newcomers is Alex Morales, and as Miranda’s complicated feelings for him turn to love, his plans for his future thwart their relationship. Then a devastating tornado hits the town of Howell, and Miranda makes a decision that will change their lives forever.

In the conclusion to the Last Survivors series, we are with Miranda again, who is now seventeen, reading about life in this post-apocalyptic world through her journal entries. Life is still a struggle, trying to cope with hunger and hoping you'll survive. There is still no sunshine, it's hard to breathe with volcanic ash everywhere, and still cold.

Miranda is still pretty much the same - a little more grown up but still a teenage girl underneath it all and still struggling with her family to survive. The difference now is her father returns, with Lisa and the new baby, except now he has brought three strangers along with him.

Through her journal entries we see how they all struggle to survive together. The unexpected happens for Miranda - she finds herself in love with a boy named Alex Morales. Now she has to make life changing decisions, ones that will affect her and her family.

I didn't like this one as much as the first but better than the second. In this third installment, the lives of Miranda and Alex are brought together and now they have each other along with what's left of their families in this despairing world.

I really loved this series and I know that I will still be thinking about it for some time. It was both touching and frightening. I highly recommend this series.


What I give this book:

The Dead and the Gone - Susan Beth Pfeffer

The Dead and the Gone
Susan Beth Pfeffer
308 pages

Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life as We Knew It enthralled and devastated readers with its brutal but hopeful look at an apocalyptic event--an asteroid hitting the moon, setting off a tailspin of horrific climate changes. Now this harrowing companion novel examines the same events as they unfold in New York City, revealed through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Puerto Rican Alex Morales. When Alex's parents disappear in the aftermath of tidal waves, he must care for his two younger sisters, even as Manhattan becomes a deadly wasteland, and food and aid dwindle.
With haunting themes of family, faith, personal change, and courage, this powerful new novel explores how a young man takes on unimaginable responsibilities.

The Dead and the Gone is a companion to Life As We Knew It. This one follows Alex Morales and his two sisters as they fight to survive in New York after an asteroid hits the moon knocking it closer to the earth.

This book follows over roughly the same time span as Miranda's story and you go through the same basic events again, with the exception of it being in a big city rather than a small town.

Alex's parents are missing now, his older brother is in the Marines, where they aren't certain. It is up to him to take care of his younger two sisters, Briana and Julie in this new post-apocalyptic world. There is the same food problems, flu problems, epidemics, etc. as there was in the first book, only we get to see it all through the eyes of Alex.

I did enjoy this, but not as much as I would have liked since there weren't really any new big events happening, but rather the same ones in a different perspective. Alex didn't annoy me quite as much as Miranda, but he still had his moments and in the end was trying to do the best he could as a seventeen year old young man looking out for his younger sisters.

I think you could get away with reading either this or Life As We Knew It first since they are completely different stories (with the same events of course). Now, I am looking forward to reading the last book in the trilogy to see if things turn out better than where I left Miranda and Alex!


What I give this book:

Life As We Knew It - Susan Beth Pfeffer

Life As We Knew It
Susan Beth Pfeffer
337 pages

Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.

Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all--hope--in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.

Where do I even begin? While I was reading this book - even from the beginning I was not able to stop thinking about it. I still can't get it out of my head or quit talking about it.

Miranda is a sixteen year old girl who mostly lives a normal life. Her parents are divorced, and Dad and new wife have just found out they are expecting a baby. Her older brother Matt is at college and her younger brother Jonny is pretty average and has a love of baseball.

The only thing different is scientists and astronomers are saying that a meteor is going to impact with the moon. Everyone is excited about the event and some are even throwing parties while they watch. However, there is one thing that they are not predicting - that the impact is about to knock the moon a lot closer to earth.

The moon being pushed closer is causing major problems. There are massive tsunamis, brutal storms, and volcanic ash that blocks out the sunlight turning even the hottest of summer into an arctic wasteland. Miranda, her two brothers and their mom are left to try and survive this world changing catastrophe with limited supplies and resources.

I loved this - it scared the pants off me, but I truly enjoyed it. I have never read a book and felt so frightened or had the urge to go to every store I could and stock up and anything and everything. Maybe it is realistic, maybe not, but when it comes to things up/out there you never truly know. That in itself was enough for me!

As much as I loved it, Life As We Knew It wasn't without flaws. For a good portion, Miranda irked me a bit. I know that teens can be unpredictable and hormonal sometimes, but when things got bad I would have expected a more mature attitude out of her sometimes. Some of it I could understand, I mean, hello end of the world type business going on here, but other times I felt that she was being straight up selfish and immature. Of course, there were other times I wanted to defend her as well. All in all, she grew up a lot by the end and I felt kind of proud of that. No matter how she may have been acting or how hopeless and bleak things were looking, she never lost hope and I think that had a lot to do with getting her through things.

Life As We Knew It has a kind of drop off ending, but luckily there are still two more books to go and I am hoping there will be a more positive ending/outlook for Miranda and her family.


What I give this book: