Book Review | Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin

Ashen Winter is the much anticipated sequel to Mike Mullin's Ashfall.

Book Description

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.

I read Ashfall last year and loved it. (You can read my review of Ashfall here if you'd like.) Ashen Winter takes place shortly after the events in Ashfall. Due to the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano and the resulting volcanic winter, the temperatures have dropped to below freezing and Alex's world is even harsher than it was in Ashfall.

The action in this series is immediate and non-stop. Some events I found to be a bit unbelievable, but it was still a really fun read. I wish I had been able to read this as a readalong. It's the kind of book you can go on and on about with your friends. The main characters are very likeable. Alex is a nice guy and Darla is a badass, but they both do some pretty boneheaded things.

Even though I have some minor issues with Ashen Winter (possibly too much action), I still love this series hard core. I love the extreme take on what it would be like to survive a supervolcano eruption. The evolution of human reaction to such extreme conditions is awesome and extremely frightening. I know I said some of the events were unbelievable, but the world Mike Mullin has created is quite realistic and very thought provoking. Did I mention frightening?

The Ashfall series is one of my favorite series. If you haven't read Ashfall, you definitely need to start there before picking up Ashen Winter. The next book in the series is called Sunrise. SUNRISE! I hope we get plenty more time surviving the volcanic winter, but hooray for surviving to see the sun!

7/10: Recommended Read

Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review: Ashfall by Mike Mullin

Ashfall is the first book in the YA Ashfall series from Mike Mullin.

Book Description

Many visitors to Yellowstone National Park don't realize that the boiling hot springs and spraying geysers are caused by an underlying supervolcano. It has erupted three times in the last 2.1 million years, and it will erupt again, changing the Earth forever.

Fifteen-year-old Alex is home alone when the supervolcano erupts. His town collapses into a nightmare of darkness, ash, and violence, forcing him to flee. He begins a harrowing trek in search of his parents and sister, who were visiting relatives 140 miles away.

Along the way, Alex struggles through a landscape transformed by more than a foot of ash. The disaster brings out the best and worst in people desperate for food, clean water, and shelter.  When an escaped convict injures Alex, he searches for a sheltered place where he can wait--to heal or to die. Instead, he finds Darla. Together, they fight to achieve a nearly impossible goal: surviving the supervolcano.

With nonstop action, a little romance, and realistic science, debut author Mike Mullin tells a mesmerizing story. Readers will turn Ashfall's pages breathlessly, and continue to ponder Alex and Darla's fate long after they close the book.

Ashfall is a real pageturner. I made the mistake of starting Ashfall when I was ready to go to bed. Don't do that if you require lots of beauty sleep.

Mike Mullin threw build-up and foreshadowing out the window when he wrote Ashfall. The supervolcano eruption... chapter one. That's how I love my stories. There is a lot of action in Ashfall, and it is all delivered without apology.

The natural disaster aspect of Ashfall evoked a lot of emotion in me. The story itself is well written and thought provoking, but as someone who has been through multiple hurricanes, I made a lot of emotional connections to Ashfall. I'm also never, ever letting my son quit TaeKwonDo.

I was pleasantly surprised to find Ashfall to be more than a young adult book about survival. There are also strong elements of YA romance, post-apocalypse and even some dystopia. The girl lead Darla is a bad ass, but she's vulnerable when she needs to be. Alex is the opposite (in a nice way). He's vulnerable, but a badass when he needs to be.

Once again - how does this keep happening to me?! - I wasn't aware Ashfall was a series. When will I understand YA = series? Thankfully there was no frustrating cliffhanger. I feel like a received a complete story, and I'm left with the typical craving for more you get with a good first book in a series. I will definitely pick up Ashen Winter when it is released next fall.

If you are a YA fan of the post-apocalyptic flavor and you don't mind some brutal and unforgiving scenes, you need to read Ashfall. Just make sure you don't start reading it at bedtime!

8/10: Great read

Review copy provided by publisher