Monsters - Review

	Title Monsters Author Ilsa Bick Genre YA Fantasy, Horror Publisher  Brilliance Corporation Publishing Date September 10, 2013 How I Got This Book NetGalley Paperback 688 pages Stand alone or Series Ashes Trilogy #3    Reading Difficulty 3 (on a scale of 1-5 5 = dictionary vernacular)
FIN!

The Changed are on the move. The Spared are out of time. The End...is now.

When her parents died, Alex thought things couldn't get much worse--until the doctors found the monster in her head.

She headed into the wilderness as a good-bye, to leave everything behind. But then the end of the world happened, and Alex took the first step down a treacherous road of betrayal and terror and death.

Now, with no hope of rescue--on the brink of starvation in a winter that just won't quit--she discovers a new and horrifying truth.

The Change isn't over. The Changed are still evolving. And...they've had help.

With this final volume of The Ashes Trilogy, Ilsa J. Bick delivers a riveting, blockbuster finish, returning readers to a brutal, post-apocalyptic world where no one is safe and hope is in short supply.

A world where, from these ashes, the monsters may rise.
 

[Shoots off fireworks] It's over. I've completed the series!
Like most finales, this one comes with over-the-top explosions, unexpected deaths and a pseudo happy ending. What it doesn't do is explain who and why the EMP --which created the zombies-- go of in book one in the first place. In this novel, we find the characters rearranged within the group of characters as they all work toward the final goal, save the children of Rule.



Woohoo!:
Bick is a master of human emotions, especially when the character's being tested. She knows exactly what should be going through your mind as you struggle to take just one more sip of air before you drown. How you feel about your captors after you've been with them so long.

With the same antagonist  as book one and two, things could get a little boring, but Bick manages to reinvent the zombie. A mad scientist pokes and prods at the kids until they become something dangerously organized. How do you overcome a swarm of changed who can take direction?

As usual, the last 10% of the book was AMAZING! I felt as if I were reading another Robert Jordan book --A little slow in the middles, but the last bits really socks a wallop.

Not that there was more than a paragraph or two of it, but the romance between Tom and Alex was my favorite part of this book. My heart did cartwheels. The scene was tastefully written, with just enough information to let the reader know Tom sealed the deal. 

Meeh:
MONSTERS picks up at the immediate end of SHADOWS, book two. I was a little lost in the beginning, trying to remember what happened in the last novel. I remember the character list was growing and it was beginning to become hard to keep up with who was who, and who was doing what. It got that same feeling as soon as I started reading MONSTERS. The one good thing, I remember what was happening to Alex, the main character, at the end of the last novel, and MONSTERS picks up with Alex's side. Maybe it's a hope to boost your memory.

Lots of flashbacks. Every character seems to be infected with the dreaded flashback in the beginning of the novel. Remembering what was, instead of what is.

Unfortunately, what I love most about this author becomes her demise in this novel. She is an artist with words and description, but here it just slows the reader down. There's too much description during a (supposed-to-be) fast-passed action scene. Overwhelming images that don't do anything for the movement of the plot. 

Rating: B

Ashes (Ashes Trilogy #1) - Review

Shadows (Ashes Trilogy #1) - Review

---

Author
Ilsa Bick
Read my interview

Bick is a former Air Force major—and an award-winning, best-selling author of short stories, e-books, and novels.

From her website:
Helloooo, I’m right here … So let’s just say that I’m a child psychiatrist (yeah, you read that right) and an award-winning, best-selling author of short stories, ebooks and novels.

Believe me, no one is more shocked about this than I … unless you talk to my mother.

Shadows - Review

	Title Shadows Author Ilsa Bick Genre YA fantasy, horror, dystopian Publisher EgmontUSA Publishing Date September 25, 2012 How I Got This Book Bought it Hardback 528 pages Stand alone or Series Ashes Trilogy #2    My Average 8 pages/day    Reading Difficulty 3 (on a scale of 1-5 5 = dictionary vernacular)
Oh Crap! Strategic Zombies.

The Apocalypse does not end. The Changed will grow in numbers. The Spared may not survive.

Even before the EMPs brought down the world, Alex was on the run from the demons of her past and the monster living in her head. After the world was gone, she believed Rule could be a sanctuary for her and those she’d come to love.
But she was wrong.

Now Alex is in the fight of her life against the adults, who would use her, the survivors, who don’t trust her, and the Changed, who would eat her alive.

Welcome to Shadows, the second book in the haunting apocalyptic Ashes Trilogy: where no one is safe and humans may be the worst of the monsters.

“Now she knew why Wolf had used snow to scrub blood from the flap of her skin. He was looking for a good tattoo. The Changed were wearing... people.”

I try not to review too many sequels because I know if it were me, I wouldn't really care what you think about the second book, because I haven't read the first book. That being said, I do review sequels when I am in love with book 1. This series is no different. Ilsa Bick knocks zombie books out just in time for the next YA wave - Zombies.

See Ashes (book 1) review here.


Quick review:
I was thrown for a loop at the beginning of this book. I am positive the first book only followed Alex. Book 2 follows several characters. It actually reminded me of many of the Dean Koontz books where he circles around a handful of characters who finally meet up in the end. It felt a little unrealistic that all of the characters find each other in the middle of a tech blackout. They all gravitate to each other for a final blow out... I just couldn't wrap my brain around that, especially since one of the characters started the novel in a different state.

Also, there is less gore in book two than one. I really loved the gore in the first book and hoped for the same or more.

There are a lot of characters in this novel - some old, some new. For the number of characters, I really didn't have too hard of a time figuring out who was who. The only part of the character that slipped past me was the age. Some of the older characters act and talk like the younger "normal" people.

Lastly, I hated this book cover. Well, hate is a strong word. I really didn't like the direction the publisher went with this cover. The first book's cover is amazing. Creepy & intriguing all at the same time. I don't know, maybe it's because my copy is an ebook... but the blue text with a shadowy figure reads amateur to me, and this book is anything but amateur. And what's with the headstones in the background? Where in the book do any of the characters visit a grave? If your reading this EgmontUSA, please reevaluate your cover art.

This cover doesn't seem to be the prominent cover, but I like it better than the above one. Still not as good as Book 1's cover.

Rating: B+

You might also like

Ashes

	Title Ashes    Author Ilsa Bick    Genre Young Adult, Dystopian, Horror, Zombie    Publisher Egmontusa    Publication Date September 6, 2011    How I Got This Book Blue Willow Bookshop    Hardback 465    Stand alone or series First in the trilogy      My Average 42 pg/day      Reading Difficulty 3       (on a scale of 1-5 5 = dictionary vernacular)
Survive

Seventeen-year old Alex is just trying to deal with her own monster, taking some time in the wilderness to think things through, when her whole world ends. After Alex watches an elderly man, drop dead next to her, she and his bratty granddaughter, Ellie, decide to hike to safety. It's when Alex and Ellie come across some kids eating the guts out of a dead woman like spaghetti that she realizes they're in a lot more trouble than just a few dead adults and dead electronics. The world as Alex knows it has turned upside down. Many of the adults flat out died right away leaving the elderly and children to survive, but most of the adolescents have transformed into something else, something evil. For some reason, Alex  is spared, maybe it's her tumor. Maybe that's why she can smell them coming, the days-old roadkill stench. The makeshift family, Alex, Ellie and Tom, will do everything in their power to survive. But survival is difficult when you're an anomaly, and both sides want you. 

"People'll either shoot you, or decide you're worth your weight in gold."

Hit The Mark:
I absolutely loved the gore! There are some reviews that said they had a hard time eating while reading this book. Suck it up! You're reading a zombie book. What do you expect, the kids arn't limping over to hand you picked flowers... 

"With a grunt, the boy plunged his fist into the woman's abdomen and rooted around before coming back up with a drippy fistful of something liverish and soft enough that Alex could hear the squelch as the meaty thing oozed between his fists."

When I was younger, I never read much because of my dyslexia, but authors like Dean Koontz and Stephen King got me over that. Reading horror is like refreshing my brain back to the start point. I love it! 

The poetic description brought to the details in this book scared me at first. I was afraid it was going to drag the pace of the book down, but it only enhanced my reading experience. Bick keeps up a vernacular any writer would chew their (non writing) hand off for. If nothing else, I would reread this novel to steal some of her metaphors and other descriptors. 

The ending of this novel is like a kick in the teeth. I had no idea it was coming and as soon as I realized what was going on, I desperately wanted to read the next book -- So kudos Bick.

This book has the pace of a run-away train lit on fire, careening down a canyon with manic, gore covered brain-eaters hot on its tail.

Needs Improvement:
I agree with many of the reviews I have seen, this book really seems like two books. Book 1 - Escape from the woods to find safe shelter. Book 2 - escape from Rule. The second part did feel a little out of place, and it dragged a little - compared to the first section - but as I read on I felt like it really slipped into place and will defiantly play a part in the next book.

I didn't like Alex's character when she arrived in Rule. She acted completely different, from a tough, no-nonsense outdoorsy chick to a fluffy, defeated "free" prisoner. I say that because she was free to move around, do things see people... but she was not allowed to leave the compound or go anywhere without an escort, because she, like the other girls, is the future. The baby maker.

Once more characters are brought into the book, I had a hard time figuring out weather the character was an elderly person or a "spared." There was little difference in their speech or attitude. I felt like there should have been more of a difference to make each group stand out from the other. 

The last thing that bugged me was how long it took Alex to realize what Jess could do. It should have been as obvious to her as rain slapping her in the face after her interview with the Reverend, and Matt's explanation.

So I can see why some people felt disappointed with this novel. They went into it thinking it was your average zombie novel. Zombie's have inhabited the earth and there is really no point going on because eventually, their disease will spread and there will be too many to fight off. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. This is not that novel. There is a light. There is hope. The zombie's don't have any sort of disease that transforms adults and children alike into brain-dead killing machines covered in an entrails necklaces. They just were unlucky kids who didn't survive whatever caused many of the adults to drop dead. 

Rating: A+

If you like Ashfall, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Wither, & Eden, you might like this novel.

I was going to do another video blog, but I just didn't have time this time around. Sorry.

---

About the Author

Ilsa Bick

Read my interview. Bick is a former Air Force major—and an award-winning, best-selling author of short stories, e-books, and novels.
From her website:
Helloooo, I’m right here … So let’s just say that I’m a child psychiatrist (yeah, you read that right) and an award-winning, best-selling author of short stories, ebooks and novels.

Believe me, no one is more shocked about this than I … unless you talk to my mother.