Ashfall

For Alex, being left alone for the weekend means having the freedom to play computer games and hang out with his friends without hassle from his mother.

Then the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, plunging his hometown into a nightmare of darkness, ash, and violence. Alex begins a harrowing trek to search for his family and finds help in Darla, a travel partner he meets along the way. Together they must find the strength and skills to survive and outlast an epic disaster.

-https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9644151-ashfall?ac=1&from_search=1

This book was recommended to me by my wonderful, magnificent and funny English teacher and I’m glad he did.

So after reading The Night Circus I was so ready to read a book that was action packed and had character development and things happened and YEAH!!

Well…it was better than The Night Circus I can tell you that.

Our main protagonist Alex as well as other characters were characterized the moment they were introduced (A+++++). I got to admit though, some of their personalities…were VERY cliche.

You got that video game playing, “has no idea what he’s doing” character, Alex, who also conveniently knows how to do taekwondo (And also prefers saying things in Korean which apparently makes him a special butterfly). Then we got his cliche, kickass, female sidekick, Darla, who basically has to do everything for him but STILL somehow manages to like the guy.

Hey, better than no personality amirite? At this point, I was willing to read anything.

Character relationships were kind of not realistic. First moment we got Alex and Darla doing the “omg you’re so stupid” then we got them “omg i love u”. Aite…then. That’s great. I’m happy for you. You seem really worried for your family. Things are happening around you but you kind of really don’t care caus eyo’URE IN LOVWE!! (ok this is an over exaggeration it wasn’t really like that i’m sorry).

However, there were those times when I actually got into the book. It tested the characters’ strength and what their true identities. It helped flesh them out and was pretty interesting to read.

On the other hand, the pace of the plot wasn’t very…consistent but the book got me attached to the characters just enough to get me going. The plot itself however, WAS very consistent and repetitive. Travel, arrive at shelter, somehow find food and water, repeat. It was kind of amazing how Alex found that one person who was willing to give him stuff. Plot convenience much?

In conclusion, the amount of sarcastic-ness I put in this review was kind of not true. It was a good book in general and I recommend it if you need a read you don’t need to commit yourself into.

3/5