[REVIEW] Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari

Published: June 2011
Publisher: Scholastic
Age Group: Young Adult

A thrilling tale of adventure, romance, and one girl's unyielding courage through the darkest of nightmares.

Epidemics, floods, droughts--for sixteen-year-old Lucy, the end of the world came and went, taking 99% of the population with it. As the weather continues to rage out of control, and Sweepers clean the streets of plague victims, Lucy survives alone in the wilds of Central Park. But when she's rescued from a pack of hunting dogs by a mysterious boy named Aidan, she reluctantly realizes she can't continue on her own. She joins his band of survivors, yet, a new danger awaits her: the Sweepers are looking for her. There's something special about Lucy, and they will stop at nothing to have her. (From Goodreads)

Sigh. When I saw this book, I thought it would be absolutely amazing.  Clearly I was wrong.  not that this book was bad...just that it wasn't good either.  Ashes, Ashes could have been so much better, perhaps an entire series dedicated to it but it's only a stand alone novel. 

The beginning of the story started out well.  If you can't tell by the cover, this is a dystopic novel and we findt he main character Lucy trying to survive in her shelter.  What really struck me hard about this dystopic world is the fact that Lucy had forgotten who Alice, from Alice in Wonderland was.  I'm pretty sure her shelter was located near/in Central Park in New York City because she was using the Alice statue a measure of how high the water is.  It gave me the sense of sadness that in this dystopic world, people begin to forget information that they've know all their lives.

After the first 100 pages the story kind of goes down hill.  First, SPOILERS ALERT, Lucy finds a boy, her first human contact in a year, and immediately it is evident that he is the romantic interest of her's in this novel.  Then Lucy's shelter floods in and she has no choice but to seek out the boy again and hopefully stay with him.  The reson the world was destroyed is because of a plague.  The very few survivors are living together but there are sweepers who come and abduct them. Lucy runs in to quite a few of them.

Now her romantic interst, Aidan. I thought he was very well written, probably one of the only characters. I don't mean to bash the author but when I read the book, I found that the plot felt rushed and most of the characters weren't developed enough.  The love rival doesn't seem like a love rival but it is evident that she is.  Also, I guess due to the lack of people, it's really hard to have sub plots which might have been why the story was cut short.

The ending of this story could have been much longer.  I was expecting much more and I got worried when I got to the last 50 pages and realized that this story would end and that it couldn't possibly end well in only 50 pages.  I guessed right.

So I guess this is one of those books that really could have been good if it became a series. 

BORROW

[REVIEW] City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

Published: March 2008
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Age Group: Young Adult
Series: The Mortal Instruments #2

Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who's becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn't ready to let her go — especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil — and also her father.

To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings — and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

In this breathtaking sequel to City of Bones, Cassandra Clare lures her readers back into the dark grip of New York City's Downworld, where love is never safe and power becomes the deadliest temptation. (From Goodreads)

City of Ashes is the second book in the Mortal Instruments series. If you want to read the review on the first book, City of Bones, i've written one for that too. 

In City of Ashes, the "Valentine" plot, as I like to call it, becomes more prominent as well as Clary's relationships and Simon himself. To sum up what happens in City of Ashes, basically, Clary and Jace are having issues about Jace being her brother and Valentine's son, Valentine starts killing more people (no shocker there), Simon finally gets the guts to tell Clary about his love then he ends up having to dig himself out of a grave, a female wolf named Maia gets introduced, a huge battle happens and more secrets are revealed. 

I feel Cassandra Clare does that quite often. Simon is a major part of the book and he undergoes much, shall we say pain, throughout the book. Many of the major events revolve around him and I'm glad to see that, Simon needed some limelight. 

Alot of questions and answers surface and many foreshadows are apparent. Cassandra Clare seems to do that often too. Put subtle hints. 

The second book is sort of the middle book. It has many explanations on character's history that comes in to play later on in the series. Although the major focus of the book was on relationships, this book was also different from any other "middle" book that i've read. The words about a chracter's relationships were so deep that i really felt like i could feel the tension or happiness going on between chracters. it felt real although it wasn't. That's pretty amazing in my opinon. Many middle books that i have read are often very dull and although new characters appear, they don't make a big enough impact for me to fully engross myself in the book. I've often hated that "middle" book but City of Ashes is quite different. I read this book so quickly and it wasn't because i wanted to get it over with, it was because i loved every single page that i was reading. 

The book was truly engrossing for me and that's what i love about the Mortal Instruments. Every book of the series, no matter my doubts, can always make me just forget about everything and enjoy a great book. City of Ashes was wonderfully written and I'm sure you'll enjoy this book and the Mortal Instruments series if you haven't already begun reading it or have read it.

5/5!
(originally posted in the TPL Word Out program)