Shadows

Ashes Trilogy, Book 2

By: Ilsa J. Bick

Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren

Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2012 Ilsa J. Bick (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Perfect for Halloween!

What did you like best about Shadows? What did you like least?

Least - too many POV - Most - it was exciting and the narrator was amazing

Would you recommend Shadows to your friends? Why or why not?

yes, not for the faint of heart or easily queasy

Was Shadows worth the listening time?

yep

Your Mileage Will Almost Certainly Vary

Let's begin by noting that I was not a huge fan of the first book. I was intrigued enough by the rather devilish cliffhanger to eagerly await this sequel's release on Audible, and keep waiting an extra two weeks beyond its print release date I might add. And unfortunately, though perhaps not surprisingly, I was somewhat disappointed.

So here we are with the same characters and some new ones, trying to live through the aftermath of the EMPs and finding out things aren't what they seem. Some characters come more to the forefront, as Alex is no longer an exclusive point of view. Questions are answered with cryptic clues into a more complicated struggle that most certainly requires a serious accounting in the third installment. Along the way, you will meet new people friendly and not so much, and get glimpses at how other communities have dealt with the end of the world and hordes of savage children.

One of this series's strong points is that it gives you a bunch of characters with real flaws, and serious problems internal and external to overcome. The trouble is that it tends to dwell on these, and, aside from a few exceptions commented upon by the characters, our heroes don't seem to be learning from their mistakes. I love seeing the protagonists encountering new obstacles, being caught off guard by unforseen events and having to save themselves and each other through intelligent action. But when I am forced to listen to the same character barely make it through yet another similar scrape brought upon by their own lack of situational awareness, I can't really credit him/her for overcoming unexpected adversity anymore. There is also the fact that while this story has more action than its predecessor, it also consists of multiple POV characters going in circles, sometimes literally, often without much agency. I don't know, maybe that last part may make for an ideal young adult novel in retrospect, as these are books about children meant to be read by children, who are often deprived of the ability to make big picture decisions and just forced to make due with influencing their fates any way they can. The author is a child psychiatrist after all.

If you had trouble with the gore in the first book, expect even more this time around. If you liked Katherine Kellgren's performance last time , you'll be happy with it again; if you didn't, you'll despise this book, with its whimpers, screams, and other emotional accents.

All in all, I guess I can't say I was excessively disappointed, but I was left wanting something, more. And yes, even though we're not left with a huge shocker in the last few minutes like last time, I think I will pick up the last one, just to see what happens.

great book. below average narator

I don't want to offend the narator. but I think she gets over excited during the action sequences of the book.

Too graphic

Read some reviews talking about how graphic this installment was. they were right. Couldn't finish.

A totally original production!

This narrator deserves an award. Her pacing with her voice when action in the plot is evident vs the slow measured tones of building suspense is amazing.

The author has managed to make me care for a set of characters who is constantly in a state of survival and instead of failing to entertain due to little if any romance the author had me hooked!

A brilliant story, one any lover of the genre will adore!

WaAr

Meh...

I was intrigued enough by the first book to listen to the second one. I thought it was a bit disappointing. The story seems to take off in a totally different direction, I was looking forward to finding out what happened to the main characters, but their story was just sort of sprinkled into what almost felt like a whole new book. Confused, not sure I'll continue on to the next one.

Not as good as the first one.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I think this story has too much in the head of each character moments. It needed to be more focus on who was important.

What do you think your next listen will be?

I'm reading Monster which is next in the series. I have to see how things end.

What does Katherine Kellgren bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Katherine Kellgren is one of my favorite performers. I'll read a book just because she is the one reading it.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Yes

Any additional comments?

I think there are far too many characters who are not fleshed out enough.

series

The story is decent enough. The narrator has a rythem of speech that is sometimes very distracting. In climatic scenes her voice can get very very shrill which makes this a hard listen.

Fantastic!

Great read! Easy fun , not for the faint at heart. Puts a nice twist on the whole 'zombie' thing.

Couldn't stop listening!

I disagree with the other reviewers who said the story has split up into too many new characters. In fact, there were only a few new characters added. I found this second installment of the story to be just as compelling as the first and could not stop listening until I reached the end. I would have rather this installment had a little more satisfying ending, but overall I was very happy with the story. I can't wait for the final book, because, yes, there were a few cliff hangers.