Book Review

I recently began working in Youth Services at my library. This gives me a great excuse to read more juvenile and Young Adult fiction, both of which I enjoy. One of my favorite recent reads was Ashfall by Mike Mullin.

I heard about Ashfall when Mike Mullin came to our Open Book event a couple of years ago. At the time, I was still working for my bachelor's degree and wasn't doing much reading at all. I finally picked the book up this summer and hate that I waited this long to read it.

This book is not for the faint of heart. It is gritty, realistic, and gory. The protagonist, Alex, is disrupted from his daily life when a formerly dormant super-volcano beneath Yellowstone Park erupts, creating an apocalyptic hellscape across much of the United States. Alex lived in Iowa, not directly next to the volcano yet close enough to be affected by the pounds of ash that it produced. Since his family was traveling during the time of the eruption, he decides to go across the state to try to find them.

What I loved about this book is that Mr. Mullin definitely did his research. He portrays hunger, injuries, sickness, and more in a very realistic fashion. His characters do not miraculously get lucky in their survival. The dystopian genre is one of my favorites, so I've read quite a few, and none have come close to this level of realism. This book will unnerve the reader and definitely will make them worry about the possibility of this event actually happening.

This is a book that I would recommend to any teen or adult that wants a refreshing take on a Young Adult dystopian novel.