Ilsa J. Bick
Exp. Pub.: Sept. 10, 2013
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.
When Ashes first came out, I was a little slow to pay attention. Once I read it, I beat myself across the head because I LOVED it! Nobody knew what was happening, other than people within a certain age range (kids) were turning into Chuckies (aggressive little zombies), the older adults were all of a sudden just dead, and the elderly were spared, but they became easy prey for the hungry Chuckies. For some reason, a handful of kids didn't turn - which included three that met within a national park - Alex, Tom and Ellie. All three had lost everything, but together they formed a new family and found a reason to fight for their lives. Unfortunately, by the end of Ashes, tragedy ripped them apart.
So of course I was down with snatching up a copy of Shadows! But sadly, though I still loved to read what was happening to the three I'd fallen in love with, suddenly everyone and their grandmother got a point of view. It was incredibly overwhelming, because in Ashes, only Alex got a POV. Though I had no love for these new characters, I pushed through, watching the struggles all three had to endure, constantly following every little clue to put their poor, damaged family back together again. And if they didn't have that to fight for, they all would've give up.
Shadows left a sour taste in my mouth, but I decided to give Monsters a try because they were having too many narrow misses and surely just once, they'd all end up in the same place at the same time. But this novel was a long one. I'm not gonna lie, it gave me headaches at times because I just didn't understand until late in the novel what was going on. The kids that were spared were mostly likely so because...I wanna call it an abnormal brain. Something going on in each of their heads, whether it was cancer or chemical or electrical, wasn't normal, and they therefore weren't changing. Monsters was about all the different crap going on inside their heads, and it left me utterly confused for the longest time, and I think that's why this novel gave me such a headache. Also, it had been a year since I read book two, and it took a long time for me to remember who all the characters were beyond the initial three. I'm still not in love with any of the new characters, though Chris and Peter got a lot of face time, and at best I learned to tolerate them.
Shadows left a sour taste in my mouth, but I decided to give Monsters a try because they were having too many narrow misses and surely just once, they'd all end up in the same place at the same time. But this novel was a long one. I'm not gonna lie, it gave me headaches at times because I just didn't understand until late in the novel what was going on. The kids that were spared were mostly likely so because...I wanna call it an abnormal brain. Something going on in each of their heads, whether it was cancer or chemical or electrical, wasn't normal, and they therefore weren't changing. Monsters was about all the different crap going on inside their heads, and it left me utterly confused for the longest time, and I think that's why this novel gave me such a headache. Also, it had been a year since I read book two, and it took a long time for me to remember who all the characters were beyond the initial three. I'm still not in love with any of the new characters, though Chris and Peter got a lot of face time, and at best I learned to tolerate them.
The only reason I'm rounding up my rating for Monsters to three dreamcatchers is because of the last ten percent. I'd been waiting so long for these three to find a way back together, and see how this whole thing was going to go down with the guy that was able to control the deadly Chuckies and make an army for himself. I'm honestly not sure whether or not to recommend this. If you've read the first two, you may seek closure like I did and want to give it a go. Though I should tell you, the reason for how this all went down was never given to us. In fact, I found this quote ironic: "You ever wonder who did it?" "Did what? The EMPs?" He shook his head. "If this was a book or movie, there'd be some guy who'd explain it, give you all the answers." Laughable. Because we most certainly not given a reason, or even the hint of one. And the ending left us with a whole new question that sorta annoyed me. I'd rather it not even be there. So it's up to you if wanna read this. Am I satisfied about the ending for the three characters I loved? Enough. Will I continue reading Ilsa J. Bick's work? Absolutely, because she proven to be quite the creative story teller.
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