Hooked on Books

Ashfall is a story about surviving in the aftermath of a supervolcano eruption. It follows a teenager named Alex and his harrowing journey across states to find his parents and sister. My first thoughts when I started reading it was that the writing style had a simplistic feel to it, but after the first chapter or two, I think the author, Mike Mullin, found his groove because the writing was flawless from there on out.

One of the things that made this a 5-star book for me, was that Mullin included a surprising level of detail about the characters survival situations and tactics that I haven't found in most dystopian/post-apocalyptic books. He doesn't just touch on the basic necessities like finding shelter and food and dealing with the desperate and crazies in the world. He goes all into field dressing animals, harvesting corn pone, constructing greenhouses and smokehouses out of whatever materials they can salvage and building gristmills out of bicycles, gravestones and spare car parts because they're faster than mortars and pestles. Things like that - which I probably would've never thought of in a million years. The whole story just had its own unique and imaginative flair to it, and believe me, after reading so many dystopian/post-apocalyptic books, you really appreciate those rare gems you come across.