Shadows

Shadows
Book Two in the Ashes Trilogy
by Ilsa J. Bick
Grand Haven, MI: Brilliance Audio
2012
Read by Katherine Kellgren
11 sound discs, 13.25 hours


Well, I finally made it through Book Two of this series. It was difficult, but I had to find out what happened to our main characters, who are:

• Alex, the girl whose parents died and was dying herself from a brain tumor--until the electromagnetic pulse wiped out most of mankind and changed the survivors into zombies;
• Tom, the soldier who survived Afghanistan only to find he might not survive the zombie apocalypse;
• and Ellie, the young girl who was taken by adults but then left in the wilderness and now is in danger of being eaten.

Shadows answers some of our questions, but since this is a trilogy, you know it won't answer all of them.

The book begins with a look at Tom. Remember, Tom had been seriously injured and Alex had left him at a convenience store to find help in the small village of Rule, which was rumored to be safe. Alex made it to Rule, but when she finally convinced a rescue party to came back, Tom was gone. It turns out Tom was rescued by a kind couple, Jim and Grace, along with their dog, Raleigh. They took him to their cabin in Wisconsin where he was allowed to heal and rest, although in extreme seclusion from all prying eyes. Even this early, Jim and Grace know how dangerous it would be for them and Tom if the neighbors and bounty hunters found out that they were harboring a young man who had not Changed.

At the end of Book One, Alex planned her getaway from Rule so that she can look for Tom and gets help from Jess, an older woman who took her in when she first arrived. There is more to that situation, too, as you will find out. But Alex quickly discovers that her getaway has put her right into a trap and she is captured by a band of Changed, or "Chuckies" as they are sometimes called now.

What is a Chucky, you might ask? For those of you who haven't seen the movies, Chucky is a doll character from a series of horror films, the Child's Play series. The soul of a notorious serial killer inhabits a doll and then continuously tries to transfer into a human body. The doll acts like the serial killer, using the guise of the innocent looking doll to wreak havoc and viciously mutilate people.

Bad Chucky, Good Chucky

Our Changed teens have gone from being normal, thinking humans to vicious, inhuman monsters, kidnapping people and saving them for dinner. And now Alex is captured by them! And surprise, Rule has been assisting these Changed by "feeding" them the banished citizens in order to keep their settlement protected. We are left wondering what is really going on here? Who are the bad guys and how did this all develop so quickly? Can we trust no one any more?

Most of this story is about Alex's time with the group of Changed and her reactions to what terrible things she witnesses. She is quite helpless to get away, and all she can do is hope that she won't be selected next. I feel like bad luck follows Alex around and that every time she could get help or get away, we are trapped right back in the horror.

Meanwhile, Tom has healed, but he is nearly captured by a snoopy neighbor. He manages to get away with the dog, Raleigh, but then trusts the wrong person, too. He is then rescued again from nearly being recaptured by bounty hunters, but finds himself taken by a rebel group who want to blow up the old mine near Rule where the Changed are bringing victims. Tom is perfect for this job, since he worked with bombs and explosives in Afghanistan, so there is no chance for him to escape and continue his search for Alex. To make matters worse, the leader of the rebel group may be a double agent who lies to Tom about Alex being locked up in Rule, when really he knows she has been taken by the Changed.

At the end of Book Two, Tom finds Alex just as the bomb is about to go off and he cannot rescue her. Peter, one of the two young men from Rule, is imprisoned by a crazy militant who has given him the choice of eating human flesh or dying. Chris, the other young man, has been banished and has now fallen victim of a trap made by the Changed to capture more dinner.

Now all along I have wondered what happened to the little girl, Ellie. She had been mentioned during Alex's stay in Rule as she "smells" the bad guy who took Ellie. When confronted, the man confessed to leaving Ellie alone in the wilderness. He was then banished from Rule. But has Ellie died? We get a hint of her later in this story, as Chris, Alex's ally in Rule, lies buried in the snow as a result of the trap. A little voice is heard calling "Mina!" which is the name of Ellie's dog. Can she really have survived and if so, how? And how will Chris get out of the trap?

This story contains intense descriptions, using lots of metaphors and similes, of how the Changed zombies eat. Too much slurp, crunch, smack, munch, etc., along with vividly expressed comparisons of what the zombie feasting tastes, smells, sounds, and feels like for me. It becomes very hard to take after awhile. I get already that the Zombie Apocalypse would NOT be pleasant! I found myself wishing that the action would move faster, beyond the all-too-horrible descriptions.

I still want answers to my questions about how any of these can end at all well for Alex, Tom, and Ellie. There are too few normal people left from the zap that ended normal life, but we can only hope that once we get out of this small part of Michigan, we can find real help. And who are the real monsters here? I am beginning to think that the pulse changed everyone's brains in some way, even if they didn't turn into zombies. The older people may look normal and trustworthy, but they soon exhibit dangerous, ruthless behavior, too, that is probably scarier to me than that of the Changed.

I am not looking forward to more zombie feast descriptions, but I suppose I will try to read the third book, just to get some resolution if nothing else.