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Ashen Winter

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
It's been over six months since the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Alex and Darla have been staying with Alex's relatives, trying to cope with the new reality of the primitive world so vividly portrayed in Ashfall, the first book in this series. It's also been six months of waiting for Alex's parents to return from Iowa. Alex and Darla decide they can wait no longer and must retrace their journey into Iowa to find and bring back Alex's parents to the tenuous safety of Illinois. But the landscape they cross is even more perilous than before, with life-and-death battles for food and power between the remaining communities. When the unthinkable happens, Alex must find new reserves of strength and determination to survive.
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    • Kirkus

      September 15, 2012
      Almost a year after the Yellowstone eruption in Ashfall (2011), Alex and Darla are drawn back to dangerous Illinois, which has only grown worse. Life on Alex's uncle's farm has settled into a routine, and while the eruption has triggered an extended subzero winter, Alex and Darla's heated relationship keeps them warm. When a small flenser gang--cannibals--attack the farm, they drop the shotgun that Alex's uncle gave Alex's parents before they ventured into Illinois looking for their son. This discovery prompts Alex--accompanied by the more competent Darla--to head out in search of his parents. After a false start and a disastrous run-in with their old enemies, FEMA military contractors Black Lake, the story picks up with an even more catastrophic run-in with well-organized cannibals. The encounter leaves Alex trying to survive without Darla's help, struggling against flensers who trade in humans--both as food (in explicit detail) and for sex (tastefully inexplicit). Alyssa, a former slave of the cannibals, and her high-functioning autistic brother, military expert Ben, join Alex's rescue mission. The human-driven gore is much more horrifying than in Ashfall, though the realism isn't as strong in the frequent action sequences. Alex's nuanced feelings toward Darla serve to ground the book nicely, though. The cliffhanger ending leaves readers craving the next installment--and dreading what it may bring. A violent, desperate adventure in a chaotic, post-disaster world. (author's note) (Adventure. 14 & up)

      COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • School Library Journal

      October 1, 2012

      Gr 9 Up-Following the cataclysmic volcanic eruption in Yellowstone Park and the resulting volcanic winter, nationwide drops in temperature, and devastating snowfalls led to mass starvation and widespread lawlessness in Ashfall (Tanglewood, 2011). Separated from his family, Alex and Darla, a resourceful girl he met on the road, made their way to his uncle's farm. In this book, Alex gets word that his parents may still be alive and the teens head out into a very dangerous world to try to find them. Mullin's heroes are forced into horrendous situations where they deal with cannibals, slavers, corrupt government officials, and other nasty characters. Stomach-turning descriptions of brutality and strong language may offend some readers, but teens who enjoyed Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games (Scholastic, 2008) and Michael Grant's Gone (HarperTeen, 2008) will find Mullin's story equally engaging.-Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK

      Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      August 1, 2012
      Grades 8-12 As fast, furious, action-packed, and, yes, gruesome as Ashfall (2011), this sprawling sequel follows the continuation of 16-year-old Alex's journey with tough, gorgeous Darla through the ash and snow of a post-volcanic, dystopian midwestern world to find his parents, who are also searching for him. As he travels along the frozen Mississippi, he is reunited with Mom and Dad, but he loses Darla in a violent attack, and he sets out to rescue her from what might be forced prostitution. With the dangerous quests and violence (including torture), what will stay with readers is how the characters save each other from the worst.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

    • The Horn Book

      January 1, 2013
      When Alex and Darla learn that Alex's parents may still be alive, they set off across the frozen post-Yellowstone-eruption middle-American landscape--with cannibal gangs newly in power--to find them. This chilling, action-packed dystopian follow-up to [cf2]Ashfall[cf1] features an epic love story and tough, complex characters struggling to retain their humanity in the face of a brutal new world.

      (Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

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Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:4.7
  • Lexile® Measure:730
  • Interest Level:9-12(UG)
  • Text Difficulty:3

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