Ashfall (Ashfall #1)
Mike Mullin
Published October 11, 2011
Review by Michelle
Under the bubbling hot springs and geysers of Yellowstone National Park is a supervolcano. Most people don’t know it’s there. The caldera is so large that it can only be seen from a plane or satellite. It just could be overdue for an eruption, which would change the landscape and climate of our planet.
Ashfall is the story of Alex, a teenage boy left alone for the weekend while his parents visit relatives. When the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts unexpectedly, Alex is determined to reach his parents. He must travel over a hundred miles in a landscape transformed by a foot of ash and the destruction of every modern convenience that he has ever known, and through a new world in which disaster has brought out both the best and worst in people desperate for food, water, and warmth. With a combination of nonstop action, a little romance, and very real science, this is a story that is difficult to stop reading and even more difficult to forget. –Goodreads
I love survival stories. Movies, books, tv shows – anything that has a survivor feel to it I will read or watch. Armageddon, Twister, Jurassic Park, Terra Nova, Survivor, The Last Survivors series – love ’em. And they all have some element of survival to them. In Ashfall, Mike Mullin’s makes it all about survival.
In Ashfall, a super volcano erupts and puts the world into a tailspin. Grey ash everywhere, sucking air quality, no food – only the strong survive. Our protagonist is Alex, a sixteen year old, who decided to stay home by himself for the weekend. He’s home all of 3 hours and – BAM! – volcano erupts. When Alex realizes it’s not stopping anytime soon he leaves to go find his parents and sister. What comes next is the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. There is so much going on in Ashfall and it makes for one action packed read.
Our main character, Alex, is your typical nerdy teenage boy – fights with his mom and sister and would rather do anything besides go to his uncle’s goat farm. Throughout the story, the reader sees Alex grow more mature and realize that maybe his family wasn’t as pesky as he once thought. When Alex finds Darla, he has met his match. Darla is far from your typical girl. She is hard working – she knows how to fix stuff and to get stuff done. No sissy girls in this book. I love to see a strong female lead in books. And the relationship Mullins creates between Alex and Darla is refreshing. No insta-love. Their relationship starts out slow and bumping and revolves into a genuinely believable relationship.
There are some things about Ashfall that might throw the reader off. At times, the book can be violent but for it to be believable it almost has to you. It kinda reminds you of The Road in a way. Very heartbreaking and dark and beautiful. Definitely one you don’t want to miss – especially if you love world destruction/survival stories.