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Jasprit

Jasprit

Ashfall - Mike Mullin Lately I’ve been feeling like an oddball, I go into a book that the majority of my Goodreads friends have thoroughly enjoyed, thinking that I will feel the same way, unfortunately this hasn’t been the case. After finishing a book I find myself at times confused, thinking what was that all about? And was it the book or was it something I completely overlooked which had others loving it more than I ever did?Ashfall was one of those books. Ashfall tells the story of an unexpected super volcano erupting in Cedar Falls and everything being brought to a complete standstill because of the amount of thick volcanic ash everywhere. I’m not really a person who reads survival type books, but with Ashfall everything just kicked off so quickly I was instantly hooked within the first few pages. No one had a clue about what was happening; even I was like what is going on? There was endless chaos and disruption; no means of communication with the emergency services as the phone lines were down, lack of food, people’s houses and livelihood destroyed, no power so no one knew what was going on through the news reports. There was a sense of foreboding, was it safe to go out or should they just stay indoors? And what was the loud thunderous noise. With so much happening in Ashfall so early on I was intrigued, but this feeling was short lasting. As I found Ashfall to be an extremely difficult read, yes I wanted to know what was going on, would Alex and Darla survive and would he ever find his family alive? But I found it really difficult to stay focused on the book, I found my attention drifting continuously and I was easily side tracked by other books and it took me ages to finish this book. I felt at times I would be waiting ages for something to happen, Alex would be just skiing from one place to another. I know stories can’t have something major happening all the time and the slow and quiet aspects are an important part of the story building and for you to get to know the characters more. I felt that when dramatic scenes did happen they were amazing, but then soon after it would go back to nothingness. Dealing with these two extremes was hugely difficult for me and I think one of the main reasons for giving this book 3 stars. Ashfall wasn’t all bad though, as I said before there were some awesome dramatic scenes which I really did enjoy, there were also some which were heartbreaking at times; everyone having a huge struggle to survive, having the fear of the unknown; not knowing what’s around the corner. little kids like poor Katie dying through no fault of their own, people acting like savages, the treatment of Darla’s mum, the people at camp Galena and poor little Jack the rabbitPersonally I think it’s just me, if you look at the other reviews, the majority of reviewers have rated Ashfall either 4 or 5 stars. Because of the way my reading mood has been lately maybe I should have waited a while longer before picking Ashfall up, maybe I would have enjoyed it more? Who knows? If you haven’t read Ashfall definitely give it a shot despite my review as it does seem to be most people’s cup of tea, sadly just not mine.Thank you NetGalley and Tanglewood for giving me this opportunity to read this book.