Do you ever have those books that start out really great and by the time you’re a hundred pages in you find yourself dreading the final 300 pages?  This happened to me as I was reading Ashfall.

Book Bio:

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.

My opinion:  This book started off with a bang.  It got my heart pumping, interest piqued and I was really rooting for Alex.  And then…it all fell apart.  This book was 50 pages of excitement, 300+ pages of the same old boring stuff.  Ash, snow, lack of food, lack of water, brutality, death, etc.

I get that these ideas had to be introduced into the book.  It was, afterall, a post apocalyptic novel.  But come on!  300 pages and it had a terrible ending?  Who wants to read the sequel when I could barely manage to finish the first?

In truth, I skipped about a hundred pages to get to the end after reading some reviews on Goodreads.  Apparently the same ole stuff was just carrying right on through and I couldn’t be bothered to read it.

Overall…I’d give this book a 2 out of 5 stars.  I was BORED to tears, which is sad cause I was stuck in a hospital for two days and was begging for something to entertain me late at night.  Ashfall certainly didn’t cut it!