AnnaBnana's Reviews > Ashfall

Ashfall is the story of Alex, a 16-year-old Iowan who is home alone for the weekend when the supervolcano at Yellowstone erupts, leaving the world under a sheet of ash.

Alex sets off on a journey across Iowa with the goal of finding his parents and sister at his uncle's Illinois farm. As the weather gets more and more extreme, Alex is struggling for survival. He finds that the world is full of desperate people willing to do most anything to save themselves. There are a few though, willing to help others, and Alex himself struggles to remain a member of that camp.

Like Life As We Knew It, this is one of those books that stays with you because the plotline is based on an environmental event that could (although probaby won't) actually happen. I found the characters here to be well drawn and the situations to be realistic. I was glad Mullin didn't shy away from forcing Alex and Darla to deal with troubling circumstances and to do things that they never thought they were capable of doing to survive. I'm eager to read the next installment!