Find this review at Scott Reads It Ashes was a book that I had a pretty high expectations for. I didn't really know anything about the book before I picked it up except it had good reviews. Ashes was a huge letdown, and I was very disappointed what I got. Ashes is a zombie dystopian book. It's sounds to good to be true! Zombies and dystopia are two of my favorite genres and this book had both. Ashes started off decent but the rest of the book couldn't redeem itself. This is the story of Alex who is hiking through the woods trying to escape her life and her tumor. An Electromagnetic pulse wipes out technology, kills people, and turns other people into zombies. Sounds promising? She thens meets Tom, a former soldier, and Ellie, a little troubled girl. One of my main complaints about the book was the pacing. The pacing was ridiculously slow and really ruined the book for me. There were alot of scenes in the book that I felt were unnecessary and frivolous. Early on I realized that I didn't really like any of the characters. The only character who I did like a tiny bit was only in part of the book. The rest of the characters were very generic and just nothing special. Ashes was a pretty generic zombie in my opinion. It did nothing to set it self apart from other books. People become zombies, and others try to survive. The dystopian element was very basic and was similar to many other societies. The idea of the EMPs (Electromagnetic pulses)was very cool along with the beginning of the book. Also the last couple of pages were very good compared to the rest of the book. Ashes ended on a pretty good cliffhanger that actually made me want to read the 2nd book. I will read Shadows but I am not expecting anything and who knows I might like it! If you are looking for a good zombie read go read The Forest of Hands and Teeth. I really expected to love Ashes like I loved TFoHaT but my judgement was off. If I hadn't read so many good zombie books maybe I would have liked it more. 1.5/5 Stars