Review (sort of): White Space (Dark Passages #1) by Ilsa J. Bick

First, thanks to Edelweiss and Egmont USA Publishing for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  Second, the reason I am calling this "sort of" a review is because I haven't actually finished the book yet.  I've only made it a little over halfway through the 560 pages.  The problem is I was having so much trouble reading the format of the e-galley that I decided to just review how I liked the book so far, and wait to finish it with an actual copy of the book when I could really get into it.  The print in the e-galley was so small, and the only way to make it bigger was to use my hand and kind of swipe it bigger.  But then when I went to turn the page, it went back to the small size again, and I would have to re-enlarge it.  And, if I didn't make it smaller before I turned the page, then it took a long time to go to the next page as well as being smaller.  So I kept being interrupted every time I tried to go on to the next page, and there were some really intense moments that I didn't want to be interrupted as I needed to know what was happening next, and quickly!

I would compare this story to what I imagine H.P. Lovecraft stories are like.  I've not read any, I don't think, but it seems like the monsters remind me of the images you see of "Lovecraftian" monsters.  And it definitely reminds me of a Stephen King novel, one of his really dark ones, like It, one of my favorites.  I do really prefer to kind of know sometimes ahead of times what is going on, and in a way, you're kind of finding your way along the story with the characters, but it is done in a really good way.  It is a totally different kind of story than the author's first series, The Ashes Trilogy, but I loved that, and so far I'm pretty intrigued by this story as well.

The characters are all flawed it seems, they have something to hide, something about them that could change the way the people they are meeting would feel about being around them.  And while we kind of know with some of them, you slowly learn more as the story goes on. There are two characters, soldiers, that I kind of figured out a little of their back story before it really began to unfold, but I'm not saying that in a bad way, I was just thinking it was what it was going to be, and then it was!

I definitely recommend this book, but as it is over 500 pages, same as the first trilogy, you have to be ready to pick it up and just get sucked in, and just go with it.  I can't wait till it comes out, probably enough that I will have to go ahead and buy it right away so that I can finish reading it.  But we'll see how broke I am this week.

Monsters (Ashes Trilogy #3) by Ilsa J. Bick

This is the 2nd book I've read for my 2nd Annual September is for Sequels Reading Challenge.  Unfortunately it took me a bit longer to read than I was hoping, but to be fair, it was a pretty long book, around 800 pages.  I've been a big fan of this series since I read the first one as an e-galley, and you can see my review of Ashes HERE.  Then I got a copy of the 2nd in the series, Shadows, when I attended BEA 2012.  As with the 2nd book, it had been such a long time between it and the 3rd one, that at first I was a bit confused, and trying to remember who a lot of the people were, and what exactly had happened at the end of the last one.  Once again, as with the first book, I have to thank Egmont USA for allowing me to read an e-galley.  And while I first got approved to read it through Edelweiss, I ended up finding it on Netgalley and being able to download it straight to my Kindle App to read it much easier than with the other file I'd downloaded.
What I do remember about the ending of the 2nd was the big explosion, and the character Wolf/Simon, that had been with Alex, and I remembered all the main characters, Tom, Ellie, Alex, Chris.  But many of the other names were not as easy for me to remember, and so that took me a little longer to get into the book.  And when I got the end, well, there was a character guide, something that would really have been nice to have at the beginning of the book, and when the book is available to buy at stores this coming week, hopefully they'll have figured that out and moved it.  If not, and you will be buying the book, go ahead and flip to the end and read through the character guide if you feel a refresher would be helpful.  But once again, as soon as I kind of figured out who the people were, and definitely when I was reading any of the parts about the main characters, I was really sucked back in, wanting to know what was going to happen next.  That's the thing with these books, and this author.  She has created such a wonderful world, giving so many details and using so much beautiful figurative language, that it is worth reading every word, as long as it takes to get through all 800 or so pages.  While there were times as I read that I wondered if the story would be able to be finished, or at least summed up for the end of a trilogy, it did so, and not in a way that seemed rushed.  Everything was set out in a perfect order, with all the pieces of the puzzle, each character's part in the story finishing up exactly where it needed to, to give us that final setting.  We lost some good characters (is it okay if I also include some pets, dogs are such an important part of my life, I'd consider them the characters in my story).  And the bad guys, well for the most part, they pretty much got what they deserved in some way.  Learning what had actually been some of the goals and reasoning behind the things going on with the Changed in Rule made some things make more sense.  And I really enjoyed some more of the science/brain research information that was used or discussed in this final installment.  Unlike one of my normal reviews, I'm choosing not to really talk about the story itself.  As I've mentioned already, the story is so complex and detailed, I'm unsure what I can really talk about without giving things away, or that if you are like I was when I started, might not make a lot of sense until you get yourself refamiliarized with the characters and story.  A really fitting end to the story.  One that I was happy and satisfied with.  Not that there weren't some things I'd like to have known more about, but I'm okay with the bit of explanations we got, they weren't necessarily scenes we'd have needed all the details of.
It comes out this Tuesday.  If you haven't started the series yet, then you are in luck.  You'll be able to read them all in order without having to wait in between, and will not have any of the issues I've mentioned.  But on that note, one other thing.  There was a word that seemed to be used many times, a word that just didn't seem like the right word.  Often it was said someone "squirted" past something.  I've never really heard that word used that way.  And if it had been once, it wouldn't probably have stuck out in my head so much.  But the word was used at least 5 times in the book in the same way.  So, yeah, not a big issue with the story, just something I found quite curious.

Waiting on Wednesday: Monsters (Ashes Trilogy #3) by Ilsa J. Bick

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  My choice this week is the final book in a trilogy that I have really enjoyed so far.  The first book in the series, Ashes, I got as an e-galley from Netgalley.  The second book in the series, Shadows, was one of the ARCs I got at BEA last summer.  So this will be the first time I've had to wait for the actual book release in this series.  Now, I'm still keeping my eyes on Netgalley and Edelweiss to see if maybe it will show up, but even if it doesn't, I'll be very excited to see how the trilogy ends.  Here is the summary of this final book from Goodreads:

The Changed are on the move. The Spared are out of time. The End...is now.

When her parents died, Alex thought things couldn't get much worse-until the doctors found the monster in her head.

She headed into the wilderness as a good-bye, to leave everything behind. But then the end of the world happened, and Alex took the first step down a treacherous road of betrayal and terror and death.

Now, with no hope of rescue-on the brink of starvation in a winter that just won't quit-she discovers a new and horrifying truth.

The Change isn't over.The Changed are still evolving.And...they've had help.

With this final volume of The Ashes Trilogy, Ilsa J. Bick delivers a riveting, blockbuster finish, returning readers to a brutal, post-apocalyptic world where no one is safe and hope is in short supply.

A world where, from these ashes, the monsters may rise.

Doesn't it sound like a really good ending!  I can't wait.  It comes out in September I guess, so not much time for me to find any ARCs or e-galleys.  I wonder if it was passed out at BEA?  I did find out just recently from a publisher contact that another third book in a trilogy that I have all ARCs of won't be released as an ARC.  So I won't have a matching set.  Oh well.

What are you waiting on this week?

Shadows (Ashes Trilogy #2) by Ilsa J. Bick

This is one of the awesome ARCs I got at BEA this summer, and I was so excited to get it!  It turned out to be my first book on my September is for Sequels Challenge because the one I had decided to start I was having trouble really getting into.  If I put a book down, and it isn't hard to do, and then I'm not thinking about when I can pick it back up and start again, then I know it's not time to read it.  I hope to go back to the other one soon, as it was a series I did really enjoy.  But anyway, on with my review of this book!
I have to admit that it has been awhile since I read the first book, Ashes, since I got to read it as an e-galley from Netgalley before the book was actually published.  But I remembered really liking it.  Unfortunately, I was a little unclear on where it had ended, the whole ending in fact was a little fuzzy in my mind.  So as I was reading this sequel I had to read every detail as it filled in my memory, without a whole "recap" sequence at the beginning.  And while I'm still going to go back and look through the end of the first one again, I eventually was able to remember pretty much what had happened, enough that I could get back into the story and just be grabbed.  This was a huge roller coaster of a story!  We followed Alex, the girl from the first book that I remember the most about.  And we also get to see what happened to Tom, who had been with Alex up until the gas station part in the last book, and that was all I remember for sure about Tom.  And then we had Chris, who I thought I remembered something about, but now I realize I was confusing that with another book I read, I think.  Like I said, I need to go back and read the end of the first one again.  But in this book we are seeing where they all ended up after the big conclusions of the first book.  Both Tom and Chris are kind of wanting to find Alex, especially Tom.  But Alex gets captured by some of the Changed, or Chuckies as they are sometimes called by people in the book.  And for some reason, they are keeping her alive.  One of the Chuckies looks really familiar to her, like Chris actually, could be his brother/twin.  And he seems to be the reason she is being kept alive.  But Alex can still sense or smell things with a heightened sense.  And she also begins to see the things that some of the Changed are imagining.  Which includes Wolf, Chris's twin, being sexually attracted to her.  And it's not just his thoughts about her.  All the Changed seem to be going through what might be called a mating season, they all seem to be about lust and getting busy with each other.
Tom has been living with this nice older couple who are helping him get better, as well as hiding him.  You see young people who haven't changed are highly sought by many different groups.  Militias for fighting or some for experimenting to see why they haven't changed like the others below a certain age.  But of course, he has been found, and so must leave, which he had planned anyway so that he could go search for Alex.  On his travels he stops in to what seems to be a friendly farm couple, only to find they've got one of the Changed locked up in their barn. And it is at this point they decide to keep him, and turn him in to the same people that they are keeping the Changed for.  He is saved once again by an older couple, although they have been looking for him.  Alex had told everyone about Tom's military past and explosive expertise, and this couple is looking for him to help with their fight against Rule, the town where Chris came from.
Chris has finally found out what has been going on in Rule, yet his grandfather is using him as a scapegoat.  And he must escape from Rule.  And so he goes out to try to find what he can do to solve this issue.  His way is not easy either.  He is with Lena and also Nathan, who has been trying to help them escape when they get sent to the prison.  Lena is feeling sick, actually thinks she might be pregnant from an encounter with Peter, who was lost in the big fiasco at the end of the first book.  Or so we thought lost, he also gets part of the story in the book, when he is captured by one of the militia and basically being experimented on.
Like I said, a roller coaster ride, full of nonstop action.  The end, another cliffhanger, but man, now how will I wait till the next book?!  Great sequel, if you haven't read the series yet, you really need to try it out!  I mean, if I hadn't been in school and had to work at my part time job last night, I'd have finished this over 500 page book in 2 days probably!