The cliffhanger ending leaves readers craving the next installment-and dreading what it may bring.Ī violent, desperate adventure in a chaotic, post-disaster world.Īfter surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.

Alex's nuanced feelings toward Darla serve to ground the book nicely, though. The human-driven gore is much more horrifying than in Ashfall, though the realism isn't as strong in the frequent action sequences. Alyssa, a former slave of the cannibals, and her high-functioning autistic brother, military expert Ben, join Alex's rescue mission. The encounter leaves Alex trying to survive without Darla's help, struggling against flensers who trade in humans-both as food (in explicit detail) and for sex (tastefully inexplicit). After a false start and a disastrous run-in with their old enemies, FEMA military contractors Black Lake, the story picks up with an even more catastrophic run-in with well-organized cannibals. This discovery prompts Alex-accompanied by the more competent Darla-to head out in search of his parents. When a small flenser gang-cannibals-attack the farm, they drop the shotgun that Alex's uncle gave Alex's parents before they ventured into Illinois looking for their son.

Life on Alex's uncle's farm has settled into a routine, and while the eruption has triggered an extended subzero winter, Alex and Darla's heated relationship keeps them warm. Almost a year after the Yellowstone eruption in Ashfall (2011), Alex and Darla are drawn back to dangerous Illinois, which has only grown worse.

Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin