Thursday, January 18, 2018

Ashes by Laurie Halse Anderson (Review)

 

Date Finished: January 17, 2018
Page Count: 274
Genre: Historical Fiction 
            I never thought this day would come, but I’ve finally finished reading Laurie Halse Anderson’s Seed of America trilogy! This trilogy was absolutely stunning and I loved how Anderson kept surprising me with the plot and characters. They’re changed so much since Chains that I can hardly believe they’re the same characters, but at the same time they’re been written so well I can’t help but still love the cast. Anderson was even able to write in some new characters which increased the fun big time. I ‘m happy to say that I’m fully satisfied with the way this series concluded and I can now write the long overdue review for Ashes that I know my non-existent readers have been anticipating.
            So as I mentioned in my last blog post, which was about the whole time skip thing, Ashes takes place five years after the first book, and that Ruth was found by Isabel and Curzon as an almost grown twelve-year-old. I also mentioned that there might be a picture to accompany the book review but I don’t know what I was talking about back then so yeah, no picture (sorry). Any who, the plot only got more intense and engaging after that and I loved how Anderson was able to continuously change the situation yet still make everything flow and connect. Isabel, Curzon, Ruth and newcomers Aberdeen and Nancy Chicken (who is in fact, a chicken) try to escape to the west and eventually get back to Rhode Island where Isabel wants to make a life there and be free. Ruth however, hates Isabel and cares more for her friend Aberdeen who was there for Ruth after she got taken away from Isabel. To make matters worse, Curzon becomes more and more detached form Isabel causing her situation to go from bad to worse. Things almost came to an end when Ruth sprained (or maybe she twisted) her ankle and it had to be disinfected before the gang could continue their journey. It was around this part that I did my first review so no reason to go over this stuff twice.
            Once Ruth healed I wondered how Anderson would progress the story as Isabel couldn’t seem to have any decent relationships with her travel mates due to them all keeping their distance, and the gang didn’t seem to have any goals other than evade the whites. That was, until Anderson had them stumble upon the town of Williamsburg. It was there that everyone split up to find work, and Isabel was stuck with Ruth where she attempted to try to rebuild their sisterly bond. I loved this transition as it gave time for relationships to fall apart (so the story could progress), and for Isabel to gain a new purpose. It was also the start of a greater focus on the relationship between Ruth and Isabel after being away for so many years, and a showcase of Ruth’s abilities that let the readers know she wasn’t completely helpless, which I kinda though she was since in the first book we didn’t get much character development with her (it was about as much character development that any five-year-old gets).
            I expected the story to somehow remain in Williamsburg, but things took a shocking turn when Isabel realized that the people she and Ruth worked for were planning on enslaving them. This was a nice throwback to Chains in my opinion, and it showed that Isabel learned from the past as the two were able to escape to safety and start heading for Yorktown to try to find Aberdeen and fight for the Redcoats to gain freedom. That’s right, Aberdeen was started working for the Redcoats and became a spy.
            I was not expecting Aberdeen’s character to go that route despite him showing an interest in the British’s cause earlier in the book, and the fact that he would argue with Curzon about which side promised freedom. It just never occurred to me he’d go full force and become a spy. This was one of the surprises I like and disliked the most as it made story more exciting, but at the same time I knew that this meant that Isabel, Ruth, Curzon and Aberdeen would never be together again most likely. It was so very tragic indeed.
            Where was I again? Oh yeah, so they escape hoping to join with the British when suddenly Anderson throws in something historically accurate that helps progress the plot by changing the girl’s minds. I don’t know if you know this but thousands (or maybe it was just hundreds) of slaves fled to join the British in hopes of becoming free men, but the British couldn’t handle them all, so when they got sick with small pox the British released them towards the direction of the Patriots in hopes of getting them sick. I for one, find that incredibly disgusting and inhumane of the British but the past is the past and I’m not going to get super salty about it just gotta learn from history to keep it from repeating itself. This event shocks the girls terribly and it cause Isabel to reconsider joining the British and her neutral stance in the war. I love the scene that happened in this part after the two encountered the deserting youth who informed them of this news when Isabel and Ruth got into a fight over Aberdeen. Seeing how found Ruth was of him was sweet but at the same time it tore my heart up little by little thinking that she’d never see him again. The fight itself was mostly verbal like the average sibling argument is but then things got intense when Ruth slapped Isabel and then Isabel slapped her back.
            This was some heavy sibling grudges and angst ya’ll but I just loved it because it reminded me of me and my sisters a lot. Well, mostly me and my little sister and my little sister and my older sister (I only have two sisters by the way), but it was still nice to see that not every sibling gets along with each other even if the two are fictional siblings. This was also just the push Isabel needed to get talking to Ruth about what happened five years ago, and Ruth’s explanation for avoiding Isabel was so adorable and unexpected *inhales deeply*: she was afraid Isabel was going to send her away again. Awwwwwwww. Ugh, typing it isn’t the same as saying it out loud, but I digress! The only person probably more surprised than I was would be Isabel who reassured Ruth that she didn’t want to get rid of her and loved her the way she was which was the most adorable thing in the whole novel. It was also maybe my favorite part in the novel and I just love the sibling fight and make up there (if only things were like that with my sisters *stares longingly at the wall.*)
            So after that wonderful sibling bonding, Isabel and Ruth head to the Patriot’s camp where they search for Eben (from Forge but older and a sergeant or whatever) in hopes of getting work. Anderson was somehow able to surprise me again here by having Eben (it was nice seeing him again by the way) take to two to the company of none other than Curzon himself. That wasn’t the surprise actually, it was the fact the Curzon has written Isabel down as his wife when he enlisted, so all his company members though that Isabel was his wife. My gosh Curzon, can you not be any subtler about your true feelings for Isabel? I don’t know how to describe my feeling at that moment but it’s that strange sort of embarrassment I get from reading/watching something that I enjoy which causes my heart to speed up and my insides to smile. It’s kinda hard not to smile on the outside as well so I’m pretty sure I had a goofy grin on every time the topic was brought up in the book except when Curzon when on his supposed suicide mission and at the very end where they got married (actually, I may have still ben smiling at that part). To make matters all the more that strange feeling-ey, Curzon and Isabel’s unsure dialog was hilariously cringe worthy and I loved every second of it. The best part was that there were tons of moments like that since Isabel and Ruth were going to work for the company for the rest of the book.
            But yeah, Isabel had patched up her relationship with Ruth but Curzon was still an enigma, and to make things even more complicated Aberdeen showed up again spying on the Patriots to try to convince Ruth to run away with him. I love how Ruth didn’t chose to run away with him as it meant she got to be alive at the end of the novel (where Aberdeen is MIA), and her reason was that she didn’t want to leave Isabel behind. Horary for sibling bonds! Aberdeen reappearing also allowed us to start to see how Isabel was favoring the Patriot cause. It was about time Isabel chose the winning side as I didn’t want to see her character get killed off or worse, going back in to slavery, so it brought hope to me that her character would end up happy at the end of the series.
            My hopes were fulfilled, thank the Lord, as Isabel realized her true feelings for Curzon once he’d gone marching off to death and didn’t return so she had to cope with the loss and live with the memory she had of him. Just kidding. Curzon came back injured and unable to fight so he and Isabel got to spend some quality bonding time having their normal awkward conversations, but they still got to think over their feeling over each other. I once read a quote about a woman having many valuables being able to quickly decide which were most valuable once her house was on fire and that’s exactly what happened with these two. While I stated oh-so-long ago in my Chains review that I didn’t want the two to become a couple, the smooth translation of their relationship in Forge and now in Ashes is exactly how I like my relationships to go (I can take some fast paced ones where people fall in love with their eyes, but hardly ever if the two don’t get to know each other) so I couldn’t help but cheer for their relationship just a little bit from the sidelines. Turns out their relationship was also the best way to end off the book as right before that part there was that depressing bit where Ruth talked about a scenario in her mind where all her loved ones who were no longer with her were living happily together (which was quite mature of her and a good situation for her character’s last big moment), and the wedding, albeit a simple one, left me on a good note a quite satisfied with the trilogy.
            So to summarize that jumble of a review (really, it’s too much of a mess for me to even think about reorganizing), the transitions from situation to situation flowed effortlessly making the novel coherent and smooth which is key in writing a good novel. I also loved all the things I didn’t expect to happen in the book as I find my stories more enjoyable when thing go as you expect them to but with a twist and Anderson was able to include the most out of any of the books in the trilogy in Ashes. Then you have the character of Isabel, who was a head strong as ever, nor did she lose sight of her goals at all. She returned as the voice of the novel (which was great cause that meant no single page chapters) and I felt gave such an inside point of view about the events of the story. You have Ruth, who was still herself like in Chains, but more grown up and responsible, plus a great foil for Isabel and an overall fun character to have around. Curzon was Curzon I guess (he wasn’t around much), and the character of Aberdeen faced a depressing yet different fate than the other characters which made him stand out from everyone else. The time jump no longer bothers me as much as it did when I first started reading the book, and I actually think the book turned out for the best taking place five years after the first book. By doing that Anderson was able to have off screen interaction that wouldn’t have been the most interesting things to make books out of happen and characters build relationships then. We got told about these events through words or flashback which worked fine for me and it actually helped things keep interesting in the long run and not be dragged out into an unnecessary fourth book I’m looking at you Dorothy Must Die series. If you read the first and second book you have to read this conclusion for it does such a nice job of tying up loose ends and giving readers a satisfactory ending. If you haven’t even read the first book I recommend you do that as this is a great historical fiction trilogy that sits well with teenagers since Anderson’s able to keep surprising the readers with her story and keeping them attached to her characters. So go on, go read the series and stop sitting here reading my review! Also, sorry bout the word vomit, too much good things to say and no good way to organize my thoughts properly.
 
More blog posts on the Seeds of America trilogy
Chains book review
Forge book review
Other blog post on Ashes

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