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.
Chains book review
Forge book review
Other blog post on Ashes
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