By Carissa Smith

Shadows, the second book in the Ashes trilogy written by Ilsa J. Bick, is just as suspenseful as Ashes. The trilogy takes place after an electromagnetic pulse kills some people, changes others into zombielike creatures who eat the unchanged survivors, and causes most technology to stop working.

Shadows starts out with a new character before picking up where Ashes left off with Alex. The reader finally finds out what happened to Tom after he disappeared in Ashes.

Shadows alternates between different characters’ points of view. The alternating points of view can be a little confusing. The stories would keep getting interrupted when the next chapter jumped to another character. There were some chapters where it took a couple of paragraphs to figure out who the chapter was following.

The separated characters begin to doubt that the others are still alive. They are starting to feel like they do not have much reason to hang on anymore.

The Changed are acting more like teenagers, less wild than when they first changed. They travel in groups and keep people as their prisoners until they are ready to eat. They bring the prisoners while they travel looking for more people.

The Changed also pair off into couples like they would have before they changed. They have parties.

There is a lot of violence in Shadows. Most people have guns, even some Changed. People are getting shot and there are limited medical resources. A lot of the medical equipment does not work anymore and medicine is limited. A lot of people are dying because of not having good medical care.

Shadows was suspenseful and kept me hooked until the end. I loved it as much as Ashes. The third and final installment of the trilogy, Monsters, is set to release in 2013.