Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick

Alex is hiking the Waucamaw Wilderness alone when it happens. An electromagnetic pulse that sweeps farther than she knows, kills off the elderly, leaves her with an eight year old orphan, and changes people. It's the last element that really concerns Alex, these changed individuals are like zombies but they haven't died. They hunt down anything that moves and then feast like animals on the carcass. With the help of Tom, a young army vet, the three try to survive in this new wilderness. Eventually they hear that there is a refugee camp in the South, but this news doesn't come without casualties. Suddenly Alex finds herself on her own, and this isn't the last surprise in store for her.

I would like to flat out say that I am not a fan of horror. As in I am quite vocal about my distaste. I don't like it, I don't want it near me, and I especially don't want it in any form that relates to zombies. Zombies freak me out hardcore. It could happen man, that shit could happen. Which is why I'm glad to know my friend Matt, who has an entire contingency plan set up in case the apocalypse should take place and zombies overrun the earth. See? My phobia is nurtured and exacerbated by my friends!

OK, now that my rant is over (for now), I would like to state that this was a pretty good book. I really really enjoyed the characters, there was so much back story to each of them. Alex was so wonderful, she has a very distinct world perspective colored by her parents' death and her own fight against cancer. There were a lot of darker themes than just the whole zombie thing, which played really well off each other.

Then there was the whole ambient tension thing going on. It was pretty... stressful. Always thinking that the zombie was just around the corner or some random group of people was going to shoot Alex. Scary.

Now I am going to make another confession. I didn't finish this book. We've covered the fact that I don't like zombies, and especially don't like the horror genre. It just got to be too much to handle. Too much stress and creepiness. I did skim the last half of it though, and let me say that there is a HUGE cliffhanger at the end. So good thing it's a series, this one comes out tomorrow. So if you love horror pick it up, if you're like me and can't stand zombies and horror I would skip it.