ONLY ASHES REAMIN
by Rebecca Schaeffer
HMH Books for Young Readers
September 3, 2019
From Goodreads:
After escaping her kidnappers and destroying the black market where she was held captive, all Nita wants is to find a way to live her life without looking over her shoulder. But with a video of her ability to self-heal all over the dark web, Nita knows she’s still a prime target on the black market.
There’s only one way to keep herself safe.
Nita must make herself so feared that no one would ever dare come after her again. And the best way to start building her reputation? Take her revenge on Fabricio, the boy who sold Nita to her kidnappers. But killing Fabricio is harder than Nita thought it would be, even with Kovit by her side. Now caught in a game of kill or be killed, Nita will do whatever it takes to win.
The good people at HMH Books for Young Readers and Raincoast Books provided me with an ARC of Only Ashes Remain in exchange for a fair and honest review.
This book’s prequel, Not Even Bones, was a great and unique concept that the rest of the book just didn’t deliver on. It wasn’t bad, but not as great as I had hoped. What it did give me was a couple of characters that I felt I knew reasonably well and an optimistic view toward any sequels.
I expected Only Ashes Remain to answer some questions, pick up the pace a little, and bring some depth to these characters that I previously spent 400 pages with. Unfortunately for me, I was left unfulfilled again.
The plot, though somewhat interesting, was a little slow and lacks any real twists or turns. The characters aren’t bad, but I found them hard to relate to or care about. The one I liked best was a brand new supporting character: Adair!
I desperately wanted to the book to take a sharp left and follow him around, because he was fascinating. Unfortunately, all I got were bits and pieces spread over a few scenes, that were all too short and too few for my liking.
My main issue with Only Ashes Remain was that it felt specious. Characters would say they wanted one thing, but their actions were the complete opposite. Other times they said things and would say the opposite before the end of that very page. It was a little bipolar.
And when the prose talked about the setting and the world, a lot of it came off as thinly veiled opinion from the author. There’s always a bit of the author in everything, but I have always believed it should be invisible. I shouldn’t know if it was the author’s opinion or the character’s. I shouldn’t be able to pick up your political views or what your favourite movie is by reading your fiction. Just my opinion, though. Maybe some readers like that little glimpse behind the curtain.
Overall, I feel disappointed, but I’m not completely convinced that I’ll be able to ignore the 3rd book… only time will tell.
