Ashes

Introduction

Ashes, written by Laurie Halse Anderson, was published by Simon and Shuster publishing on October 4, 2016 - going on six years after the publication of Forge - for juvenile and young adult readers. When I put up my Instagram poll for what book to finish out February with, one hundred percent of people voted for me to continue with the Seeds of America trilogy, but there was a fifty-fifty split on whether I should only read Forge or if I should review both Forge and Ashes. I made the executive decision to complete the series, and I am so glad that I did. I wholeheartedly recommend reading these books if you haven’t yet, they truly are amazing. If you haven’t gotten the chance to read my reviews of Chains or Forge yet, I recommend checking those out as well. If you choose to continue on, remember that the Plot section will be spoiler free, but the Thoughts section is not. I hope you enjoy it!

If you want to keep up with Laurie Halse Anderson or learn more about her, you can visit her website, https://madwomanintheforest.com/, and follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @halseanderson.

A quick note, I will do my absolute best to remain consistent with my post schedule, but I am a college student. This review may be the first one I am posting late, but I doubt it will be my last, so please bear with me!

Plot

Ashes returns us to Isabel’s perspective, though she is now much older. This book begins on June 25th, 1781, with Isabel and Curzon still on the run together. Isabel finally accomplishes what she’s been working toward for years, but it doesn’t quite go the way she hoped. While she tries to make the best of her bad situation, the Revolution is coming to a boiling point, and it’s clear where each character’s priorities lie.

Thoughts

While I initially found the time jump several years into the future to be jarring, it makes sense for multiple reasons. First, it would have been unreasonable that Isabel and Curzon could immediately find Ruth, it absolutely would have taken a few years. Second, if Ashes had been set directly after the events of Forge, Ruth would have been around eight years old. I’m not saying that twelve is old enough for her to endure the horrors she went through - in this book and before - because it isn’t, but twelve is about the age Isabel was in Chains, so it isn’t quite as shocking. Third, it offers the opportunity to have Isabel and Curzon more developed as people and characters without having to do enormous leaps in time throughout the book. On this note, I want to mention that I really enjoyed the plot and pacing, and I found myself tracking the events through character relations. In my opinion, while the action of the book surrounding the travel, the running, and the war are all incredibly interesting, the emotional highs and lows of this book had a lot - not everything but a lot - to do with Isabel’s relationships with Curzon and Ruth.

Curzon and Isabel remain in disagreement about the morality of the war, something that they have been debating since they first met in Chains. It all comes to a boiling point when Curzon enlists in the army for the third time, which infuriates Isabel. They go their separate ways until fate and unfortunate circumstances bring them together again at the army’s camp. Once there, Isabel learns that Curzon listed her as his wife. For me, it was relatively obvious that they were in love, and I assumed they would end up together in the end. Honestly, I greatly enjoy romance in books, so it does not bother me at all when this was included, especially because it emotionally ups the intensity. Isabel was always worried about Curzon as a friend, but when she realized she loved him was when the panic about the upcoming battle really set in for her. It made for a more compelling read because I absolutely had to know what happened next.

While my predictions regarding Isabel’s relationship with Curzon were usually spot on - if not delayed - my expectations for Ruth were usually subverted. I didn’t expect for Isabel to find Ruth as early into the book as she did, and I anticipated for their reunion to be a happy one, if a bit awkward. Instead, Ruth sought comfort with anyone and everyone but her sister, even going as far in the beginning to deny being related to Isabel at all. It was heartbreaking to read and was confusing to me because she seemed so angry. It wasn’t until later that Isabel learned that Ruth wasn’t mad, she was frightened. She thought that Isabel sent her away, and she didn’t want to be abandoned again. When they finally reconcile, they get to start making up for the time that Lockton stole from them, and Ruth proves to be as loyal a sister to Isabel as Isabel is to her.

I was absolutely thrilled to see Eben again, he was definitely someone I wanted to see return in this installment, and I was so happy to see his name on screen. He’s older and more mature now, but he hasn’t forgotten who he is. One more character I want to bring up is Aberdeen. It was clear to me from the start that he and Ruth cared for one another, at least in the sense that they grew up together, but I was once again surprised by the twist in his character. Aberdeen is revealed to be a Loyalist spy, and he tries on multiple occasions to get Ruth and Isabel to join him in Yorktown. While it was never confirmed in the book, I am heartbroken by the strong implication that he died in the Battle of Yorktown. He reminded me a lot of Curzon; a young boy fighting for what he thinks will bring the people their freedom. He just had the misfortune of choosing the losing side.

Though we see that victory didn’t mean freedom for all like Curzon hoped. It’s a theme we see repeated in every book, as is expected in a series dealing with both slavery and revolution. The events in this book seem to cause Isabel and Curzon to partially swap perspectives, which brings me to my two favorite quotes - though I had a lot of them. First, “‘We go to war, Missus Isabel,’ Henry added, ‘in order to make our mother country, this land, free for everyone.’” Second, “Freedom would not be handed to us like a gift. Freedom had to be fought for and taken.” I love these passages because they finally answer Isabel’s questions of “why?” Why fight in a war alongside people who are fighting for their freedom, not the collective freedom? The other notable theme I found particularly interesting was family. You have the one you’re born into and the one you make for yourself. Ruth and Isabel were born sisters, but Ruth found another home of sorts with Miss Serafina and Mister Walter, just as Isabel found her place with Curzon.

This book is absolutely fantastic. I greatly enjoyed reading it, and I especially loved the pacing, characters, and themes explored throughout it. For those reasons, I have to rate this a 9/10. While I can’t put it too much higher than Chains and Forge - as they were both phenomenal as well - I do have to call Ashes my favorite of the three.