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Ashes

Ashes (The Seeds of America Trilogy) - Laurie Halse Anderson

This is it, the final book in the series. I didn’t know what to expect as book two in this series had me all over the place, hoping for the best but finding that just when I started to get comfortable, bam the unexpected occurred. Isabel finally finds her little sister Ruth and I felt relieved at last but the more that I read it was not the homecoming that I expected. Isabel has a motherly hold on Ruth even though after everything Ruth has experienced in life, she doesn’t need the tight bonds. Again, lots of life lessons run abound in this novel as Ruth does an unbearable simple mistake which cost the girls greatly and cause tension between them. Curzon and Isabel get into an argument over the war as Isabel refuses to tell him which side she prefers in the war and I really enjoyed their argument and the outcome that resulted in the end. The war and life has changed these characters over time, they have matured and they have become individuals with minds that rationalize and see beyond what’s in front of them.

 

As the girls were in the field with the bombs blasting in the distance, I had been waiting for this moment and it seemed almost picturesque. Time stood still as the truth was spoken and the girls tried to erase the years and distance that had come between them. As the rest of the novel started to wind down, I was waiting for a colossal ending and I felt it was coming. Yet as I read the ending, I felt it was rushed and the last few pages felt out of touch with the rest of the novel. I had to reread it to make sure that I had not skipped something but nope, they were the same words so I guess it was not a great ending for me.