An Author to Check Out

Last year I found the book Draw the Dark by Ilsa J. Bick and thought it was amazing. It's the story of a teen living in a small town who begins to have dreams and nightmares that bring out unusual talents--he can paint other people's thoughts and memories and he can inhabit the mind of a child from the 1940s. Both talents endanger and frighten the teen and made this a mysterious and vaguely creepy book that I couldn't put down. I also couldn't wait for the author's next book.

And now her new book has arrived! But is Ashes anything like Draw the Dark? Well, it's just as mysterious and creepy, but it's nothing I expected. It starts as the story of Alex, a girl with a terminal illness, but suddenly moves into the story of how she, a child, and a veteran with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder survive an electromagnetic pulse that kills most of the people around them. Oh, and there are zombies, too. And menacing town elders. And forced marriages. And general awesomeness. And the best part? It's the first volume in a trilogy!

Give Ilsa J. Bick a try and let me know what you think. Do you have any favorite authors you can recommend?