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*The Hunger Games* mixes with *The Walking Dead* in this post-apocalyptic YA series that comes to a hair-raising conclusion in *Monsters*. The Changed are on the move. The Spared are out of time. The End...is now. When her parents died, Alex thought things couldn't get much worse―until the doctors found the monster in her head. She headed into the wilderness as a good-bye, to leave everything behind. But then the end of the world happened, and Alex took the first step down a treacherous road of betrayal and terror and death. Now, with no hope of rescue―on the brink of starvation in a winter that just won't quit―she discovers a new and horrifying truth. The Change isn't over. The Changed are still evolving. And...they've had help. With this final volume of The Ashes Trilogy, Ilsa J. Bick delivers a riveting, blockbuster finish, returning readers to a brutal, post-apocalyptic world where no one is safe and hope is in short supply. A world where, from these ashes, the monsters will rise. ** ### From School Library Journal Gr 10 Up—Bick takes listeners on a post-apocalyptic journey in this final volume in the "Ashes" trilogy. The sheer volume of main and secondary characters and their complex (and often serendipitous) relationships are impressive, but the capriciousness of the point of view makes the story difficult to follow. Also, many of the mysteries from previous books in the trilogy (Ashes, Shadows) remain unresolved. Listeners learn that the Changed are evolving, but little is shared about how and, even less, about why. Despite the weakened story line, Katherine Kellgren offers a gripping performance for listeners, with climactic pacing around every turn during Bick's lengthy action sequences. The audiobook opens with Kellgren's decrescendo as Alex plunges into water, her voice fading to almost a whisper as Alex sinks into a memory, allowing listeners to experience the full gamut of her emotions. Despite Kellgren's outstanding performance, however, this dark dystopian thriller is only recommended if books one and two are popular in your collection.—April Everett, Rowan Public Library, Salisbury, NC ### From Booklist Seventeen-year-old Alex left the postapocalyptic town of Rule to save herself from the misdirected leadership there. But in this conclusion to the Ashes trilogy, she returns in an effort to save others from the flesh-eating, zombie-like teens known as the Changed, who now seem to be controlled by someone or something. If Alex or any of the other Spared can stop a madman, there may be hope for some kind of future for the unchanged children who remain. This gargantuan (over 800 pages!), action-packed conclusion really needs the character list planned for the finished book to help readers follow multiple story lines that converge at the reunion of Alex, Tom, and Ellie. Bick ably juggles the different strands to create a tension-filled narrative wherein the bloody bits tend to be thorough and clinical rather than crudely splashy. Moments of tenderness and hope balance the gore, and the ending seems to indicate that all, at long last, might be well. Grades 7-10. --Cindy Welch