Bookworm Blurbs

I'm having a really hard time getting into this one (it doesn't help that my life has been crazy this week and I haven't had much time to read). First of all, I find the premise unbelievable - a super volcano erupted that was so huge that it's covered the entire West Coast of the US and all of the Mid-West and maybe the East Coast, too (that's unclear at this point in the book) with ash. Picture a blizzard, but with ash. The volcano, which is supposed to be in Yellowstone, erupted with  such force that a chunk of it destroyed our main character's house in Iowa. I realize that volcanoes can be extremely destructive, but I'm having a hard time believing that the situation that occurs in this book could actually plausibly happen. 

I'm also not super connected with the main character. He's a 16 year old boy (I think he said 16, anyway) and he's a self-professed nerd who practices tae kwon do and plays World of Warcraft - all things that I really can't relate to at all. I don't find him to be particularly likeable or clever or funny - so basically, I just don't really care about him as much as I should, considering that he's the main character. 

And, adding to the monotony, the author's writing style is boring. Not bad, just boring. Here's a totally random excerpt so you can see what I mean: 

As we got closer to Worthington, I could make out a few other buildings, vague shapes beyond the silos. Between us and the town, a row of people worked in a field alongside the road. They were stretched in a long line, digging. Some of them had shovels, some had hoes, and some wielded only pointed sticks. There were men, women, and quite a few kids. Some of the kids looked younger than my little sister. 

See? It's not bad, but there's absolutely nothing remarkable about it. It's boring. And it's been like this the whole time so far... gotta get through this and on to better things.