Review: Rot & Ruin

Name: Rot & Ruin
Author: Jonathan Maberry
Publication: September 14th, 2010
Resource: Purchased, Indigo's

In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn't want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human.

                          

I'm impressed. I've had a little Zombie frenzy lately-- including my Halloween costume which will be Zombie Corpse Bride, so this book fit the occasional perfectly.
I really did love every minute of Rot & Ruin. There's a great back story behind the Zombies, and I LOVE how they're portrayed throughout. I could easily picture them in my head and had no trouble believing that a Zombie really was going to come knocking on my door!
The best part about books like this is watching the main character really grow. Benny Imura was naive and childish in the beginning, and often came to his own silly conclusions without half of the story even solved. Until he is forced work with his older brother Tom as a bounty hunter-- then The Rot & Ruin changes his life forever. He realized what it really means to live, trust & love, and how one single persons actions can impact & ruin thousands of people.
I really grew to like Benny when he started to grow up. In the beginning I did find him annoying, but it didn't last long. You can't really help but feel compassionate towards the Imura brothers, as well as Nix & Lilah.
It was interesting that Benny could be such a... guy , as well as be sensitive and brave at the same time. His relationship with Nix is ADORABLE. The romance is slowly built up to and not cheesy. In that Zombie infested world where they need to depend on each other to survive, there love almost seemed essential. And I did not see it coming. The entire time I thought Benny was going to go for Lilah.
Although it was easy to tell he had feelings for both kick-ass girls, I'm pleased with the ending and the relationship between the characters.

The action was jam-packed & fast-paced, and I loved it! I loved picturing the gore in my head when Lilah chopped those men down. Combined with the action, the characters fit into this phenomenal world perfectly. They were tough and determined, yet human. They didn't have some supernatural heart that kept them from feeling emotions and made them super human. No. They had strong wills ad the right motivation, yet they felt the heart break after the deadly deed was done. The characters would hesitate before going for the kill, which I loved Maburry for doing as YA authors seem to think that every human is a killing machine, and it was easy to travel into the heart of each one. The characters were all complex and had different personalities.. I really felt like this book was realistic. Except for the Zombies (Have you checked your back yard?), all the characters acted like normal human beings-- They loved, cried, felt anger & betrayal, got confused and lost-- they were real, which made the story so easy to get in to.

I am SO excited for the next book in the series, Dust & Decay, which I will hopefully be purchasing soon. Hm, I wonder what will happen.....

What are YOUR favorite Zombie books?