Review- Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

Rot & Ruin- Jonathan Maberry

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 464 pages

Genre: Dystopian/Zombie Apocalypse

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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 can truly say that I’ve never really appreciated a good Zombie story until I read this book. Rot & Ruin was simply a blast to read. From the moment I picked it up I didn`t want to put it down.  It`s funny because there’d be times when I was reading it and I’d forget for a second or two that the book has anything to do with Zombies. As much as it is a story about a 15 year old kid growing up in a world literally surrounded by the living dead, it`s also largely a story about a boy struggling to find his place in the world. While avoiding the `zoms` who would like nothing more than to wrap their rotting mouth`s around a nice piece of human flesh, of course.  So, in short, it`s a coming of age story… with Zombies. Genius, pure genius. 

                Benny lives in the town of Mountainside, a small town separated from the great, zombie infested ‘Rot and Ruin’ by nothing more than a fence (and the fear and denial of the town’s inhabitants).  He’s lived there with his bounty hunting, half-brother Tom since he was an infant and the world as we know it changed forever when the dead began to rise on what became known as “First Night”.

                Now, I`m a big fan of dystopian novels, but what I particularly loved about Rot & Ruin was the fact the story is set only a generation after “First Night”. The implication of telling a dystopian story in a world at this junction point is the fact that the majority of the people who survived the initial fallout understand and remember how life used to be. They feel the loss of their previous lives. However, the flip side is Benny’s generation and all the children born afterwards. Mountainside is all Benny and his friends know. They don’t feel the same loss as the others. They don’t share the same memories. But while the older generation is so scared and traumatized by the past to even consider trying to reclaim what they`ve lost, Benny and his friends are only beginning to yearn for something more. More than the only life they`ve ever known. A life surrounded by a fence on all sides. I found that this really adds an interesting twist to this coming of age story.

                Rot & Ruin isn’t just a book about kicking some good ole zombie ass (although don’t worry, there’s plenty of it). It’s also about Benny figuring out that the world he grew up in may not be as black and white as he had always believed. Benny comes to realize that the Monsters on the other side of the fence may be nothing compared to the ones living on the inside.  

                 I really enjoyed this one. I felt like a teenage guy reading this book could really relate to a lot of the things Benny has to deal with. Well minus the flesh eating Zombie part. It tackles a lot of serious issues but Mayberry manages to discuss them in a way that is fun, exciting and keeps the reader wanting more. I know there is a second book in the works for this series and I for one am definitely looking forward to checking it out! And I`m sure after you read Rot & Ruin you will too!