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Categories: Books
Tags: horror, jonathan maberry, rot & ruin, zombies
Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
As a 15-year-old, Benny Imura will no longer be supported by the town of Mountainside. Instead, like all adults, he must find a job to earn his rations. But faced with career choices like testing the fence separating the town from zombies or sitting in a watchtower all day, following his bounty hunter brother Tom out into the Rot and Ruin becomes his best option.
Tom is loved and respected by the town, but Benny remembers Tom’s actions on First Night and has hated him ever since. Besides, Tom isn’t anything like Charlie Pink-Eye or the Motor City Hammer, bounty hunters adored by Benny and his friends. But out in the Rot and Ruin, Benny learns Tom’s philosophy about zombie killing and fears that the real monsters might be on the wrong side of the fence.
Rot and Ruin continues the recent trend of imagining society in the wake of zombie apocalypse. In Maberry’s world-building, monks live in the wastes caring for zombies, scouting programs include intensive combat training and kids collect zombie trading cards. And, in spite of the threat of the living dead, Maberry also conveys the complications which simply come from being fifteen.
Jonathan Maberry’s Rot and Ruin is an expansion of his novella “Family Business” published earlier this year in The New Dead: A Zombie Anthology. What struck me then was his poignant take on zombies. This expanded version retains the poignancy, but also ups the action and horror quotient making this a page-turner, even as it becomes more grim and reflective.
Jonathan Maberry:
Thanks for the excellent review of ROT & RUIN. Glad you enjoyed it.
Carlton Hackett:
I’ll have to give this a read! I’m currently checking out The New Dead, and I haven’t gotten to “Family Business” yet, but I’m loving the way this sounds from your description!