Review Detail

“The truth is the truth. What changes is what we know about it and what we’re willing to believe.” — Rot & Ruin

Jonathan Maberry’s Rot & Ruin comes advertized as a zombie novel. And I suppose that’s what it is, on the surface. Certainly, the latter half of the book has a lot of zombie chasing, zombie fights, blood’n’guts, etc. Yet the action scenes weren’t what I liked most about Rot & Ruin, and I’d be willing to guess that it wasn’t the big message Maberry wanted his readers to take away.

From where I sit, “zombies are people too” is the biggest theme; maybe “respect the dead—even the living dead.” Either way, this book was intensely thought-provoking, very emotional, and just all around intelligently presented. Rot & Ruin is a very elegant, intellectual zombie novel.

The relationship between Benny and Tom was absolutely fantastic. There aren’t a lot of sibling dynamics running around in the YA age-range, especially ones so well written as Benny and Tom.

Maberry’s characters, as a rule, were all fantastic. (Except for Lilah, who was a little cheesy.) Tom was, without a doubt, my favorite. Strong, kind, intelligent, deeply-ingrained sense of morality and honor, loves his little brother even though Benny “hates” him, tortured, etc., etc. I had ALL THE FEELS for Tom, guys. Favorite character archetype. Period. Dot. We’re getting married.

Forget Benny. Jonathan Maberry should write a book about Tom!

Anyway.

The first half of Rot & Ruin focused mostly on setting up the stage. How the Rot and Ruin looked/smelled/felt, how the bounty hunters operated, Benny’s introduction to being an apprentice, his reaction to actually seeing a zombie killed. Those sections were very emotional and poignant.

Yet towards the second half of the book, when things got less introspective and more zombie-chase, I started to lose interest. I honestly have always skimmed the fight scenes in a book, just because they don’t interest me or hold my attention. I’m much more character-development oriented.

However, this book is still really awesome. Maberry’s writing is strong and very intelligent, his characters are unique and likable, and the overall plot was pretty darn good. I’m very, very impressed with Rot & Ruin and Jonathan Maberry’s talent.