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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
I read many books for my middle school classroom. I purchased this book thinking that the zombie theme would appeal to the boys. I was totally blown away by how this book pulled me in and kept me reading. Even though Benny dislikes the thought of his brother's job as a bounty hunter of zombies out in the Rot and Ruin, he is forced to become his brother's apprentice. Out in the infested areas, he learns that the real monsters are not the zombies but the other humans. This would be placed in my top list of books for middle schoolers. Anxious to read "Dust and Decay" next.
Jonathan Maberry was at Dragon*Con this past year. I'd not really heard of him before, but I had a free time slot, so I went to a panel with a friend with him, Laurell K., Jim Butcher, and a few other bestselling authors. He talked a bit about a new YA novel he was doing, so I put it on my list of things to check out later. I happened across this book a bit later at BJs and picked it up. I REALLY liked it a lot. The world feels a lot like the future dystopian world set up in The Hunger Games series, but obviously not anywhere near the same plot. And there's zombies! I look forward to more of these.
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was a very good book. I thought that the beginning was not very fast paced, but the beginnings of all books are not very fast paced. Oh well. Rot & Ruin was not exactly how I thought it to look like. It was weird, but this is the second book in a row where I predicted something, and I was right. Wow. New record!
This is a very good book, recommended for middle schoolers and up. MATURE middle schoolers and up.
This is a very good book, recommended for middle schoolers and up. MATURE middle schoolers and up.
I think I was suffering from zombie overkill when I picked this up, having just read The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey. Where that focused on events from the view of a zombie, this book takes a different view. For me, it had some interest but not enough to make me want to continue the series.
We follow Benny Imura, a fifteen year old who treats most things as a bit of a joke and who worships the bounty hunters who tell their stories of zombie capture. He is determined to do the bare minimum required to earn his rations, and is adamant that he won't go into the family business with his brother.
Benny remembers the night his parents died, when his older brother Tom ran away. In his eyes, Tom is a coward and there is a real sense of antagonism towards Tom early in the book. Unfortunately, Tom doesn't do or say anything to offset this, and because I didn't really warm to Benny early on it felt hard to care about the story.
However, things change when Tom takes his brother into The Ruin. Here Benny gets to see a little more of what happens and he begins to question the beliefs he has unquestioningly held throughout his life.
The most successful part of this book for me was the relationship between Tom and Benny, and the way Benny develops. The extra elements of the story featuring Nix and the Lost Girl felt like they were put in to ensure the plot worked.
As the first in a trilogy this is deliberately left rather open-ended. As I don't foresee continuing the series I won't ever get to see the significance of some of the events/ideas raised here, but I think I'll cope.
We follow Benny Imura, a fifteen year old who treats most things as a bit of a joke and who worships the bounty hunters who tell their stories of zombie capture. He is determined to do the bare minimum required to earn his rations, and is adamant that he won't go into the family business with his brother.
Benny remembers the night his parents died, when his older brother Tom ran away. In his eyes, Tom is a coward and there is a real sense of antagonism towards Tom early in the book. Unfortunately, Tom doesn't do or say anything to offset this, and because I didn't really warm to Benny early on it felt hard to care about the story.
However, things change when Tom takes his brother into The Ruin. Here Benny gets to see a little more of what happens and he begins to question the beliefs he has unquestioningly held throughout his life.
The most successful part of this book for me was the relationship between Tom and Benny, and the way Benny develops. The extra elements of the story featuring Nix and the Lost Girl felt like they were put in to ensure the plot worked.
As the first in a trilogy this is deliberately left rather open-ended. As I don't foresee continuing the series I won't ever get to see the significance of some of the events/ideas raised here, but I think I'll cope.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I liked the plot in genreal, it was definitely my favorite take on a zombie apocalyptic world thus far. I had trouble really liking Benny to be quite honest though. Tom was the saving grace for me, he was by far my favorite character, him and Lyla. The whole thing with Benny's love interest was bothersome, it was so evolved around her that I ended up disliking the character by the end of the book completely. I'm finishing the series though, even though a friend was evil enough to spoil a major death to me. Maybe after all of this I'll grow to like Benny more?