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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
What can I say, Rot & Ruin was not at all what I expected. I thought I was going to jump into something resembling The Walking Dead. I'm happy to say that is not the case.
First Night totally screwed humanity. For some reason the dead came back to life that night and brought terror with it. I do hope that later on in the series we find out what the hell went wrong, and why there was suddenly undead everywhere. Benny has always thought his brother, Tom, was a coward. He doesn't understand why everyone admires Tom for his job as a zombie hunter. Benny is forced to apprentice with his brother since none of the other job prospects worked out. He's expecting to go out guns blazing to kill zoms. To Benny, zoms are evil and deserve to be killed by any means necessary. After his first trip out into the Ruin his opinion changes slightly.
Although Benny is only 15, this is a story of growing up. He also learns that sometimes people can be worse than the zoms. He learns about honor, respect, survival, and hope.
The characters were amazing. At times Benny seems kind of bratty, but that's because he doesn't understand the way things really are. He's thrown into obstacles and has to think fast to keep himself and those he cares about safe. Tom is an ideal role model for everyone. he's humble and tries to do the right thing, even when the world has gone to shit. Nix is fierce. She doesn't lose hope that things can be better. She also doesn't let fear hold her back. The Lost Girl may be one of my favorite characters. She's quite possibly insane, but has so much depth in her character and actions. I really hope we can learn more about her and her time in the Ruin.
The action scenes are intense, but I enjoyed being inside Benny's head the most. There's a constant battle as he tries to form a new opinion about the zoms and humankind in general.
I highly recommend this book for fans of coming of age stories, and even zombie fans can appreciate this novel.
Who's the bigger monster: the zoms, or those whose hearts still beat???
First Night totally screwed humanity. For some reason the dead came back to life that night and brought terror with it. I do hope that later on in the series we find out what the hell went wrong, and why there was suddenly undead everywhere. Benny has always thought his brother, Tom, was a coward. He doesn't understand why everyone admires Tom for his job as a zombie hunter. Benny is forced to apprentice with his brother since none of the other job prospects worked out. He's expecting to go out guns blazing to kill zoms. To Benny, zoms are evil and deserve to be killed by any means necessary. After his first trip out into the Ruin his opinion changes slightly.
Although Benny is only 15, this is a story of growing up. He also learns that sometimes people can be worse than the zoms. He learns about honor, respect, survival, and hope.
The characters were amazing. At times Benny seems kind of bratty, but that's because he doesn't understand the way things really are. He's thrown into obstacles and has to think fast to keep himself and those he cares about safe. Tom is an ideal role model for everyone. he's humble and tries to do the right thing, even when the world has gone to shit. Nix is fierce. She doesn't lose hope that things can be better. She also doesn't let fear hold her back. The Lost Girl may be one of my favorite characters. She's quite possibly insane, but has so much depth in her character and actions. I really hope we can learn more about her and her time in the Ruin.
The action scenes are intense, but I enjoyed being inside Benny's head the most. There's a constant battle as he tries to form a new opinion about the zoms and humankind in general.
I highly recommend this book for fans of coming of age stories, and even zombie fans can appreciate this novel.
Who's the bigger monster: the zoms, or those whose hearts still beat???
I don't usually like zombies. I can deal with slasher movies and blood and guts and gore, but I just can't handle brain eating zombies. I really can't even tell you why I bought all five books in this series before reading the first one.
This book is not a typical zombie story. There isn't a lot of zombie action except for when they're being killed again. Since I'm not a big zombie fan, I liked the different take on the apocalypse in this book overall. Most zombie movies I've seen concentrate on the very beginning instead of how people settle down to live with them. This book takes place several years after the end and shows how they've worked to create a safe world to live in.
While I do read a lot of YA, I usually avoid books with romance if the characters are too young. The 14 and 15 year old main characters in this story are younger than I like to read about when romance is involved. I understand that in an apocalypse children probably have to grow up more quickly, but it's a personal preference to not want to read about 14 and 15 year olds' romances.
This book is not a typical zombie story. There isn't a lot of zombie action except for when they're being killed again. Since I'm not a big zombie fan, I liked the different take on the apocalypse in this book overall. Most zombie movies I've seen concentrate on the very beginning instead of how people settle down to live with them. This book takes place several years after the end and shows how they've worked to create a safe world to live in.
While I do read a lot of YA, I usually avoid books with romance if the characters are too young. The 14 and 15 year old main characters in this story are younger than I like to read about when romance is involved. I understand that in an apocalypse children probably have to grow up more quickly, but it's a personal preference to not want to read about 14 and 15 year olds' romances.
I expected to read this rolling my eyes the whole time - I don’t really read many zombie stories - and boy, was I wrong! It has its issues - particularly the bad portrayals of women - but overall I really enjoyed this. Will probably pick up #2.
I had pretty low expectations for this book - the cover art is kind of corny, the description on the back is really corny, and the tagline ("This book is full of heart... they just don't beat anymore") is pretty terrible - I just wanted to read something Halloween themed. But despite all that, the book itself was a great surprise. The characters were really well developed, the writing was well done, the backstory and post-apocalyptic world were all explained enough that it was easy to follow but still left me wondering more. And you know what? The book really was full of heart. You couldn't help cheering for the Imura brothers, The Lost Girl, and even the secondary characters. I will definitely be on the lookout for the sequel.
I'd give this 3.5 stars. I enjoyed this book. The pacing was professionally done, each piece of information parceled out at just the right time, the cliffhangers perfectly pulled off. The characters were mostly well drawn, though I didn’t feel much of a connection to Nix. I did adore Tom. I thought Benny was a super believable teenager, doing dumb stuff while thinking (and saying loudly) that everyone else was dumb. The fight scenes lacked the incredible polish and focus of Patient Zero, but then again the viewpoint character was much less experienced with fighting in this book, so the vocabulary wasn’t really there to do the things the author did in Patient Zero. Overall, I liked this book, but it wasn’t my favorite from this author.
Rot and Ruin was a bit of a slow burn. It's clearly geared towards a younger audience and a lot of things were a bit too spelled out, but as the story went on I did get invested in the characters and their growth. I'm very curious to see what will happen in the next book, and I appreciated this was a whole complete story while still setting up intrigue for the following book, not a cheap cliff hanger. Overall a good zombie story for young readers or people new to the genre.
The Forrest of Hands and Teeth is probably my favorite zombie novel; equal parts scary and emotional. Rot & Ruin, on the other hand, is not frightening in the traditional horror sense, and could use a little more zombie action; there are very few thrills and chills, and zombies are really just the backdrop to a story about right & wrong, family and friendship. But it doesn't really resonate until the end, when . But it's still a pretty good story, entertaining if not memorable, enough so that I have the sequal lined up.
Spoiler
Benny thinks his brother, Tom, is dead
This had the most expository dialogue I have ever read, and I read fanfiction.
One of my all time favorites! Great characters, nonstop action and zombies! Excellent!