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sjlee 's review for:
Rot & Ruin
by Jonathan Maberry
Rot & Ruin was a tremendously fun read. It was a very fast page-turner and I found myself engrossed with the story and characters despite the YA pedigree. The story opens with the rage-filled Ben (Benny) Imura living in the post-apocalyptic town of Mountainside. He is bitter and angry about his brother's, his sole remaining family members, actions during the First Night (colloquial for the start of the zombie outbreak).
Maberry does a fascinating job in creating a zombie economy. The isolated community has been muddling through the collapse for over a decade at the opening of the story and so people's livelihoods and careers often rotate around the existence of the undead.
The focus of the story is on Ben, his brother Tom, and Ben's teenage friends Nix, Chong and Morgie. As such the relationship dynamics reflect those typical in a coming-of-age story, including a developing love plot.
As a nitpick, I must admit to rolling my eyes at the appearance of the katana in yet another piece of zombie fiction. At least Maberry had the decency to put it in the hands of a Japanese-American and provide a broader (though thin) cultural context. That trope aside the story manages to combine a lot of familiar aspects of the genre with some new ideas. Maberry leans heavily into the theme of emotional distress and trauma. All of the characters, and even many of the minor ones, carry psychological damage from the First Night and subsequent apocalypse. I thought this idea was somewhat limited by the YA category. Clearly more nightmarish things were going on in this world than was explicitly stated in the story, but writing for a younger audience has some natural restrictions.
Overall I very much enjoyed this book. I found the characters charming and the central mystery in the plot engaging. The themes explored surprised me given the intended audience and I will definitely be checking out the sequel.
Maberry does a fascinating job in creating a zombie economy. The isolated community has been muddling through the collapse for over a decade at the opening of the story and so people's livelihoods and careers often rotate around the existence of the undead.
The focus of the story is on Ben, his brother Tom, and Ben's teenage friends Nix, Chong and Morgie. As such the relationship dynamics reflect those typical in a coming-of-age story, including a developing love plot.
As a nitpick, I must admit to rolling my eyes at the appearance of the katana in yet another piece of zombie fiction. At least Maberry had the decency to put it in the hands of a Japanese-American and provide a broader (though thin) cultural context. That trope aside the story manages to combine a lot of familiar aspects of the genre with some new ideas. Maberry leans heavily into the theme of emotional distress and trauma. All of the characters, and even many of the minor ones, carry psychological damage from the First Night and subsequent apocalypse. I thought this idea was somewhat limited by the YA category. Clearly more nightmarish things were going on in this world than was explicitly stated in the story, but writing for a younger audience has some natural restrictions.
Overall I very much enjoyed this book. I found the characters charming and the central mystery in the plot engaging. The themes explored surprised me given the intended audience and I will definitely be checking out the sequel.