Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

2010/458 pgs

About the Book: It's 14 years since First Night, the time when the dead came back to life. Benny doesn't remember much, but he does remember his mother and his brother Tom taking him away from her. Benny thinks Tom is a coward and he resents Tom for taking him away from his mother.

Benny is soon turning 15, which means he will need to take a job. He reluctantly agrees to apprentice with his brother Tom, who is a bounty hunter. Benny thinks Tom isn't that exciting of a bounty hunter because he never hears stories about how he's killed "zoms" like he does from other bounty hunters around. While working with Tom, Benny discovers there's more to the zombies than what he thought and that maybe his brother is brave after all.

Sarah Teenlibrarian Says: Readers looking for an action filled zombie read won't exactly find what they're looking for with Rot and Ruin. Instead this is a lengthy social commentary with zombies. It's more of a quiet zombie book, much like Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth.

It takes a bit for the story to really get going, but once it does there is more action and suspense and some mystery. It might be a hard to sell to reluctant readers who are looking for a gory zombie tale and don't find one right from the start. Once the book reaches Part Two, the story picks up and there is a bit more gore and action, so readers really have to stick with it if that's what they are looking for.

I really liked Benny and Tom and thought they were great characters. I liked Tom's bounty hunter ways and it does give a new twist on zombies. Tom actually makes you care about the zombies instead of brushing them off and thinking of them as monsters that need to be killed.

There's a bit of a romance in the book, but honestly, I could have done without it. It felt a little bit too forced and I think the book would have been fine without any romance at all. The book is pretty long and it does drag in some parts, but overall its an engaging story. It's just not what I was expecting from a book about zombies!