Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

Rot & Ruin Info from Goodreads.com     Rot & Ruin (Benny Imura, #1)    
In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn't want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human
OK so let me start off saying that this review is more on the audiobook telling than the actual book.

I hate when I gone done "reading" a book and just don't know how I feel about it. I thought this one over for a day or so and have just decided that I can't decide than it's getting three stars. First of all. the continuous use of the word ZOM drove me absolutely crazy. This was soo distracting for me. And I am just not sure why that got to me, I just counldn't figure out how saying one more syllable (ie) really could make a difference with the word. I understand in calling them something else all-together (Inconcecrated, minudoe, undead) I get those, but just didn't quite understand this choice. Also one of the characters is named Tom, so when I listened to the audiobook, all I kept hearing over and over was Zom and Tom. Ok I don't actually think it was the author's choice of the word Zom but the overuse of the word, sometimes 3-5 times in one paragraph.
         I felt that this was more of a story-telling book than what I want from a Zombie book. Sure the Zombies appear and when they do they are great pages, but most of the novel is just the story of how the zom's came about and the mysterious girl they want to find, how they fight or decide not to fight the zomb's. It had a very similar feeling as Stephen Kings' THE BODY. Now most of you may know this story from the movie Stand By Me. Most of the movie is the boys telling stories, telling about their past/families, traveling to find the dead body. And then a little bit of action between the story telling, the train comes, they get leaches or the punks in town find them with the body and threaten them. So these exciting parts are always my favorite parts, but very few and far between (in my opinion of course). So thus I give it an ok. Wish I would have got it from the library kind of feel. But I have noticed tons of really good reviews of people that loved it on goodreads. I just could not get myself to feel the same.

   I do think this would be a good book for a male teen. As a female I may have been a little detached from the characters. Oh, and I would recommend to buy the book rather than the audio. I think the audio really threw off the tone of the book, and I found it harder to concentrate on the story-line.
      

Comments

  1. Anonymous12/18/2010

    If only this book was as good as the cover lol!

    Great review Krista! =D

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  2. I was actually looking forward to picking this one up at the library, but now, I'm not so sure... Thanks for the honest review :)

    By the way, I'm a new follower, and I would appreciate if you followed back :)
    Hafsah @ IceyBooks

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