Rot and Ruin

Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry
published by Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, 2010
464 pages
approximate age level: 12+

15 year old Benny Imura really, really needs a job. But he doesn't just want some extra pocket change, he wants to have enough food to eat. In Benny's world, zombies have taken over and his entire universe is one small town surrounded by tall fences that keep the undead at bay. Since there isn't a lot of anything, Benny's got to do something if he wants to keep his rations coming. After failing at a string of jobs like locksmith, fence tester, carpet coat salesman, and erosion artist, to name a few, Benny is forced to take the one job he swore to himself he'd never take -- apprentice to his older half-brother, and town hero, Tom, who kills zombies out in the wild and dangerous lands beyond the gates, called the Rot and Ruin. True, being a zombie bounty hunter, or, as Tom refers to himself -- a closer specialist -- sounds cool, but Benny can't stomach following in Tom's footsteps after what he did years ago -- abandoning Benny's mother to die by zombie attack while he fled like a coward. Yet, out in the wilderness with Tom, Benny discovers things that change what he was sure he knew -- about his town, about the zombies, and even about who the real enemies are. For Benny, in the untamed and unpoliced Rot and Ruin, zombies aren't even the most dangerous threat.

Though the first few pages of Rot and Ruin are similar to a few other YA zombie novels, Maberry doesn't fall into a stereotypical rut and soon takes things for a turn few readers will expect. While there is plenty of action and lots of zombies lurching about, Rot and Ruin's central focus is on relationships and society, particularly how people behave in a world where normal society has completely broken down and there are no longer any rules. Maberry's characters develop naturally throughout the novel, and even secondary characters are well-formed enough to draw and maintain reader interest. Moreover, a running discussion of how zombies are perceived by the living -- not just as mindless killers, but as the remains of loved ones -- is an important addition lacking in most other zombie books. The questions this story raises for readers would make it a good choice for a book discussion, especially a Guys Read program. It’s also nice to see a non-white protagonist in a popular YA novel (Benny is half Japanese). The ending wraps things up nicely, but leaves room for a hinted-at sequel.

There's no book trailer, but here is an interesting video of author Jonathan Maberry talking about Rot and Ruin:

Read-alike suggestions:

Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry

The Enemy by Charlie Higson

World War Z by Max Brooks

The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Lockdown by Alexander Gordon Smith

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey