~Tina~'s Reviews > Rot & Ruin

There are moments that define a person's whole life. Moments in which everything they are and everything they may possibly become balance on a single decision. Life and death, hope and despair, victory and failure teeter precariously on the decision made at that moment. These are moments ungoverned by happenstance, untroubled by luck. These are the moments in which a person earns the right to live, or not.

Inspiring? Moving? Emotional? These are just some of the words I didn't expect to express reading a book about Zombies, and yet it's exactly what I found.

Riot & Ruin starts the story off with a boy named Benny Imura who's 15th birthday looms near. This means he has to find a job or he'll loss his food rations. He doesn't want to work with his brother,Tom, the oh-so famous bounty hunter, but with very little choice Benny agrees to be Tom's apprentice.
Watch and learn as Benny gets the wake-up call of his life and gets a taste of what his world is real all about as well as learns who his brother real is, as Tom shows him that there are far more meaner and crueler monsters out there then the deformed infested Zombie's that has changed there lives...

To be perfectly honest I had absolutely no intentions to even read this book. For one, I'm not a big fan of Zombie genre and for another, that cover, well, scares the hell of me. But I saw this book at my store and thumbed through it, a few quotes caught my eye, my curiosity peeked I took a chance. I am so glad I did. Rot & Ruin is probably the best Zombie book I have ever read.

True to form this is a book filled with the undead Zombies that seek flesh for there flavor but I didn't find it overly graphic or gruesome. I think maybe because it wasn't overpowering with them, more like around them. There were some cringe worthy moments though that I thought were pretty wicked.
The storyline really surprised me since it's more plot driven then anything else and it was so much more to it then see-zombie, kill-zombie, run-zombie, which I'm ashamed to admit is what I was actually expecting.
Jonathan Maberry inspires the concept of life and death with right and wrongs by putting his characters through a journey of self discovery, survival and growth.
The writing is strong and well crafted, walking us through memories of First Night, the tiny town of Mountainside and over the fence to the Rot & Ruins giving us a clear cut path to the people infected, affected, and the stories that are burned into there very souls.

The Imura brothers, Tom and Benny, are fantastic character that had me captivated through out the entire book.
Benny is naive and young but he has a good heart and when leaded in the right directions shows maturity, courage and strength. I was very proud of him.
Tom? I love Tom. He's the kind of guy that has your back and he'd be my first pick if I was every faced with a bunch of the undead coming at me. His 101-Yoda-like teachings is impressive and thought provoking. He's kick ass, compassionate, cleaver and has some great wit.

I don't want to say to much about the actual plot since I want others to experience it first hand, but bottom line, I just loved this book! It has some great brotherly moments that made me cry, all the characters are well developed, even the bad guys, and the writing is completely hypnotizing. Oh, and I just loved the zombie card art, that was a great touch!
I don't know if this is a stand-alone, but you wouldn't hear me complaining if we get a sequel;)

An Amazing Read!