[Audiobook Review]Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

Rot and Ruin
Benny Imura Series
Jonathan Maberry
September 4, 2010
Simon and Schuster


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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.


So, what do you get when you mix zombies and a ruin wasteland run like the old west?  You get Rot and Ruin, the first book in the Benny Imura series.  For me Rot and Ruin was a book with old west values and lots of spunk.  This world that Benny has grown up in is safe because he lives behind the fences while the zoms live in the rot and ruin.  His brother Tom is a bounty hunter and kills zoms for a living.  Benny is not sure what kind of job he wants but he knows it is not working with older brother.  Benny has a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas and has not forgiven Tom for the events he thinks happened on First Night, the night the dead started walking.  After trying his hand many different jobs Benny realizes that the only thing he is cut out for is the family business.  After going on his first hunt with Tom Benny then realizes that there is more to Tom and his way of hunting than what he first thought and it is about to change the way he looks at zoms.

I really enjoyed this book because it was full of adventure, action, and of course zombies.  Who doesn't enjoy a good zombie book?  For me the book starts of slow and then takes off like a rocket.  There is this one scene in the book where Benny asks an artist in town about a girl and he tells his story of First Night.  That story is still haunting me two days later because I loved the monologue it was so horrifying and yet captivating.  I loved how honest the story was and I felt like I could really see the horror of what it would be like to see the dead rise and have friends and family try to eat you.

Rot and Ruin is more about zombies and trying to survive.  It is about not losing your humanity in the process.  It is about recognizing who the real monsters are because zombies are just mindless creatures no more dangerous than a pack of wild dogs.  The real monsters are other humans who have lost their sense of humanity and do terrible things.  I liked that it is a coming of age story for Benny and to see him go from boy to man.  There were parts of the book I cheered for Benny and parts I almost cried for Benny.  Even the romantic in me was pleased because Benny also finds love.  Rot and Ruin is a book I  highly recommend if you like zombies.  Brian Hutchinson does an awesome job narrating.  His voice is very easy on the ears.  I give Rot and Ruin the audiobook four very solid laser pistols.  I will be listening to Dust and Decay very soon.