Rot & Ruin

By: Jonathan Maberry

Narrated by: Brian Hutchison

Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

Multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author Jonathan Maberry’s Rot & Ruin is his debut work for young readers. Fifteen-year-old Benny Imura lives in a world infested with zombies where, when a kid turns 15, he must get a job to continue receiving food rations. Benny has no interest in the family business of zombie killing, but figures he doesn’t have much of a choice. He’s tried out a bunch of other jobs, and hasn’t found anything he likes. But as Benny starts training with his brother, he learns things about being human that he never expected.

©2010 Jonathan Maberry (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

boys love this book

My students love this book so much that I have had to buy replacement hard copies and make sure I had the audio for non-print readers, so they could get in on the action, too.

Zombies for teens.

I enjoyed it. It was clean not scary but a good storyline. More action than scares.

Apocoliptic Survival

I read this whole series during high school and fell in love with it. This book deals with a zombie apocoliptic world from the point of view of a teenager. This book had me on the edge of my seat with fight scenes. I could actually picture the zombies with incredible detail.

Not as good as I expected

STORY (zombie fiction) - Audible categorizes this book as Teens Age 11-13, but I disagree. The main character (Benny) has just turned 15, and during the book he grows up in a very bleak California after the zombie apocalypse. I can definitely imagine adults enjoying this book if you are drawn to the subject matter. I am totally not a zombie listener, but I purchased this book because it seemed like it would have a good coming-of-age story underlying all the zombie violence. It does. Benny learns about survival, truth, morality and love. (This is definitely not a romance, but Benny does fall for a sweet girl).

The problem I had with the story is that it moves slowly, IMHO. Yes, there's lots of zombie killing and action, and many people have given glowing reviews. Maybe I just dislike the zombie genre more than I think I do. Even though the story is sweet, it wasn't enough to hold my interest through all the action and violence. I will say that the book is well-written and has some great characters.

PERFORMANCE - Good job, but nothing special about it.

OVERALL - I'd recommend this book for teens older than 13 and for adults, but you probably need to be someone who really enjoys zombie books to thoroughly enjoy this story. There's lots of gross zombie descriptions and lots of killing. Other than that, it's a pretty clean book -- no sex and only minor profanity, if any. This is Book 1 of a series, but it stands alone. I won't be continuing the series.

Not what I was expecting or hoping for...

Would you recommend Rot & Ruin to your friends? Why or why not?

Not unless my friend was 11 or 12 years old! This is the first zombie series I have ever read or listened to that is aimed straight at tweens. I feel I was generous in my 3 star rating because of my level of disappointment. I came here as a huge fan of Joe Ledger and Ray Porter's voice acting only to be met by this near-disaster. At least "Dark of Night," the prequel to this series, seemed more geared for adults. That said, it wasn't COMPLETELY horrible. In fact, it kept my interest enough for me to spend credits on the whole series in the hopes that it would eventually become more age-appropriate (which it didn't). Still, if you like young adult books and zombie stories both, you will probably enjoy this series.

Good for young adults, not old adults

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I wouldn't recommend it to any adult friends. The story was too simplistic, the dialogues too dulled down for a younger audience. I want more graphic language, graphic violence in a zombie novel.

Any additional comments?

I didn't realize at first that this book was geared toward young adults, or I wouldn't have downloaded. Once I started, I didn't want to stop, so I just plowed through, but Mayberry's other adult novels are by far better choices. I won't finish this series.

My first 'zombie' experience! Now I'm hooked!

Where does Rot & Ruin rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I loved the audio version of this book. The narrator was fantastic, and really allowed me to differentiate between characters without any problem.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Rot & Ruin?

I cannot name my most memorable moment, but I often found myself driving down the interstate, making faces that I would envision the characters making.

Which scene was your favorite?

When Bennie and Nix were in the lookout tower... I cried, and hoped that help was coming for them!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

The book is quite long, and I couldn't listen to it in one sitting, it actually took me a week and a half of commuting back and forth to work, but I often found myself walking in the building with earbuds still in, not wanting to pause until the ride home.

Great read!

Any additional comments?

I really liked this book. I ordered it on a whim and wasn't sure what to expect. I have never read a zombie book before, and had no idea if the genre would pull me in. I really enjoyed this book. The relationships between the characters were strong, and I felt like I could feel their emotions.

The nararator did a really good job too! I really enjoyed his portrayl of the characters voices. I would definitely recommend this book! I already ordered the second book!

good spin-off

love the spin-off from the Joe ledger team. can't wait to hear how he starts interweaving the different team members. love how there's no over-the-top Gore or violence. all very well taken care of. the narrator reminded me so much of Casey Kasem... on to the next one!

Thought this was a young adult title

After listen to several other books by Maberry I was expecting the same kind of writers. It was hard to continue listening at first but I powered through. It turned out to be good. Wasn't Joe ledger but good.