This Rotten World

This Rotten World, Book 1

By: Jacy Morris

Narrated by: T.L. Howell

Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

A sickness runs rampant through the world. In Portland, Oregon it is no different. As the night takes hold, eight men and women bear witness to the horror of a zombie outbreak. This Rotten World is the zombie novel that horror fans have been waiting for. Where other zombie works skip over the best part of a zombie outbreak, This Rotten World revels in it the downfall of humanity, dragging you through the beginnings of society's death, kicking and screaming.

©2014 Jacy Morris (P)2020 Jacy Morris

No one is safe

This book is amazing. Don’t fall in love with a character. They will die. It does what most zombie stories can’t do. Feel real.

it says the headline is optional but it's not....

there was one part where a group went back to a bar that I thought burned down earlier in the book....but I guess I just misunderstood....or maybe it was just an error in story

Protagonist consistency

Well written and entertaining but author kept killing off the main protagonists, which made it very frustrating...

timeliness too confusing

author goes back and forth between characters that have nothing to do with the story, just to kill them within 30 seconds. just seems pointless

enjoyed the listen.

enjoyed the book from start to finish. Liked the narrator, and the characters in the book.

Pop the melon, drop the felon!

Book 1
This book, listed as Book 1, actually contains Books 1 and 2. The first several chapters introduce us to multiple characters at the beginning of the apocalypse. Then it began rotating between the dozen characters, updating their situations. You learn a bit more about each character, as the virus (?) escalates, and the violence increases. Some of the character’s endings are quite poetic. Rudi is quite the character; a 300-lb. ginger who went to Portland State. Running into Amanda, a theatre major was a new experience for Rudi. Ace, a Japanese rock star, is continuing deranged character. Soon, it was, “Move Over Rover, the Army is Taking Over”. It’s a slow-moving saga considering there are five books to the series. I suppose you can’t get to the advertised “good stuff” too soon. The story is pretty good, nothing remarkable. I’m waiting to be “dragged through the beginnings of society's death, kicking and screaming”. BTW, in War of the Worlds, I think it’s “they mistook fiction for fact, not the other way around.” Three.point.five for a good start.
Book 2
Players continued from Book 1, most old, some new. Blake, who rescued Mort. Ace, and his new band of followers; Slick, Pudge, Spider, and Slutty Rivets. Ace retained his old name for himself. Lt General McKutchin set up his forces at the port facilities. Ace was up to ambushing U.S. Army patrols; like Sgt Takada and General McKutchin. “Murph”, a technician at the Boardman, Oregon power station, including the remaining staff, was informed of the coming apocalypse. Rudi, Chloe, and Amanda continue making their way through the city. Poor Rudi, struggling with his weight and asthma, was tired of laughter and name-calling due to his weight. Katie, drove through the city in her Dodge Durango looking for supplies and safety. Zeke and Lou strengthen their relationship as they make their way along the river, looking for a boat. Joan, a medical doctor, was a stoic survivor. Her latest US Army rescuers planned to take her to a refugee camp; the Memorial Collesium. People began gathering at the Stadium. Resume character rotation. There are a couple of odd situations where the author appears to contradict his own I can’t recall the specifics of an earlier occurrence. Private Bryant’s interpretation of a video involving Private Estep’s murder is mind-boggling. The narrator describes the video as it plays, although Bryant seems to overlook the critical first seconds. The story goes on, but not many changes from Book 1. Still three.point.five.

A creative, fresh story in an overstuffed genre.

This book has ONE flaw, but it's still a 5-Star Book and you must read it. I'll tell you why.

The Good:
This Rotten World stands out from the crowd of repetitive zombie books by focusing on the one thing that others want to get through expediently.
Other zombie books give you a quick glimpse of the collapse and then focus on the world after, they focus on people surviving in a world that is already broken and has been broken for a long time, but This Rotten World lives in that space where other books don't find potential, this is a book that focuses on literally the very first days of the outbreak and sets a realistic approach to how and why everything fell apart.
By introducing individual chapters focusing on individual characters you can see the progression of the infection, so you can actually feel the confusion, the grief, the loss, the death, and the collapse of everything. The cool thing about this approach is that you are introduced to the characters that you're fairly certain are your cast of protagonists, but the secret is a lot of those characters are probably not going to make it past two chapters, and it becomes tense and intriguing to see who will actually make it to the end.
The novels approach to death is vicious, indiscriminate, and real. Not everybody that you expect to make it will necessarily make it, and when you think a certain character might go left, they might go right, which keeps the book consistently fresh.
I love that this is a book that is focused on the horror, and the character experience, not on giving you three pages of descriptions and stats on each weapon that they're going to use; I love The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z, but this is not that, This is not a scientific and military analysis of the outbreak, This is people who find their lives changing irrevocably and trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

The Bad:
Literally only one thing. The "villain". I get what the author was going for: the kind of person with a tendency towards criminality, who breaks, and chooses chaos and destruction. And from a plot development standpoint it works and it horrifies and it pays off greatly, but at least for me, it felt a little abrupt. This character went from normal person in the middle of a catastrophe, to nihilistic Joker literally overnight. If there were actual signs of the tendency in this character, I did not pick up on it.
This is such a small complaint that it doesn't make me deduct any points from the story, especially because of the way that part of the story evolves, and the payoff that comes from it, but I did find myself a bit confused by the turn of events the moment the character suddenly woke up and chose chaos.

Verdict:
Tired of Zombie books? Aren't we all? Still, this one is completely worth your time and attention. This book feels like a response for people who feel everything has been done in the zombie subgenre.
Clever scenes, excellent character development, soul crushing events (one particular scene in which a character gets labeled a "saint" Is something I don't think I've ever seen in any zombie story, and it was both uplifting and so tragic it made me love it to death). There is another scene near the end that I think has been done somewhere, or hinted at, but I have never seen it done with as much gravitas and dignity and impact as would Jacy Morris did here.
I have read every zombie cliche in the world, and I found myself wanting to continue read this because it always gave me a reason to care, and that's something a lot of zombie books no longer do.
Read it now.

Gritty, chaotic, and deadly. Exactly what a zombie outbreak should be.

This was a very good zombie apocalypse book. I’ve been fortunate to only ever read or listen to a couple of that genre that were duds. Jacky Morris (author) pulls no punches, it is a true end of civilization story, from beginning to end. No character ever feels safe and that is reinforced from beginning to end. Plot armor is never present, which is very refreshing.

The narration is great. T.L. Howell brings to life a variety of personalities each with their own unique backstories and methodologies for dealing with the end of the world. There are no heroes, there are villains everywhere, and there are people doing what it takes to survive another day. I look forward to enjoying the rest of this book series. However, if this has been a stand alone story, it would have had a very powerful and poignant ending.

A profound way to bring this book to a close!!!

The narrator was impeccable with an uncanny ability to effortlessly assist me into the shoes of the various characters in this story.

The author did an overall good job of juggling & bouncing between such a large cast but in my opinion, they were a little overambitious in that regard.

There were times throughout the story when it felt as though some characters were forgotten for extended stretches.

It seemed like the reader/listener is then treated to an extra large helping of that character(s) arc when the author returned to them.

It was as though after realizing how neglectful they'd been of those characters the author went too far in the other direction in an effort to maintain a balance amongst the extensive cast.

Not that this was a significant problem but it did seem to detract from the overall pace & flow of the story at times.

This wasn't any issue that would prevent me from recommending this book but it was something I was acutely aware at various points while listening.

Also I found that some characters had significantly more development & back story than others while at the same time, nearly every character didn't have enough of other one.

It left me feeling like I didn't really get to know any of the characters as well as I should've for an introductory story of an extended series like this.

I assume & expect the author will have gotten a better grasp of this aspect in the subsequent books in the series and look forward to giving the next one a listen in the near future.

*SPOILERS* One aspect I found absolutely perfect was the manner in which the author brought about the ending of the book.

The one character you would fully expect to carry over into the next book in the series is tragically killed during the last dash for freedom was a well planned & unexpected.

The stoic speech the president gave while knowing he was also infected literally gave me feelings of inspiration.

Even though it was off camera he made sure he was heard making sure everyone watching or listening could hear him telling his aides to give his love to his wife & daughter before he demanded a firearm to bravely take his own life.

A perfect ending to an imperfect but incredibly enjoyable story.

Just okay

The story was pretty cliche. No real character development. Too many moving parts/people with no cohesion.