Who doesn't love zombies? I'll tell you who: losers. Because I am not a loser, I am an avid reader of zombie books (I am seriously reading about five right now). Now, some zombie books are stupid and cliche, but there are some zombie books that have true quality. They have a solid plot, realistic and believable characters (except for the zombies, of course), and a good message at the end. Two of these amazing zombie masterpieces are
Rot & Ruin and
Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry.
Jonathan Maberry is a multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author, playwright,and writing teacher/lecturer. His other books include
Patient Zero,
Ghost Road Blues,
Dead of Night, and
Zombie CSU: The Forensics of the Living Dead. You can find out more at his
website.
Rot & Ruin
Summary: Everything changed on the First Night. Everything changed when the dead were no longer the dead. Benny Imura has grown up in the zombie infested world of Rot and Ruin - what used to be America. Now that he is fifteen, Benny must find work. Despite his loathing of his older brother, Tom, he ends up joining the family business - namely, killing zombies (or "zoms"). Benny's view on zoms and people rapidly change as Tom teaches him and Benny finds out about Gameland - a place where kids are forced to fight zoms. Now Benny has to determine who the real monsters in the world are.
What I thought of the book:
As you could probably tell, I absolutely loved this book. The characters were great, especially Nix and Lilah. Girl power! And the villains rocked too - they were hard-core, bad to the bone kind of guys. I mean, forcing kids to fight zoms? How evil is that?! I recommend this book to any high schoolers who aren't squeamish.
Dust & Decay (sequel to
Rot & Ruin)
Summary: After months of training with Tom and seeing the jet fly across Rot and Ruin, Nix, Benny, Lilah, and Tom are ready to leave their home. Chong goes along for the first night, planning on just saying good-bye (and spending a little quality time with Lilah). Unfortunately, their trip doesn't start well. Wild animals are now roaming Rot and Ruin, there are swarms of zoms heading toward them, and, oh yeah, there are a couple of insane murderers after them. Just when things couldn't get worse, Chong, Benny, and Nix are forced to fight in Gameland.
What I thought of the Book:
Honestly, this one was even better than the first. Probably because this one had Sally Two-Knives, my personal favorite bounty hunter. And I think the villains are even better in this one - more crazy, if you know what I mean. If you liked
Rot & Ruin, you'd love this book.
