Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry (Book Talk #9)

For Halloween, I curled up with Rot and Ruin by Jonathon Maberry. After all, what's a holiday without a post apocalyptic zombie novel? 

Benny Imura and his half brother, Tom, live within a guarded town in a zombie infested world. No one beside the zombie hunters venture outside of the town and the kids collect Zombie cards with famous people who have turned into zombies and bounty hunters. There is no electricity due to religious sects and no plans to expand the town and retake the land that was lost to zombies.  Benny has recently turned 15 and must find a job to become a productive member of society. Reluctantly, he becomes his brother's apprentice.

Benny idolizes the bounty hunters who act tough and brag about their kills. Even though his brother does the same work, Benny thinks that Tom is uncool and boring. In the beginning, it boggles Benny's mind that so many people respect Tom for his work. This all changes once Tom takes Benny on a kill. Tom is a closure specialist, who finds the loved ones of people and town and puts their zombie loved ones to rest. He ties them to a chair in their home and reads a letter written by the loved ones. Then he "quiets them" by inserting a dagger in the base of their neck. Tom kills zombies but he treats them as people instead of rabid animals.

Benny comes to realize that humans are far worse of a threat than the zombies. The bounty hunters he once idolized turn zombie killing into a sick passion. In the Ruin (outside the town defenses), there are no laws and the hunters convince kids to play a part in survival games for money. Many of them die for the entertainment of the bounty hunters. 

The Lost Girl

One day, Benny gets a very rare Zombie card of The Lost Girl. Her image intrigues him and he tries to track down who she is. In the process, the people who know about the Lost Girl either get kidnapped or turned into zombies by the meanest bounty hunters. Benny and Tom must venture into the Ruin to save the lost girl and a friend. 

The character development was extremely important to make this novel believable. I loved how this was told from Benny's point of view. Since he was very little when civilization fell, his outlook on the world is vastly different than those who knew about cell phones and electricity.

Did I mention it was a Cybilis, Bram Stoker, and YALSA award winner?