Rot & Ruin (Rot & Ruin, #1)

by Jonathan Maberry

[violetpeanut]

I started reading this and got about 5 chapters in and had to put it down. The main character is supposed to be 15 years old but he is written like a 10 year old! It was driving me crazy! For example,

"Nix had always been like Morgie and Chong. Now she was a girl. There was no way to ignore that fact anymore.

It seems to me that most 15 year old boys noticed girls about the time they hit puberty, which, in most cases, is long before they turned 15. That's just one example.

Benny is obviously a very angry teenage boy but the author drills into your head the reason why. His parents were killed by zombies and his brother ran away with him instead of staying and fighting. This reason is mentioned over and over again. I realize this is a YA novel but young adults can understand subtlety. They do not need to have a backstory drilled into their heads to understand a character's motivation.

On the plus side, I liked the general idea of the book and I liked how the author introduced all of the facets of the society by having Benny search for a job.

I don't know... maybe I'll revisit this one again down the road. For now, I have to put it down because I'm just too irritated by Benny's misplaced anger and annoying whining.