Rot & Ruin (Rot & Ruin, #1)

by Jonathan Maberry

[layawaydragon]

When zombies went big, I went “eh”. I didn’t read World War z until years after the movie. While I have few loves like WWZ, I’m not that big into the genre in general. But I will say The White Trash Zombie series is hilarious and the protagonist is a favorite.

However, this series caught my eye and has been waiting since 2012 on my TBR (two years after publication). To make it worse, I somehow have a copy of the third installment Flesh & Bone on my shelf. (Maybe I thought it was the first book???)

Finally, though I could deny Rot & Ruin no more; it was free on Riveted Lit for a limited time.

The Good:
+Centers on the original questions of the genre: society & humanity
+Character progression
+Action
+The setting
+The ending
+Love triangle subverted

The Bad & The Other:
-Took a while to get into
-That fucking card!!
-Plot path is mostly obvious
-Girls reduced in fights to let boys shine
-Brothers being half-Japanese is merely a vehicle for the tropes: Katanas Are Just Better, Samurai Cowboy

Rot & Ruin follows two brothers living in a settlement 15 years after the zombie apocalypse. They’re half-Japanese on their father’s side. The older one, Tom, looks like it and wields a katana like a mystical badass, of course. Benny looks white and says the only cool thing about his brother is the katana.

It has many of the zombie genre standards but it’s not tired for me. It took a long time to get into because the building was laboriously slow. It pays off though because one of the main reasons I’d continue the story is for this setting.

Not only do I like how the Rot & Ruin and the settlement are set-up, how people reacted was fantastic.

Rot & Ruin focuses on the being human part better than any other zombie story I’ve read. (though I haven’t read many, to be fair.)

The family business (which was actually a short story that spawned this tetralogy) is unique and touching. I like how it takes us through Benny’s initial mindset that mirrors how people see zombies today to a more thoughtful and nuanced position.

Once things are set up, the dominos start falling and they don’t stop. It’s an action-packed adventure that has the zombie mayhem fans crave. But towards the end, the action scenes consisted of boys saving the girls, despite their fighting ability.

Which brings me to the one damn thing that still pisses me off. It’s the thing I think of first now when it comes to Rot & Ruin.

Zombie Cards are bought and traded in Rot & Ruin. The feature bounties, hunters, and legends. There’s some featured at the end of the story drawn by Rob Sacchetto.

In the book, The Lost Girl is FIERCE. Benny is memorized by her power and eyes in the drawing. But what did Rob Sacchetto draw instead:



WTF is this sexualized nonsense? He even tagged it as Zombie Pin Up Girl, FFS.
I had to red-pen it. If I could draw, I’d make it a submission for The Hawkeye Initiative.



Fuck every single person that approved the decision to include this nonsense and those who don’t denounce it.


Bottom line:



I enjoyed it for the most part. I like where the series is going and have it on my TBR list but eh, it’s not high on the list and I don’t have a real hankering to get to it.

If you’re willing to commit to the slow build up, can tolerate the tropes and sexism, and want a humane theme, it’s worth a shot.

Otherwise, meh. And hopefully, I’ll never see more of that artist’s bullshit. Sad how that's taken over my memory instead of the story.