Characterization was done well developed so that we had a feel for their complexities and motivations. I lacked patience for early Benny he’s such a teenager, but of course, that’s so he can grow exponentially by the book’s finish. Mentality and technology have an 1800s Western feel, with bounty hunters and traders being the few willing to set foot outside of town. Religion plays another role outside the fence when Benny meets the zombie sympathizers. There isn’t too much that is unique in the town setting or in society’s reaction to the Fall, except for a religious faction that blames the zombies on technology. The locksmiths repair locks so people can be locked in at night (in case they die of natural causes), and erosion artists act like police sketch artists for those missing family and friends. The expositional process of going through different jobs is a novel and clever one, introducing the reader to various roles and norms within the community. They return to town, more stuff happens, and Benny has to do some fast growing up as they race against time to save. Tom takes him outside the fence, and Benny finds many of his beliefs and emotions challenged. To absolutely no one’s surprise, Benny fails as all the jobs he tries and resigns himself to apprenticing with Tom. Benny truly doesn’t understand his brother’s expertise and philosophy, instead admiring the town bounty-hunter thugs who brag about number of kills and scavenged riches. Since then, Tom has spent years raising and protecting him, now working as a zombie- quieter.

He has a memory of Tom carrying him, racing away from the arms of his mom and leaving her to their father, who was already a zombie. Benny has been carrying a grudge against Tom since the day of the Fall, fourteen years ago. Benny lives with his half-brother Tom in a gated community, only this particularly community is gated to keep the zombies out. Only, if they don’t find a job, food rations will be decreased by half, and we all know how teens like to eat.

It opens in a small town of 28 thousand, with fifteen year-old Benny and his best friend Lou Chong forced to look for jobs, the bane of countless teenagers during countless summers. I love me some apocalypse fiction, and when Trudi recommended this series, I knew I had to give it a go. At worst, they’re Cracker Jacks, caramel popcorn fun with a prize at the end. The genre is erroneously underrated the best zombie and apocalypse fiction is about wrestling with humanity, ethics and survival, with some hair-raising action to leaven the philosophy. I know, zombies, right? So passe, so early century, so urban fiction–so yawn for so many people. Recommended to Carol by: Trudi Stafford Read July 2012 ★ ★ ★ ★

Rot & ruin series