His time with Tom also made him begin to doubt everything he had been taught about zombies, and this is where Rot & Ruin’s philosophical and ethical questions about the treatment of zombies came in to play. His experiences in the rot and ruin changed Benny, gave him perspective and showed him how sheltered his life had been despite his surroundings. It was a really interesting dynamic, that two people could have lived under the same roof for fifteen years, and know so little about one another. It was also interesting to see Tom’s patience get stretched to its breaking point, because of Benny’s foolish beliefs about “cool” bounty hunters like Charlie and The Hammer. Listening to Tom explain how he was a different bounty hunter than most, and his reasons for it, we got to see Benny begrudgingly accept that his brother might not be as awful as he had imagined. All that began to change as the veil of innocence was lifted from Benny’s eyes after his first trip into the rot and ruin, and he experienced a zombie kill for the first time. Originally strained because of Benny’s belief that Tom was a coward, Benny had absolutely no respect for Tom or his job as a bounty hunter.

What I did enjoy however, was watching Benny and Tom’s relationship evolve. Though Rot & Ruin had a bevy of characters, none of them truly stuck out for me. A strikingly realistic portrayal of the strained relationship between brothers who have grown apart and a poignant look into the depths of man’s humanity, Rot & Ruin is way more than a book about zombies.

Told through the eyes of a naive young boy on an unintentional quest for enlightenment, we got to witness the harshness of his reality first hand as he truly experienced it for the first time. Thought-provoking and intelligent, with Rot & Ruin Maberry has created a post-apocalyptic world that questions the slaughter of those inflicted with disease.

Rot and ruin book 2