Reviews
Predictable and over dramatic. However, I did enjoy the zombies and some characters.
The beginning of this book, I was not impressed: Benny was an annoying brat who only liked "cool" people. He considered his older brother Tom to be a coward and wholeheartedly looked up to the scummy bounty hunters. The only reason he likes his friend Nix is basically because she finally started growing boobs. Thankfully he grows up after his trip to the ruin and realizes everything he believed was wrong and childish. I thoroughly enjoyed when Nix told him off about thinking the bounty hunters were "cool" and how strong she was. She did play the damsel in distress, but always fought back and never gave up and waited to be saved. The last half of the book I enjoyed. I liked meeting Lilah and hearing her story. Although I guessed that Tom didn't actually die, (in fact when Benny doused him in cadaverine I knew it'd be important.) I enjoyed his reappearance at the camp. I will read the next book soon.
Review by: Addison at Of Spectacles and Books Why I chose this book: One of our readers had recommended this book to me some time ago. He warned me that is was “zombie lit”, which made me hesitant to read it. Before beginning this novel I had read The Forest of Hands and Teeth, and was extremely unsettled. While that probably wasn’t my best jump into zombie lit, I figured I would give it one more try.
** spoiler alert ** Fifteen-year-old Benny Imura comes to grips with the zombie apocalypse that happened when he was a baby -- and with the Rot and Ruin that exists outside the Californian enclave where he grew up in relative safety. Action/adventure and the battle between good and evil.... and a budding romance. Quite gruesome (as you would expect with zombies involved). Age range? Grade 5 and above. Benny's "family business" -- as run by his older brother Tom -- is to go out and "quiet" zombies (by shoving a silver spike into the base of their brain stem) - and the book ends with Benny accepting the humanity of his brother's work, as the two of them "quiet" their parents. First of a series...
This book was a page turner, and the characters were likable I just can’t get over how a literal child was sexualized so I feel uncomfortable with the overall book. Honestly I was more interested in the conflict of the brother than I was in the main character.
