Rot and Ruin

Rot and Ruin, by Jonathan Maberry, is the first book in a series, though it reads well on its own. It's a coming-of-age story set 14 years after the Zombie apocalypse. In this story, the zombies are more of a backdrop to the dynamics of family and friendship, of growing up convinced of the rightness of your opinions and having experience cast those opinions into doubt.

The book focuses on 15 year old Benny Imura. Benny was only 18 months old on First Night, but he remembers the important part -- his dad reanimating, his mom handing him to his much older half-brother, Tom, and telling Tom to run. He even remembers what his mom was wearing -- a white blouse with red sleeves. And he remembers that Tom ran. He didn't help Benny's mom, not then, not ever. Benny hates him for that. Everyone in their new hometown of Mountainside thinks that Tom is some sort of super brave guy, but Benny knows the truth -- Tom is nothing but a coward. He's also a bounty hunter (he prefers the term "closure specialist") who kills zoms. He never talks about it, though, so Benny's pretty sure he does it in a cowardly way. Not like bounty hunters Charley Matthias and the Motor City Hammer. They're always talking about how they kill zoms, sometimes even going mano-a-mano! They're cool. They're real men. Not like Tom.

When, at 15, Benny has to get a job or have his rations cut in half, he ends up apprenticing to Tom. What he learns on that first "closure" gives him pause for thought. A mission to find a feral girl and shut down the infamous "Gameland" has him re-evaluating his most deeply held beliefs about Tom, about First Night, about what makes a monster -- and what makes a hero. Available in print, audio CD, and downloadable eBook, Rot and Ruin is a zombie novel well worth the read.