Book Review — Flesh & Bone

Title:  Flesh & Bone
Author:  Jonathan Maberry
Genre:  Post-apocalyptic YA with zombies
Published:  September 11, 2012
Publisher:  Simon & Schuster
Pages:  Oversize paperback, 469
ISBN:  9781442439894
Opening Lines:  "Benny Imura thought, I'm going to die."
Author Links:  Website  ♠ Twitter  ♠ Facebook
Rating:

"Benny Imura and his friends are reeling from the tragic events of Wawona and the second Gameland, but there's no time to stop and mourn fallen comrades. Survival in the great Rot and Ruin requires movement, and so, with heavy hearts, Benny, Nix, Lilah, and Chong continue their quest to find the jet that they saw in the skies months ago. If that jet exists, then humanity itself must have survived . . . somewhere. Finding it is their best hope for having a future and a life worth living.

"But the Ruin is far more dangerous than any of them can imagine. The zoms seem to be mutating in terrifying ways that could change everything they know about surviving among the walking dead. And even worse, a death cult has arisen that is gathering new followers at a frightening rate, and is devoted to sending every living person in the Rot and Ruin into the waiting arms of death."

~ Jacket copy

Thoughts:  After Dust & Decay ended, I had no idea how Maberry was going to continue the series. Benny, Nix, Lilah, and Chong are left in the Ruin without a guide or a clue as to their next step. Aside from Lilah having ample experience in the Ruin and amazing survival skills, the teenagers are basically town kids who have stumbled into some horrid situations. Without the guidance of Tom, I really wondered how they would function and whether they should return to Mountainside.

Feeling as if they have nothing to return to and wanting to honor Tom's memory, the teenagers continue on their cross-country trek to find the jet Nix and Benny saw in the first book. However, things are not easy. Things continue to be strained between Nix and Benny. Everyday Nix seems to be changing into someone Benny doesn't know, and she closes herself off more and more from the people around her. Reeling after Tom's death, Benny has also retreated into himself, started to become stoic, and views that he needs to take Tom's place. And, on top of that, Benny seriously doubts their decision to leave Mountainside. With Nix's growing obsession with the plane and seeming lack of concern for her comrades, Benny is unsure how to handle everything.

Things in the Ruin are starting to change. The teenagers have noticed changes in the zombies. Some of them are getting faster, and animals are getting infected. And if the evolution of the zombie plague is not enough, they are surrounded in the Nevada desert by a strange religious death-cult calling themselves the Reapers, who intend the open "red mouths" in all the heretics and lead them into the darkness.

Maberry put a lot of thought into the Reapers. While their religion seems extremist, living in a post-apocalyptic world where disease, famine, and death run rampant, it is easy to see where a death-cult could take hold. However, I did not find it to be coincidence that the head of the church was Saint John and his loyal follower was Brother Peter.

"You have been the rock on which I built the Night Church . . . You, Peter. Not her." (327)

Even though they worship the god Thanatos, the resemblance to Christianity is striking! Chapter 74 mirrors the discussion Jesus had with Peter before His crucifixion.

From the first page until the end, this book was emotional and raw. For me, the introduction was the perfect way to describe this book. It was about loss and grief. At one point or another, all of the main characters come face-to-face with loss and try to pull themselves through their own grieving process. Once again, Maberry tackles deep issues in this book and really forces the audience to look at human nature. He also shows the depravity and complete helplessness of suffering, loss, and grief. In his books, zombies are not the enemies, merely an aftershock of an already corrupt world.

This book is a tour de force! I found myself on the edge of my seat during all of the action and crying bitter tears with the teenagers as they continue to learn the harsh realities of life. If young adult novels allow teens to be voyeurs and experience things they might never have to, I think this series will go a long way in opening discussions, cause them to ask tough questions, and really start looking at the world around them. As Tom says, "You can fix the world. You, Nix . . . Your generation. You can fix the world and make it right."

**Note:  This book was received from the publisher for a fair and honest review.


Currently Reading:  Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
Pages:  10,489
Current Progress:

33/50 books

Book Review -- Dust & Decay

Title:  Dust & Decay
Author:  Jonathan Maberry
Genre:  YA post-apocalyptic
Pages:  Hardback 519
Published:  2011

"Benny Imura and Nix Riley can't forget the jet they saw fly over the zombie-infested mountains of the Rot and Ruin.  

"The jet meant leaving, something that Nix and Benny were going to do.  Now—after months of rigorous training with Tom, Benny's zombie-hunter brother—Benny, Nix, Lilah the Lost Girl, and Chong are ready to leave their home forever and search for a better future.

"But from the start, everything goes wrong.  They were pursued by the living dead, wild animals, and insane murderers, and are face with the horrors of the rebuilt Gameland, where teenagers are forced to fight for their lives in the zombie pits.  Worst of all . . . could the evil Charlie Pink-eye still be alive?"

~Jacket copy

Thoughts:  Since I finished Rot & Ruin, I have been looking for this book!

This book picks up several months after the destruction of Gameland and the death of Charlie Pink-eye.  After seeing the jet, Nix is determined to find out where it came from.  Since the death of her mother, she feels no connection to their small town.  Even though Benny seemed happy to go, the closer it gets to their deadline, he secretly wonders if he really wants to go on their adventure.

Even though he is not following them, Tom arranges to take Chong with them into the Rot and Ruin for a one or two day camping trip.  Chong has been training with Benny, Nix, and Morgie.  Tom feels that it is important for Chong to know what the Rot and Ruin really held.  However, even though Tom intentionally took paths that were mostly untraveled, their trip went from bad to worse.  And, in the midst of it all, Benny thinks he has seen Charlie Pink-eye!

It is hard to say too much about this book without giving the whole story away.  I will say, however, I love the characters Maberry introduced in the book!  The bounty hunters were not the main characters in the book, but it honestly could not have stood without them.  Further, Maberry did a wonderful job keeping the reader in the dark about the current status of Charlie Pink-eye.

The book had great pacing and didn't lack in the plot department.  The scenery was just as rich and well thought out as the first book.  Honestly, the author did a wonderful job keeping the continuity through both books.  Even though there were some things that really distressed me in the book, I am very curious to see how the series plays out.  


Rating:
Currently: Ashfall by Mike Mullin
Current Pages: 5406
Current Progress:

15/50 books

Zombie Month Book Review -- Rot & Ruin

Title:  Rot & Ruin
Author:  Jonathan Maberry
Genre:  YA post-apocalyptic with zombies
Pages:  Hardback, 458
Published:  2010
Opening Lines:  ":Benny Imura couldn't hold a job, so he took to killing."

"In the zombie-infested world Benny has grown up in, teenagers must work once they turn fifteen—or they;ll lose their food rations.  Benny isn't interested in taking on the family business, but he reluctantly agrees to train as a zombie killer with his older boring big brother, Tom.  He expects a dull job, whacking zombies for cash.  What he discovers is a vocation that will teach him what it really means to be human.

"As his worldview is challenged again and again by the lessons he learns from Tom, Benny is forced to confront another horrifying reality: Sometimes the most terrible monsters are humans."

~Jacket copy 

Thoughts:  I honestly had no idea what to expect going into this book.  At some level, I anticipated the traditional zombie-apocalypse with teenagers as the central characters.   However, this book really teaches valuable life lessons and forces the reader to take a closer look at society.

Wanting to find the easiest and most entertaining job they can, Benny and Chong, his best friend, start trying out jobs they find listed in the help-wanted pages.  After Chong finds his dream vocation up on the watch towers, Benny is left struggling to find something before his rations run out.  Even though he hates his brother and thinks of him as a coward, Benny decides that becoming Tom's apprentice is the only option.  Expecting a boring job of killing masses of undead for bounty money, Benny is faced with the horrible truth behind human nature in the Rot and Ruin—where there are no rules and those strong enough will take what they want . . . By any means necessary.

From start to finish, this book was engaging!  Even though I understand Benny's feelings towards Tom, I couldn't fully understand why he felt zombie killing would be a boring job.  After all, he loved to spend hours at a time listening to Charlie Pink-Eye and The Hammer talk about their zombie killing adventures.  Using that as a judge, it was surprising to be how insistent he was on the boring nature of the job.

I felt that Maberry did a wonderful job fleshing out the characters as well as the surroundings.  To me, the Rot and Ruin was as much a character as the people.  Each deserted town, Lilah's cave, etc. had it's own personality.  Further, even though the zombies were a vehicle for the plot, he manages to make them characters in his own right.

Maberry put a lot of thought and time into this work.  He uses it to address deep issues of true human nature and the nature of evil.  He questions whether zombies can really be called bad a or evil since they lack any awareness.  They are driven by an insane hunger they cannot control, and, from all outward appearances, seem to have no brain function outside of this insatiable hunger for human flesh.  Therefore, they cannot be blamed for their actions and those actions cannot be seen as malicious.  The people, however, choose to torture zombies, throw lost children into pits with zombies for entertainment, and so on.  Tom challenges Benny to look at the true monster in society.

The concept of the zombie being the "noble-savage" reminds me a great deal of The Last Man On Earth. What makes us human?  What separates us from the animals?  What keeps our baser instincts in check?  This book was amazingly deep, engaging, and well extremely well written. 

Rating:
Currently: Zombies Don't Cry by Rusty Fischer
Current Pages: 3246
Current Progress:

9/50 books