Audio Book Review: Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry (Benny Imura #2)

Title: Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry

Published: August 30th 2011 by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Source: Library

Grade rate: A++

Six months have passed since the terrifying battle with Charlie Pink-eye and the Motor City Hammer in the zombie-infested mountains of the Rot & Ruin. It’s also six months since Benny Imura and Nix Riley saw something in the air that changed their lives. Now, after months of rigorous training with Benny’s zombie-hunter brother Tom, Benny and Nix are ready to leave their home forever and search for a better future. Lilah the Lost Girl and Benny’s best friend Lou Chong are going with them.

 

Sounds easy. Sounds wonderful. Except that everything that can go wrong does. Before they can even leave there is a shocking zombie attack in town. But as soon as they step into the Rot & Ruin they are pursued by the living dead, wild animals, insane murderers and the horrors of 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?

In the great Rot & Ruin everything wants to kill you. Everything…and not everyone in Benny’s small band of travelers will make it out alive.

My Review

I don’t even know how to start this review.   This book was SO good that it leaves me speechless.  If you have not read Rot & Ruin you are missing on an incredible series (go on and get these books now! Caution:  not for younger readers)

The book starts seven months after the end of Rot & Ruin and Tom, Benny, Nix and Lila are getting ready to leave Mountainside for good.  As always Benny is so funny and endearing to me.  I absolutely love these characters (yes, even Chong), Jonathan Maberry is a master storyteller and he knows how to create characters that elicit strong emotions: love, hate, disgust, apathy, etc.   The bad guys this time are so awful that I don’t think there is a word strong enough to describe it.  We also meet a lot of new characters from Benny’s zombie cards.  Happy journey Benny, I hope you find what you are looking for.

The story is told from the third person POV, and we know what is going on with most of the characters all the time, which is a nice change since a lot of YA books are written in the first person.  I wish I could tell Mr. Maberry how incredible he is (obviously I am not a gifted writerJ).  His writing is so lyrical, so personal, that the words strung together in a sentence have such a deep meaning that I can’t help but to wonder how he does it.  It reminds me a little of Maggie Stiefvater’s writing.  The plot is so good, the zombies are more and more gruesome, and the bad guys are SO bad it is kind of incomprehensible.

Cannot wait for the sequel!

On a final note, I apologize to all the people that saw me driving while I was listening to this book.  I must have looked like a lunatic, what with all the frowns, mouth hanging open in surprise, and even openly crying so hard I was sobbing (why ,oh why, did that happened? [Sorry, trying not to spoil it for you])  

About the cover:  Isn’t it just a combination of beautiful and creepy / disturbing all at once? That is what the book is like.  Love it!