Dust and Decay (with a little bit of Rot and Ruin)

Title: Dust and Decay
Author: Jonathan Maberry
Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0235-5
Pages: 519

Why I choose this particular book: I read the first book in the Benny Imura series, Rot and Ruin, and needed to read this one. In general I choose this series because, of all the horror genre monsters out there, zombies really freak me out. Books are a great way to face my fear without being too visual (though sometimes my imagination is so much more graphic than movies/TV). I requested this book from my library's catalog and received it through inter-library loan. 

Started reading: June 26, 2012 at 12:13 AM

Finished reading: June 29, 2012 at 12:38 AM

Since this is the second book in a series and I don't have an entry for the first book on this blog let me give a mini review about Rot and Ruin. So fourteen years after First Night, when the zombie plague began, humanity is existing within fenced-in towns with only a few souls brave enough to go into the Ruin where zombies roam free. Benny Imura has just turned 15 and in his town, Mountainside, he must find a job or lose half of his food rations. After a few unsuccessful forays into employment he finally and reluctantly settles for entering into the family business - killing zombies. His older brother, Tom, is a bounty hunter and Benny is not his biggest fan but he doesn't have many options and wants to continue to eat.

Throughout the course of the novel Benny learns the truth about his own First Night story as well as what really happens out in the Ruin.

I truly love the premise of the book. No one has any answers to the big questions and not too many seem interested in finding out. Benny and his friends are the first wave of children brought up almost entirely in the Ruin and they aren't as complacent as the adults around them - to live their lives in town, to not know about why the zombies, or 'zoms', exist. Benny's crew learns a lot in this first book and it drives them on to find out more, to search for lives without the threat of zoms.

Tom, Benny's brother, is such a great character. The author has martial arts experience and shows off his knowledge through Tom - Tom's way of being and his fighting style. He's a reluctant hero and tries so set an example for an honorable life in a disreputable world.

Lilah, the 'Lost Girl' and brief object of Benny's affections, has a truly horrifying past and her actions reflect that. I like that the author is mindful that the characters remain fully in the setting he's created. I really hate being pulled out of a story because of an accidental anachronism. References to life before First Night mean something to the reader and the adults in the story but the kids are oblivious.    

The zoms are just awesome. Maberry choose to make them slow moving creatures, slowly rotting away and with a taste for human flesh. They aren't in it for the brains, though, and will bite anything they can. A zom bite will infect the victim, who may have a few hours or even a day to live but who will most certainly die. Zoms stop decaying at a certain point though no one knows why. Unless they're newly risen, most zoms can't open doors or do anything complicated but there are some exceptions. The newly risen are stronger and faster than those who've rotted a bit. The only ways to stop a zom are to severe the brain stem or completely crush the brain. Zoms are attracted by smell to fresh flesh but will also follow movement and noise. Everyone who dies, even through natural causes, will rise and become a zom. Every adult carries a sliver - a slim piece of metal used to quiet (severe the brain stem) anyone who has died so that they don't rise. People lock themselves into their bedrooms at night so that if they die in their sleep they won't be able to get out and kill the rest of the family. There are some people who see the zoms as the Children of Lazarus, that zoms are the meek who will inherit the earth. Living with the end of civilization as they knew it, as well as fourteen years in complete fear of the walking dead, people start looking for anyway to explain what happened or ignore it all as best they can. 

Nix, Benny's friend, keeps a journal about zombies, theories and facts, as well as information on zombie hunters and more. In Dust and Decay, excerpts are included at the ends of chapters and they give more insight into available zombie information. 

I don't want to reveal too much about the second book's plot. If you pick up the first one (and you should) with too much knowledge about the second one it'll take away your fun discovering what happens. I'll keep it general. Basically Dust picks up about seven months after Rot. The survivors of the first book have a mission and are determined to follow through with it, no matter what. They carefully plan their actions but a few hurdles in the road, plus some strong opposition from various persons in the Ruin, stop them in their tracks. Now they must face what's been put in front of them if they want to survive.

The plot ties in nicely with the first book in the series. Expanded character information in Dust informs Ruin's story, giving background information and insight into character motivations. Whereas Ruin is strictly from Benny's perspective, in Dust the author tells the story through multiple characters. At first I was a little resistant to the change, I love Benny, but now I'm glad for it. I loved getting to know other characters better. 

Overall, I think my favorite aspect of the series so far, besides the characters, who I love, is that, instead of treating the zombies as the obvious big bad, Maberry raises the question - what is the true evil in the Ruin?

Have your tissues ready for the end of Dust. Trust me, it's heartbreaking.

Similar Reads:

Boneshaker (The Clockwork Century #1) by Cherie Priest (Zombies and steampunk!)
The Zombie Survival Guide: Compete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks (A must-have manual to survive a zombie uprising)

Links to More Information:

Jonathan Maberry
Zombies
Rot and Ruin
Dust and Decay

Discussion:

What are your favorite type of zombies - fast, slow, smart, dumb? What horror character scares you the most? Do you have a zombie survival plan? Do you think modern entertainment media is overly saturated with zombies?