Greetings

My name is Mary-Elser Kinmore and I love all things dark and creepy. Books, movies, music, games, toys, clothes; as long as it’s darkly themed and beyond normal I usually like it.

I love to read. So, as my very first subject matter, let's talk about zombie books. Zombies are all about the dead or rather, the undead and the horror that goes along with decaying, walking corpses that see you as their next meal. I really enjoy reading about them. The only problem is the low quantity of zombie novels out there that are fit for tweens and teens to read. But there are those who can and do write for younger audiences as well as older. Jonathan Maberry is one I especially like.

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

It's 14 years after a zombie apocalypse in which the majority of the American population has become the undead. In one small town, a boy named Benny Imura comes of age in this nightmarish post-apocalyptic world. He leaves the safety of town with his older brother and they both take on zombies and bad guys alike before being able to return home.

Rot & Ruin is a book about zombies but not just about them. It's also about growing up among the undead, of finding love and family amidst dead creatures hungering for your flesh. And realizing that sometimes, the walking dead are not the most evil of creatures you'll encounter; sometimes it's living.

You know the zombies are there, but Jonathan Maberry does not paint totally gruesome pictures of them. You know, like pulling intestines out by the handfuls or burying their faces deep inside the stomach of their most likely still alive victims. Personally, I can handle that kind of gore in a book, but since this is a YA novel, his way is better. Still, there are enough thrills and chills that anyone of any age should be satisfied with it. I know I was and I am already looking forward to reading the sequel: Dust & Decay.

You can purchase Rot & Ruin in hardcover, paperback, audio and for the kindle.