Rot and Ruin/Jonathan Maberry

Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry; young adult, western, horror; 464 pages (about 13.5 hours on audio)

I saw this on some list of great audiobooks, so I picked it up. It was billed as a western with zombies, so I figured I would love it. And I did, but not quite as much as I was expecting. That had nothing to do with the story, which was fast-paced and full of twists and turns, as well as plenty of zombie mayhem. No, I think what turned me off was the narrator, who didn't do such a great job differentiating the voices, and often left me confused as to who was talking.

The story is pretty straightforward (aren't all zombie books?): following the zombie uprising 14 years ago, Tom Imura has helped build a settlement known as Mountainside, where people can live protected from the Dead. Tom makes his living as a bounty hunter, traveling into the wilderness (the "Rot and Ruin" to the townsfolk) with only his katana for protection, in search of his clients' zombified loved ones so they can be put to rest. Everyone in town thinks of him as a hero. Everyone but Benny, Tom's 15-year-old brother, who remembers how Tom abandoned their parents to death on the chaotic night the dead returned. But Benny needs to learn a trade and, after failing at everything else, he swallows his pride and apprentices to his brother. The story starts off slow and steady, and quietly builds in intensity, until I had to finish the last part of the book all in one gulp. I hope Maberry writes more about these characters; he certainly left the ending open to further adventures.

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