Review - Fire and Ash by Jonathan Maberry

Benny Imura and his friends have made it to Sanctuary, they've found the jet and they've discovered that civilization is struggling to regain its foothold in the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse. Scientists are on the verge of finding a cure for the zombie plague. It should be time for celebration, but it's not. Benny's best friend, Chong, has been infected by an arrow dipped in the flesh of a zombie and he hovers between life and death and Dr McReady, a researcher who may have the critical formula for a cure, has gone missing. So Benny convinces Captain Ledger to mount a search and rescue mission to find the doctor and help Chong. But with the Reapers still pursuing their plan to turn all zombies into super-fast shock troops even if they can save Chong, can they save themselves? In the fourth book of the thrilling and emotionally charged Rot & Ruin series, the battle to end all battles is about to begin...

Sadly, Fire and Ash by Jonathan Maberry is the last in the Benny Imura series. I was so excited to read it that I could barely put it down. But then there was a part of me that was incredibly sad that the story was ending so I wanted to read it slowly. I couldn't. I tried, but I couldn't.

Benny, Lilah, Nix, Riot, and even Chong have come such a long way from the people they'd been at the beginning of the series. Well, Riot not so much the beginning. But you know what I mean.

Benny was an immature boy who idolized the wrong people, Chong was clueless, Nix was kind of just there... and Lilah, well, if you've read the story you know what Lilah was. In just the year since Benny started apprenticing with Tom they've all lost their childhood. They've all been through such unspeakable horrors that the part of them that should be dominant, the carefree-stupid-teenager part, is completely dead and gone. They won't ever get it back.

With the additions of Riot and Joe Ledger (along with his faithful, yet terrifying, companion Grimm), Benny and his crew seek to finally put an end to the war going on in the Ruin. The war between Sanctuary, the Reapers, the "Zoms", and whoever else comes along. It's time for it to just end. They think they've finally found a way to put a stop to it... but Brother Peter and Saint John have different ideas. Ideas that will completely rock their world, and not in a good way.

They've got to do it without Chong, though. Unfortunately Chong is more or less gone, kept in a cage in the bowels of Sanctuary, seemingly unable to remember who he is... what he is. Benny, Nix, and Lilah are desperate to find out if something can be done to save him, but no one will give them any answers.

I'm not gonna lie. I still miss Tom immensely. He was just such a calming force for the group and kind of their stability. Their rock. I think Benny was really able to fill his shoes the best he could this go around. I'm sure he would have made him proud. Joe Ledger made me mad for quite a while in this story. He was being just as evasive as the rest of the scientists and military personnel and irritating Benny to no end. I think he redeemed himself quite well, however. It was nice to see that Riot stuck around, not that she was really able to go anywhere. But I was glad she didn't try and separate herself from Benny and his friends.

The Night Church still makes my skin crawl. They're horrible and disgusting and just a complete and totally insane group of people. Stomach churning.

I will have to admit, one of my favorite parts was the allusion to The Walking Dead that was made later on in the book. I would tell you what it is, but.... Spoilers. You'll have to read to see it for yourself.

The book itself was incredibly long. I don't think that detracted from the story at all, though. On the contrary, it was an extremely exciting edition. Just when I thought things were over and done with, I realized there were still a hundred pages to go and so much more of the story to read. It was full of suspense and nailbiting battles. I highly recommend that you read it. Especially if you've read the others in the series. I don't think you'll be disappointed if you do.

It will be worth it for you to see Benny and Nix and how the realizations of who they have become change them for the better in Fire and Ash. It will be worth it to see all of the things that they find and the information that they learn from a completely unexpected source. And it will definitely be worth it to finally see how it all ends. Even though I hated to turn that last page and close the book... I was glad that I'd read the series. It was fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.

Review - Flesh & Bone by Jonathan Maberry

Reeling from the tragic events of Dust & Decay, Benny Imura and his friends plunge deep into the zombie-infested wastelands of the great Rot & Ruin. Benny, Nix, Lilah and Chong journey through a fierce wilderness that was once America, searching for the jet 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. They are hunted by fierce animals escaped from zoos and circuses. They must raid zombie-infested towns for food and medical supplies. They discover the very real truth in the old saying: In the Rot & Ruin…everything wants to kill you.

And what is happening to the zombies? Swarms of them are coming from the east, devouring everything in their paths. These zoms are different. Faster, smarter, infinitely more dangerous. Has the zombie plague mutated, or is there something far more sinister behind this new invasion of the living dead?

In Flesh & Bone, Benny Imura, Nix Riley, Lou Chong and Lilah the Lost Girl are pitted against dangers greater than anything they've ever faced. To survive, each of them must rise to become the warriors Tom trained them to be.

This review was originally posted over on Bookish by Evie. I thought it was time I put it up here too!

Book three in the Benny Imura series definitely did not disappoint. Flesh & Bone by Jonathan Maberry was an interesting story to read. With the addition of the Night Church with Saint John and Mother Rose to the discovery made by Benny and Nix that could possibly change the world as they know it, there wasn’t a lot of down time.

Benny, Nix, Chong, and Lilah are on their own now. The heart wrenching end to book two leaves them broken and grieving. Each in their own way. Benny’s way seems to scare him a bit and worry the others. The tension between him and Nix is incredibly thick and the relationship is strained to the point of faltering. But they hold on in any way they can.

The Night Church was an interesting addition. Listening to them speak (er… reading their conversations) made me incredibly uncomfortable and it all seemed SO over the top to me at first. But I realized that that was probably the point of it all. They were a weird cult with even weirder followers. And they were dangerous. Dangerous because they were following people with an evil agenda completely blindly and were willing to do whatever it took to stay in the good graces of Saint John and Mother Rose.

Captain Ledger was a good character. Kind of a light in the darkness of the Ruin. They’d run in to so much trouble already they really needed something to restore their faith in the world. Even if it was just a tiny bit. And I ended up really liking Riot. She was young, but she was strong. Reminded me a lot of Lilah.Their circumstances and the things that they’d been through were on complete opposite ends of the spectrum, but through those experiences they kind of both reached the same point if that makes sense.

There were some really unnerving twists in this story that change everything that Benny and Co. thought they knew about zombies and the ruin. To combat those though, they finally find answers to some of the questions they’ve been asking for a long time. Things make a lot more sense and I can’t wait to see where the new information takes the story.

Obviously if you’ve read the first two books in the series, you HAVE to read this one. It’s the kind of story that doesn’t give you enough time to really settle down. Just when you think you can breathe easy something else happens that puts you right back on the edge of your seat. I can’t wait for book four!

Book Trailer - Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry

I just finished reading Flesh & Bone by Jonathan Maberry and was looking around to see if there was a book trailer and came across this instead:

What do you all think? Interested in reading it?

Covers Around the World - Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

So, I'm trying to get over my total shock and heartbreak after reading Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry. Found some interesting covers for Rot & Ruin, book 1 in the Benny Imura series.

English Language Edition

 

Danish Edition

 

UK Edition


French Edition

 

German Edition

 

Not too too many editions out yet, but the ones I found on Goodreads are pretty interesting so far. Some interesting title changes too. Which one was your favorite?

Review - Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry

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.

Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry is probably one of the most action packed and thrilling books I've read ever. I know I say this a lot, but I would LOVE to see it as a movie. Even knowing what's supposed to happen I would probably be close to falling off the edge of my seat for the ENTIRE movie.

Benny and Co. have been training for months with Tom. Training to become "Warrior Smart" as they call it. To learn how to fight and how to survive. Because soon Tom, Nix, Benny, and Lilah are going to be leaving Mountainside in search of the jet they'd seen pass overhead months and months ago. Even Chong is going to accompany them for part of the way. Until everything goes wrong. Everyone gets separated from everyone else and it would take a miracle for them all to end up back together in one piece.

There were some new characters introduced in this installment of the Benny Imura series. We meet Preacher Jack who seems a little creepy and too much like he's hiding something, Sally Two-Knives who is a fearsome bounty hunter who lost both of her children on first knight, and J-Dog and Dr. Skillz who try to keep the beach in their bounty hunting. We also stumble briefly across the Greenman who some believe is just a figment of their imagination.

I loved the new bounty hunters. The ones that were friends with Tom. Fiercely loyal to him the play an integral role in the quest to bring down an empire that has taken over the Ruin for far too long. Tom is still, by far, my favorite character. I hated Preacher Jack. Hated him. Him and White Bear and everyone associated with him. Horrible people, all of them. Proof that the most terrifying thing after a zombie apocalypse may not, in fact, be the zombies.

In all honesty, I almost could not force myself to put the book down. If I could have read it in my sleep with my eyes closed I would have. And I can count on one hand the number of books that have made me cry. This is one of them. And I don't just mean little tears here and there. I had to put the book down and take my glasses off for a minute before I could continue reading. And I cheated and read the description of the next book so I even KNEW what was going to happen. I still bawled like a baby. I'm not ashamed to admit it.

If you have read Rot & Ruin you HAVE to read Dust & Decay. If you haven't read book one, do it and then read book two. This is an absolute must read recommendation to EVERYONE.

Review - Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn't want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human.

I don't remember what made me pick up Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry. But I am definitely glad I bought it.

I was kind of annoyed at first by the use of the term "Zoms". Like they were just a casual thing. But then as I read I realized it was almost like it WAS a casual thing to the kids in this story. In the world they live in, the teenagers at least, the zombies have always been there. There isn't a time they can't remember them being around. They've gotten used to it.

The book started out kind of slow. But it didn't last long. It was just a momentary setting of the stage, so to speak. To give us an idea into the minds and lives of Benny Imura and his friends (and in very small part, his brother Tom). Honestly, once the action started, it never stopped. Or at least, it stopped long enough for us to take a breath before diving right back in to it.

You watch TV shows like The Walking Dead (or you read the comic) or you see movies like Resident Evil and those... they're zombies. They're walkers. They need to be complete eradicated and wiped off the face of the earth. In Rot & Ruin, bounty hunter - or "Closure Specialist" - Tom Imura, reminds us that though they may be just undead soulless creatures now they once were human. They had lives, friends, family, hopes.... and now that's all gone.

Tom's job is to find the undead family members of his clients and quiet them for good. And he's very good at his job. Benny, operating on a tainted memory of the night the dead rose again, hates Tom. In the beginning anyway. He's got a complete misunderstanding of what his brother does. And really, who he is. Tom just waits for the day when Benny decides to join the family business.

It opens up a new world for Benny. Not necessarily a good one. But in one trip out to the Ruin, Benny's life is changed forever. He's grown up so fast he can't really process it. Things are different he knows that. Soon after, something happens that changes him even more. Tests his mettle and the skills he's learned from his brother (who happens to be my favorite character).

I loved this book. Once I really got in to it I didn't want to put it down. At all. I really wish I could find book 2 (book 3 is out on shelves in the stores I frequent, but I can't find book 2!) so I could find out what happens when Benny and Co. decide to head east to find something they never thought they'd see in a million years. I would absolutely recommend this to any one. Walking Dead fans. Zombie fans in general. Anyone who likes paranormal things. Seriously, this was like a 10 star book for me.