MABERRY, YOU BASTARD!!! I knew you would do this to me!! ::sobbity sob::

Review to follow when anger and choking tears subside.

In the first book Rot & Ruin, Maberry spends a lot of time putting us into the world as it exists almost 15 years after a zombie apocalypse. We need to know about how things are now, how people live and how they relate to one another. This is Benny's world. Maberry also spends a lot of time and care developing a cast of characters he wants us to fall in love with before he puts any of them in peril. In this he shows a keen talent for details. I know I fell in love almost immediately, and when peril does descend I was sick with anxiety for everyone's safety and survival.

Rot & Ruin has its moments of high octane action, but it is primarily an emotional story about two estranged brothers who must learn to bridge the gulf of misunderstanding that separates them. In a lot of ways it is a coming-of-age story focused on 15 year old Benny as he learns about the world around him and what it is that his brother does out there in the Rot and Ruin beyond the safety of the fences. Benny discovers nothing is what it seems – cowards become heroes and heroes reveal themselves as villains. And zombies aren’t nearly as monstrous as living men

Because Maberry did such a fantastic job in the first book creating a convincing world peopled with convincing characters, he is able to let loose and go full throttle with Dust & Decay, which is dizzying in its action sequences. It is a white-knuckle read through and through, peril at every corner, imminent death sitting on the shoulders of every character we’ve come to know and love. I was an absolute MESS reading this. I just knew something horrible would happen, I just didn’t know what and how bad it would be. The very few quiet or tender moments in this installment work because they are in such stark contrast to the otherwise absolute chaos.

Dust & Decay has a very Western feel; the lawless and perilous Rot and Ruin is very much reminiscent of the American Wild West where heroes are made and villains thrive. The vast, emptied landscape is the backdrop for a battle waged among the good, the bad and the ugly. It is nail-biting, nerve-wracking stuff -- dramatic, cinematic, and totally epic.

Maberry still has a lot of story left to tell, and I’m definitely looking forward to that, but I will never, EVER, be able to forgive him (view spoiler)[for killing my Tom – NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Why oh why? (hide spoiler)]