**THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR ROT & RUIN, BUT NOT FOR DUST & DECAY**
Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Release Date: August 30, 2011
Pages: 519 in the U.S. Hardcover EditionAges: 12+
Genre: Young Adult, Zombie Apocalypse, Dystopian
Series: The Benny Imura Series
Preceeded by: Rot & Ruin
Benny Imura & Nix Riley can't forget the jet they saw fly over the zombie-infested mountains of the Rot & Ruin.
The jet meant leaving, something that Nix and Benny were going to do. Now-after months of rigorous training with Tom-Benny's zombie-hunter brother- Benny, Nix, Lilah the Lost Girl, & Chong are ready to leave their home forever and search for a better future.
But from the start, everything goes wrong. They are pursued by the living dead, wild animals, and insane murderers, and are faced with the horrors of a rebuilt 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?
This book was really great! I liked it sooo much better then the first in the series & I really hope Jonathan Maberry writes plenty more of these books.
The reason I liked this book so much more was because the author definetly took some time to add alot of depth to the characters as opposed to the first book. Maybe because the first one was more of an intro and this is more the "meat" of the series, but either way, this one had my heart racing more then a few times.
My favorite part of the book was probably the pages that had come out of Nix's journal. Every so often, after a chapter, not every chapter, the author as thrown in an entry from Nix's journal. It isn't anything long, just a page, maybe 3, of random things she has written about the different tools that Tom uses or what she knows about zombies so far. I really liked that the author has added that aspect to it. It definetly added a little something extra to the story. I felt closer to Nix after reading some of those.
The characters I didn't too much were the surfer bounty hunters and some of the other bounty hunters. I just felt like they weren't well researched and they didn't really add much to the story... they were just kind of... there.
But overallm I felt like the book had ALOT of depth to it and I highly recommend it to anyone really. I believe it's aimed more for middle graders, but I think anyone can read it if they like.
Update:
I'm currently reading Cosmic Forces by Gregory Lamberson, the third book in The Jake Helman Files. I should have a review up shortly. :}
Happy Reading!