by Jonathan Maberry
Hardcover, 537 pages
Published August 13th 2013 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
ISBN 1442439920 (ISBN13: 9781442439924)
Series Benny Imura #4


Blurb

Benny Imura and his friends have found the jet and Sanctuary—but neither is what they expected. Instead of a refuge, Sanctuary is a hospice, and the soldiers who flew the plane seem to be little more than bureaucrats who have given up hope for humanity’s future. With Chong hovering between life and death, clinging to his humanity by a thread, Benny makes a startling discovery: A scientist may have discovered a cure for the zombie plague. Desperate to save Chong, Benny and his friends mount a search and rescue mission. But they’re not the only ones on the hunt. The reapers are after the cure too, and they want to use it turn all the zombies into superfast shock troops—and wipe humanity off the face of the earth.

In this riveting conclusion to the Rot & Ruin series, the battle to end all battles is just beginning.

Mini Review

I was so looking forward to this book. The first book in this series, “Rot and Ruin”, won my heart with its unique outlook on zombies. The second book, “Dust and Decay”, further developed the characters and made me grow to love them. The third book, “Flesh and Bone”, was amazing with its crazy zealots and religious wars. That being said, this final book just did not live up to its potential for me. It took entirely too long to pick up and it often felt like absolutely nothing was happening for hundreds of pages. The zealots are still present (and are by far the most interesting part of the entire book), but their creepiness is just not enough to save the story overall. This book was good, but when you compare it to the others in the series, it falls very flat. I’m sad the series is over, but a part of me is also glad. This story and its characters have simply run their course, it is time to let them go and move on to something else. I would recommend this book to anyone who has read the previous books in the series, simply for closure and completing the overall story. (But I warn you, be prepared to wade through a LOT of filler just to get to the end of this one. The pages will not fly by as they did in previous books in the series.) I’d also recommend this to fans of zombie novels with a scientific and religious focus, since Maberry is very skilled at incorporating both topics seamlessly throughout his tales.