BROKEN LANDS BY JONATHAN MABERRY (BOOK 1 SERIES 2 OF ROT AND RUIN)

Broken Lands by JONATHAN MABERRY (Book 1 Series 2 of Rot and Ruin)

18/1/2019

Yet another YA zombie novel darkens our door

With “Broken Lands” Jonathan Maberry returns to the world of his excellent YA series “Rot and Ruin” also known as the “Benny Imura” sequence. Between 2010 and 2013 there were four novels and two short story collections set in a zombie infested America, the second of which “Dust and Decay” won the YA section of the Bram Stoker Award in 2011. In recent years a fair bit of zombie fiction has infected the YA world, however, it was a small-scale invasion in comparison to the saturation suffered in the adult horror world. There were some great YA titles of which “Rot and Ruin” ranks amongst the very best, along with Alden’s Bell’s masterpiece “Reaper’s are the Angels” which also has a teenager as a lead character. We featured the Maberry in one of our ‘Best of YA Top 50s’ in 2016

“Rot and Ruin” began life as an adult short story called the “Family Business” about a teenager called Benny who decides to join his older brother Tom in killing zombies as their job in the camp they live in. Benny is the constant in all four books, which begins a number of years after a zombie holocaust, set in the wastelands close to the American Mexico border. Benny returns as a major character in the new “Broken Lands” (an area in Texas) series which is being marketed as book one, of a new second series, in the “Rot and Ruin” world.

With zombie fatigue in horror fiction a 100% fact, the million Dollar question is why is Jonathan Maberry revisiting this old ground? YA sequels and never-ending series are a curse and this is no different, it adds little new substance to the series and will be frustrating to any new reader picking up “Broken Lands” on spec. If you have not read “Rot and Ruin” this will be a confusing and disjointed read. Maberry’s 2010 was a terrific, fast-paced YA horror classic and this latest entry just pounds the same ground, taking a frustrating 530 pages to do it.

YA readers are unlikely to pick up on the fact that Joe Ledger, who first appeared in “Patient Zero” way back in 2009, has starred in ten Maberry non-zombie novels. appears in Broken Lands. I have absolutely no idea how Joe Ledger fits into the “Rot and Ruin” world or timeline? I’ve read a number of Ledger books and to my knowledge there is no zombie holocaust, so I found the crossing over of these two series perplexing.

“Broken Lands” has two major plot strands, set a few weeks apart, which do not meet until close to the conclusion of the novel. It is also set not long after the events of book four of the “Rot and Ruin” series. In the Benny Imura sequence Benny and his friends venture into the wasteland to try and establish contact with a colony they have not heard from in a while, hoping also to find out what happened to Joe Ledger who has also disappeared. Lots of characters from previous novels reappear and there are a few interesting new developments; there is now medicine which can be used to keep the zombie infection from spreading if caught early enough. Benny is a really cool character and it was nice to spend some time with him again, but the plot involving him was thin.

The second story strand features new characters, the main one being Gabriella “Gutsy” Gomez who is recovering from the death of her mother five days earlier. However, someone digs up her body and transports the body back to Gutsy. The mother is, of course, a zombie. But why has the mother been dug-up? Much of this story strand sees Gutsy investigating the history of the zombie infection, taking her well out of her comfort zone, into the dangerous conspiracy behind it.

For a zombie novel “Broken Lands” lacked action and the story was just not strong enough to spin out over 500 pages. There was too much scene-setting and flash backs to events from previous novels and new readers will tire of these continual plot catch-ups. All the revelations which revealed the cause for the zombie outbreak just did not flow naturally into the plot and it became tiresome.

The strength of “Rot and Ruin” was a convincing world set a number of years after a zombie holocaust where the first seeds of recovery have begun to grow, “Broken Lands” does continue with this development by introducing new settlements and different types of zombies, such as those which are more intelligent. But ultimately there is just not enough new going on and it fails to truly capture the imagination. One cannot help but wonder whether the YA zombie is just as old hat as the undead plaguing the adult horror market?

As Maberry is a big name in the horror world I would be surprised if this novel is not nominated for another YA Bram Stoker Award, however, it is not good enough and I have read many better YA horror novels over the last year.

The ending was left open for yet another sequel with a cliff-hanger. To finish on a plus point, it did feature a zombie gorilla, which was something novel.

Tony Jones