David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite! discussion

Harlee and I are going to start reading Rot and Ruin over the next week or so.

Everyone is welcome to join in!

There are no set chapters per day, we just read at our own paces and start each post with how far along you are, i.e., Chapter #, %, using spoilers where needed. Have fun!

I should be ready to start this by Sunday... :) I'm really looking forward to it!

I'm 21% in. This world is so unique and realistic! And scary! Love this so much!

Harlee wrote: "I should be ready to start this by Sunday... :) I'm really looking forward to it!"

Yay! I'll still be behind you I'm sure since it takes me longer on audio. ;)

Woohoooo!! Jonathan Maberry just favorited my update tweet!! :)

That's neat, Karen!
I'm slowly making progress. I think you are still a bit ahead of me, I'm on page 44. Still not loving it yet. I'm having issues with Benny...

Yes! Benny is a whiney brat right now! ;) Trust me... He will grow on you!

I'm on page 107. Wow, I am loving Tom! I'm hoping Benny will be more mature now too. Hope I'm not holding you back, Karen!

Holding ME back? I only get about 30 minutes a day to listen. ;) I was hoping I wasn't holding YOU back!

And yes... Tom Imura!! He's a book boyfriend of mine! ;) Benny is finally "getting" it! I'm 40% in, Chapter 24. I'm glad that they're (view spoiler)[explaining what happened after first night. Everything seemed way too idealic for a "zombie" world. I loved the trading cards, though! I have a real one with the author on it that I got from him last year. So cool! (hide spoiler)]

I'm finally caught up. I'm on Chapter 26 and omg this is about to get messy and horrific! My favorite thing so far about the whole book, besides Tom (seriously, I love him), is all these side stories we are getting. Like, Rob's story, the Lost Girl's story, and from Benny and Tom's time in the Ruin. It's very deep and emotional!

Ohmygosh, Harlee...!! I'm on Chapter 29 and this just got kicked up ALOT!! Now the major action just started! (view spoiler)[ Benny almost got murdered by Mr. Sachetto. :( So sad! I loved him!

And Yes! I love the back stories on The Lost Girl and everyone else. (hide spoiler)]

Tom Imura is incredible!! I want one of him!! ;)

I just got to Chapter 30. (view spoiler)[ I teared up when Tom "slivered" Nix's mom! And I can't imagine the state they are going to find Nix in... (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 32. (view spoiler)[ George, Lilah, and Annie's story is so sad! I can't even imagine what the rest of Lilah's story will be like IF we get to hear it. Which I really hope we do. (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

Harlee wrote: "I just got to Chapter 30. [spoilers removed]"

I just got to this part last night too. That was soooo sad. :( I really love the world building in this series. Just imagining the horses wearing "carpet" makes so much sense in a zombie world. The attention to all these small details is amazing.

There are a few things I find a bit odd about this world, but some of these ideas are genius!

Chapter 36. I love how they humanize the zombies and remember they were real people. I haven't really seen that before.

And love the message that it's not the zombies that are the bad guys... It's the evil humans.

Harlee wrote: "There are a few things I find a bit odd about this world, but some of these ideas are genius!"

What do you find odd? :) I thought the part of electricity being "evil" was weird.

I don't really like the Zombie Cards. Once Tom explained what they were originally for I was okay with them, but I found it weird that something like that would be made and bought in an apocalypse.

Harlee wrote: "I don't really like the Zombie Cards. Once Tom explained what they were originally for I was okay with them, but I found it weird that something like that would be made and bought in an apocalypse."

Agreed. I was confused about how they kind of wore rose-colored glasses in the town. Now that they're in the Ruin, the world makes sense. But part of me likes that they kept pieces of the past intact and were so normal.

I can get them wanting to try and ignore the Rot and Ruin, but I think it was some of the normalcy that threw me off. It's not a bad thing, just not something I'm used to read in zombie books, I guess.
I just got to Chapter 36, that was crazy!

Chapter 39. (view spoiler)[Nix and Benny sobbing about her mom and Tom broke my heart. :( (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 51. (view spoiler)[ TOM!!!!!! D': I'm trying to hold on to the hope he's still alive but... *sob* (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)]
I think I'm going to finish this tonight! (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 53. Love that Lilah rescued them at the tower! And that she took Benny and Nix home!

I should finish tomorrow!

Harlee wrote: "Chapter 51. [spoilers removed]
I think I'm going to finish this tonight!"

Tom is probably one of my favorite characters ever!

I finished it last night and YAY. I'm so glad that thing I wanted to happen actually did! Just as I lost hope, he came back! <3 I'm so glad I stuck with this. I actually considered putting it down about 50 pages in, that's how much I hated Benny. I think he made a complete transformation throughout the book! I really liked this book! And it was nice buddy reading it with you :)

I finished last night too! The epilogue was so good! Thanks for reading with me, Harlee! This was fun! I'm so glad you stuck with it. It would have been a completely different book if Benny hadn't of "grown up"! ;)

I don't think I would have been able to stick with it if he hadn't of grown up lol

Oh, I didn't know there was already a thread for a buddy read of this book. I'll be checking in here if I can get to it soon. (I seem to be peeking in a lot of buddy reads lately!)

Yay!! Keep the thread going!! :)