Rotters

Maybe I just need to read this book in longer bursts, because as a lunch-break read it seems to be moving very slowly. It's a good story, don't get me wrong, with great characters and development. I ordered this book after LOVING his newest book "Scowler" and wanted to try more by the author, but this one is a lot more toned down. ( )

This was not my book. First off, the writing was good, great scene building, interesting premise, solid stuff. But... I hated the main character. Hated him so much I was glad he got beat up. Not because I felt he deserved it but because I saw it coming a mile away and have no sympathy when he didn't. It was like a bad horror movie. "Don't go in the locker room alone idiot. The jerkwad who's been making your life hell is going to jump you and kick your ass."
So that was the real problem, with all the positives I normally enjoy, dark, gruesome plot, outsiders living on the fringes of society, I just didn't relate or feel any sympathy with the main character. I tried to get to the end. I really did. But halfway was all I could do. ( )

After Joey Crouch's mother dies, he finds himself forced to move in with a distant father he's never met and knows almost nothing about - distant in an emotional sense, but also in the sense that he disappears for days on end without leaving Joey any directions or, say, food. The son of the town mystery/loser/guy who lives in a cabin in the woods with no phone, he finds himself rechristened "Crotch" by the kids at his new school and suffering daily abuse at the hands of his sadistic biology teacher. With nothing left to lose, he decides to sneak along on one of his father's disappearances, only to discover the truth that his father is a grave robber.

As that last revelation ought to lead anyone who's read more than about 3 books to suspect, this book is about death. Granted, a lot of books are about death - the argument could perhaps be made that all of them are, insofar as life and death are intertwined. But Rotters is full of gruesome descriptions of corpses (bloated or wilted, in varying states of decay). Kraus doesn't shy away from the parts of death we-the-living prefer not to think about. This includes physical horrors ("coffin liquor", getting eaten by rats) and the horrors of the physical - the ultimate democracy of death. Ultimate in both senses, the last and the greatest. All of the embodied will rot away eventually. Joey, after he joins his father, seems to try to escape this fact by embracing it; to Joey, he and his father are already like the dead, they seem somehow separate from those who don't spend nights digging 6 feet under. Though his life is basically one big memento mori, he feels as though he is already not-living and so doesn't seem to grasp that he will die. From there, the book spirals further and further into horror.

Kraus is a pretty great writer. His character-building was excellent, and the world of grave robbing that he created (...I hope?) was engrossing (heavy emphasis on the gross). Every time I thought the book couldn't get any more messed up, it did. The situations often felt - surreal? magical? - but I think that was only because I wanted them to be. I mean, there are some parts of the novel that I really wanted to be supernatural, but in the end there's little that's more natural than death. Really my only complaint is that the foreshadowing is occasionally a bit heavy, but I didn't feel it detracted overmuch from the story. I'd suggest that, if possible, you read this snowed in and alone somewhere cramped, because the breezy July evenings during which I read this never stopped being a shock to come back to when I put the book down. ( )

4.5 Stars
I received an advance review copy of this book from Star Book Tours for review. I requested it purely based on the cover and title - I didn't know anything about it, but I'm kind of morbid so I hoped it would be as good as it looked. I wasn't disappointed.

I didn't really know what to expect... zombies? I was hopeful, I'll admit. I love zombies, and if this one contained them, I had no doubt they would be awesome. But no zombies here, and the more I read, the more I appreciated this for the realistic story it was. This is the story of a mostly normal boy who gets thrust into this very unconventional situation and life.

Here's the gist: Joey Crouch's mother dies, and he is sent to live with the absentee father he never knew, in a small town where hostility reigns, and Joey finds understanding in the most unlikely quarter one can think of - the Diggers... Grave robbers.

I was hooked right from the start. The first part of the book, the fear and the surety and the paranoia, and specifically the specifying, drew me right into to Joey's life and I wanted to know more, and to find out what happens to this boy. His life goes is completely out of control and he has nobody and nothing at all he can rely on, and I found it fascinating how he dealt with - or failed to deal with - this new life he's got. His struggles were what kept me glued to the book. He was nothing if not real. His mistakes and compulsions frightened me on his behalf. I love an underdog, so I wanted him to persevere and prevail against those against him... and against himself.

I loved the fact that the students at Bloughton High were realistic. They may have been a little cliche, actually, but teenagers ARE cliche. The jocks are jocklike, the snooty mean girl is snooty and mean (and a girl), the outcasts are outcast. But the devil is in the details with these kids, and I thought the portrayal was great. Just enough to read into them and make them more than cliche without needing it to be spelled out in big bold letters. I loved Foley. He may have been my favorite character. I wished that he was a bigger part of the book, actually.

I also liked the Diggers. They were a varied and interesting group, and I loved their independent camaraderie. I love the history and the mostly noble feel of these men, and the sacrifices they make for this calling. I was fascinated by the way that the Diggers behaved among the dead, especially The Resurrectionist, as it was such a contrast to his behavior with the living. I would have loved more history and lore and more detail regarding the Diggers and their profession, but since this was Joey's story, and he's a 16 year old, I know why this would have been a mite tedious for him to relay.

I appreciated the unflinching way that the dead and that death were portrayed. I liked that there was a certain reverence and respect there, even among these men out to pry valuables from someone's cold dead fingers. There was quite a bit of gore and grime and muck, among other foul things, so this is probably best not read by those weak of stomach or virgin of ears (so to speak). But I thought that these details added a lot to the book - a kind of reality and truth that it might otherwise be lacking.

I really enjoyed the writing in this story, and many passages were gorgeously descriptive and evocative. I loved the contrast between these parts and the gritty and almost irreverent brutal honesty of the rest of the story. This one pulls no punches regarding bullying or loss, or about growing up and finding one's own path either. I really enjoyed it. I will definitely be on the lookout for more from this author. ( )

Listened to the audio edition from Listening Library narrated by Kirby Heyborne.

I'm having the hardest time figuring out what to rate this book. It's really well constructed and the audio production is excellent, but this is quite emphatically not my kind of book. Too gross, too depressing for too much of the time, too tense. Which of course are all the qualities that make this a fantastic horror novel - and Kraus gets bonus points for making the whole thing happen without going to the paranormal well. I will say the pacing is perhaps a little bit off - if I weren't listening to this, I'm not sure I would have made it through the first parts where you're just waiting for things to start happening. Certainly I was ready for the book to be over long before it was. Kirby Heyborne really sells the characters (none of whom are particularly likeable), particularly towards the end as the action picks up and I'm definitely glad I listened to this rather than reading a print copy. I've talked myself into going with a rating based on what i feel is the quality rather than my enjoyment. ( )