Rotters

Publishers Weekly

Kraus's (The Monster Variations) sophomore novel is a gruesome and meandering work that saps the life (so to speak) out of a potentially fascinating subject. When 16-year-old Joey's mother is killed by a bus, he's sent to live with Ken Harnett, his previously unknown father in Iowa. Harnett is distant and passively abusive, not taking care of his son's food or hygiene needs for days at a time as he travels, and Joey quickly becomes the target of school bullies (including both a jock and a teacher). When Joey discovers that Harnett's business is actually grave robbing, he persuades his father to bring him along. There's little sense of conflict over the morality or ethics of grave robbing, which is matched by Joey's lack of remorse over his revenge on the bullies or those he perceives as having harmed him—something that might be interesting in a character deliberately portrayed as a sociopath, but here feels like an omission. There's little danger or excitement in the grave robbing scenes and nothing new in the dreary, overlong scenes of an outsider at a new school. Ages 14–up. (Apr.)

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up—It's a hot day in Chicago when Joey Crouch's mother is hit by a bus and killed. The 16-year-old is forced to move to small-town Iowa with a hermitlike father whom he has never met. Life is hard; his father disappears for days at a time from his squalid, unfurnished home, and at school Joey becomes the victim of bullies and a self-righteous faculty. When he discovers that his father is a grave robber, Joey decides that he wants to be a part of this clandestine and ancient profession. Through this morbid but shared interest, he begins to learn the truth about his father's relationship with his mother, and why his dad never settled down. With abhorrent descriptions of corpses, and all of the repulsive, vile things that happen to our bodies once we are placed under the ground, Rotters is darker than your typical coming-of-age story, but, nonetheless, is still a gripping and emotional tale. Joey's disillusionment with his life, culminating in a disturbing revenge scene and succumbing to the depraved side of digging, makes it all the more rewarding when he comes to understand the gravity of his mistakes and what is really important. Kraus's exquisite grasp of the English language makes the descriptions come to life, greatly enhancing the story. The pacing and depth make it a good choice for those interested in offbeat tales, such as Libba Bray's Going Bovine (Delacorte, 2009).—David Burritt, Jackson Memorial Library, Tenants Harbor, ME

From the Publisher

Starred review, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, May 2011:
"A masterly touch at thriller pacing, Kraus gives the current crop of pretentiously serious supernatural YA novels a wild run for their money."

Starred review, Booklist:
"A tour-de-force combination of reader and writer."

School Library Journal:
"A gripping and emotional tale."

Kirkus Reviews:
"A cerebral romp through a fascinating, revolting underworld."

VOYA:
"Twists and turns will leave readers gasping."

"As suspenseful and masterfully told as it is gruesome and terrifying. You'd be hard-pressed to find a coming-of-age story as satisfying as this."—Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother and coeditor of Boing Boing

"Grueling, demented, and so crammed with noxious awesomeness that I had to read it twice."—Scott Westerfeld, author of the Uglies series

"This is an unforgettable book. An unforgettable character . . . and an adventure that leads to unforgettable HORROR. I loved it!"—R. L. Stine

"A multi-layered, complex novel that pulls no punches. Terrific!"—Rick Yancey, author of The Monstrumologist

"Uncompromising, dark, and true."—Guillermo Del Toro, coauthor of the Strain Trilogy and director of Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth, and Chuck Hogan, coauthor of the Strain Trilogy

"A cerebral romp through a fascinating, revolting underworld."—Kirkus Reviews
"One of the darkest, wildest, most unsettling adolescent novels I've ever come across. . . . Kraus is absolutely original."—The Millions

"A new horror classic."—Fangoria
 
 

Children's Literature - Haley Maness

Joey Crouch is a "fiercely dependant" 16 year-old When his mother dies in a car accident, he has to go and live in a shack outside of a small town in the Midwest with his mysterious father. After moving there, he quickly discovers, and inherits, his father's reputation as the town slacker. But, if his father does not have a job, Joey wonders where he goes all day and how he gets the money to pay for his excessive drinking habit. Despite his growing fear that his father will kill him instead of paying to take care of him, Joey struggles on, both at home and at school. Slowly but surely, he begins to gain his father's respect, until he discovers an awful secret: his father robs graves for a living. Following his father, Joey attempts to expose him, but instead exposes himself and decides to join his father in his brutal line of work. What follows is a thrill ride—a terrifying adventure readers will never find anywhere else. This is a pleasing, unforgettable read, not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. It questions the foundations of religious belief and provides the fresh prospective that death is not a negative, but a simple fact of life. Reviewer: Haley Maness

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up—It's a hot day in Chicago when Joey Crouch's mother is hit by a bus and killed. The 16-year-old is forced to move to small-town Iowa with a hermitlike father whom he has never met. Life is hard; his father disappears for days at a time from his squalid, unfurnished home, and at school Joey becomes the victim of bullies and a self-righteous faculty. When he discovers that his father is a grave robber, Joey decides that he wants to be a part of this clandestine and ancient profession. Through this morbid but shared interest, he begins to learn the truth about his father's relationship with his mother, and why his dad never settled down. With abhorrent descriptions of corpses, and all of the repulsive, vile things that happen to our bodies once we are placed under the ground, Rotters is darker than your typical coming-of-age story, but, nonetheless, is still a gripping and emotional tale. Joey's disillusionment with his life, culminating in a disturbing revenge scene and succumbing to the depraved side of digging, makes it all the more rewarding when he comes to understand the gravity of his mistakes and what is really important. Kraus's exquisite grasp of the English language makes the descriptions come to life, greatly enhancing the story. The pacing and depth make it a good choice for those interested in offbeat tales, such as Libba Bray's Going Bovine (Delacorte, 2009).—David Burritt, Jackson Memorial Library, Tenants Harbor, ME

Kirkus Reviews

After the tragic death of his mother, Joey is shipped from Chicago to a father in Iowa he's never met. The town's majority immediately and vehemently rejects Joey based solely on his bloodlines, and it doesn't help that his sleuthing reveals that the stench enveloping his father's shack stems from illegal grave robbing. However, bullied from every side, he decides a bond with his father plucking valuables off corpses is better than not belonging at all. With countless oozing, festering descriptions of decay both physical and mental, this is not a story for the weak at stomach. At times, the near tangibility of cracking bones, icky vermin and self-mutilation seems gratuitous, but how else to describe such a gruesome realm of morbid artistry? A first-person narration from 16-year-old Joey provides a genuine foray into the mind of an intellectual young man who injects himself into a seedy brotherhood with hopes of simultaneously belonging and escaping the demoralizing social mores of small-town life. A cerebral romp through a fascinating, revolting underworld.(Fiction. 14 & up)