Audiobook Review: Rotters

Kraus, D.  (2011).  Rotters.  New York:  Delacorte Press.

448 pages.


Rotters won the 2012 Odyssey Award.  Since I was so in love with past audiobook winners like The True Meaning of Smekday and The True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, I made it a priority to listen to this year's winner.

When I first began listening, I was haunted by the feeling that I'd heard Kirby Heyborne's voice previously and that--for some as of yet unknown reason--I didn't like him.  I went to audible and searched through the books he's read for--and my goodness, there were a lot--and I figured it out.  He read one of the characters for a book that I absolutely detested--Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen.

I tried not to let that ruin the experience of Rotters.  But it wound up not mattering, because, I hated Rotters for reasons all its own.


Appetizer:  Sixteen-year-old Joey Crouch's mom has died and he is sent to Bloughton, Iowa to live with his father, a man Joey has never met and whose only known act was to deafen his mother in one ear.

After arriving in Iowa, Joey quickly learns that his father, Ken Harnett, is ostracized from the town and Joey finds himself in a similar position at the high school.  Accustomed to getting straight-A's, Joey is bullied by a teacher and other students.

Less than excited about the turn his life has taken, Joey seeks to discover what it is his father does.  The answer will take Joey into an underworld of grave robbers and into a different and scary new life.


Sooo, I hated this book.  Seriously, hated it.  First off, I thought it took way too long to get to the grave robbing portion.  Next, I found the entire story to be frustrating.  I hated most of the characters.  Hated the dark underworld Joey was entering.

I found myself wishing for zombies.  Or unicorns.  Or to be listening to a different book.

I eventually got my final wish.


Opening Quotation:

"This is the day my mother dies.  I can taste it right off:  salt on my lips, dried air, the AC having never been switched on because she died from heart failure while reclining in front of the television, sweating in her underwear, her last thought that she needed to turn on the air because por Joey must be roasting in his bedroom.  Pulmonary embolism:  it is what killed everyone on her side of the family and now it has killed her, while I slept, and this salt is the bitter taste of her goodbye.
Turns out, her heart is not what got her."  (p. 3).


Tasty Rating:  !