Rotters

I'm always on the look out for 'boy' books. This one looked promising. It is, however, not for the faint of heart. This is the story of Joey Crouch. His mother dies and sends him to live with the father he never knew. When he arrives at his father's "house", his father takes one look at him and disappears for three days. The house smells like death, Joey has no food or bed and has to make his own way to school, where he is immediately a spectacle as he is "The Garbageman's" son. Joey follows his father one night to see where he goes, and finds him robbing a grave. He takes a picture of him and uses it to blackmail his father to teach him the ways of Diggers. This leads Joey on a very dark path-fraught with peril, scary choices and near death experiences. His father teaches him the long and storied history of Diggers, who once stole bodies for doctors to dissect in the old days. Joey is an outcast at school and is viciously bullied by students and teachers alike. He becomes less like his mother and more like his father- and is pulled into the mysterious world. Awful things happen, other Diggers get involved, Joey goes down a path he may not be able to return from. This is one dark book. It is not for everyone. It is pretty graphic and gory and filled with characters that are each more disturbing than the next. The jury is out on whether I enjoyed this book, but it was definitely a unique idea and a world not usually found in YA literature. So read at your own risk, you Rotters!