Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
That thing looks...pretty mad.
All Your Ruins puts the reader into a world where the big bad monsters actually won. Combined with Alex Gayhart's visceral art style, this is a kaiju novel that places an emphasis on horror like never before.
- As pictured here, the cover. It features Zarius, shrouded in shadow and highlighted by red, looking very angry and ready to destroy you...
- The Kaiju Blight. This is what ended the world. Not just the giant monsters, but their mutagenic blood. Basically, it works like this. Are you a reptile, bird, or arthropod? Then contact with this black blood will horribly mutate you into a ravenous Animalistic Abomination. Are you a mammal like a human? Then the blood will try and fail to alter your body to the point where it'll just give up and cause your face to explode with sludge-filled boils while the rest of your body follows suite.
- It gets worse. Somehow, it's gotten to the point where the Blight is implied to be an AIRBORNE VIRUS. Sure, it doesn't result in exploding people, but if Ron's mutation is anything to go by, it results in Tainted Veins, black tendrils here and there, and Hearing Voices.
- About that last bit. Is the Blight...sapient? It certainly defies reality in any other regard, so it very much could be.
- The kaiju in general. They don't just attack people for kicks. They do so because they are in a constant state of berserker rage. The slightest amount of stimulation causes them to lash out. And as we all know, there is no greater amount of action going on than in a densely populated area. Hence, we got the titanic City Breakers, and that's exactly what they did.
- Not helping is that they all look rather hideous. The Blight has turned simple animals into festering abominations that constantly tear themselves apart only to heal again just to move. Body Horror is how they live. And Zarius is one of the more biologically well-adjusted kaiju, if you can believe it!
- The discovery of a giant kaiju egg. It proves that not only are the kaiju near-unkillable, but they're capable of multiplying now. And what's worse? Ronald decides to use the egg to his advantage. If the infection of the Blight wasn't his Start of Darkness, this was it.
- One of the very first deaths is of a survivor that James meets. A giant bird ambushes him, and by the time he gets out his gun, the monster is already on top of him and tearing his vocal cords apart. They both end up dead, the bird to a shotgun blast and the human by the effects of the Blight.
- While hiding in the church, already an ominous location in any horror scenario, Allison comes across perhaps one of the most understated yet visceral horrors around. A huge, bloated mass of human corpses all mashed together by what appears to be the kaiju blood. And what's more, IT'S STILL SOMEHOW ALIVE! It's even described as being a like a sort of fungus, which turns out to be some interesting foreshadowing later on. The sight understandably sticks with her for the rest of the story.
- What's worse is what she finds later. A bible with the verse Mark 16:16 highlighted...followed by the word "WRONG!" smeared in ink. It's implied that this church was the epicenter of some kind of Apocalypse Cult that sought salvation through the Blight. And look how well that turned out. However, the ending implies that becoming one with the Blight doesn't always have such horrible results.
- About the bodies showing signs of life. Are they at peace, or is it a standard And I Must Scream situation? You decide.
- The dog-sized fly monsters James encounters during his journey. Something about their quadrupedal forms and human-like teeth is just so wrong. Also, they eat by regurgitating mucus all over corpses.
- ZARIUS. Imagine Godzilla except the head is more akin to a Carnotaurus, its body looks like it was put in an oven for far too long, its arms are huge with equally large claws, and its back is covered in what can only be described as Creepy Crosses. It is the most feared of all kaiju for a reason, and it only killed James' fiance by pure accident. The many cities it toppled, though? No accident at all.
- The uprising that Ronald instigates in Haven. First, he has his men mow down Fyfe's personal guards in spectacularly violent fasion (an innocent woman gets her jaw shot off afterwards, even), then tells him that he's about to be on a "dinner date" as the old man can only cower in pants-wetting fear. Next, he's dragged into the same area where the kaiju egg is being kept. It hatches, and the newborn monster wastes no time in ripping the former sheriff's head off. From there, Ron keeps the baby monster as a means of killing anyone who dares defy his reign.
- Stidham, The Dragon to Ron. Every single appearance seems to be unable to not emphasize just how much of a sadist she is. She even seems actively disappointed whenever Ron goes for a less violent option.
- Chapter 28 outlines her backstory, and it's not pretty. It was earlier stated that she was the only girl in a family of brothers, which is bad enough. But she also had Abusive Parents, particularly her drunk father. All of this taught her that the only solution to anything is violence. And that was before she tricked a monster bird into attacking and killing her old man before it startled and took out her left eye. Even despite that horrible moment, she finds herself actually wanting to thank the bird for killing her dad.
- THE. FUCKING. GIANT. INSECT HORDE.
- First off, their appearances. They're constantly described as resembling stained amber glass, and the illustration shows them with razor sharp stilt-like legs kind of like the warrior bugs from Starship Troopers. But at least those things didn't have a toothy face!
- Then there's their introduction. James, Allison, and Jenna think they've found a safe spot in the form of a well-stocked house. But it turns out they're right below the nest, and it's implied that the insects set up the trap. The three get away by the skin of their teeth, but all their blowing up of the house did is force the insects to relocate.
- Their presence is almost always proceeded by a chattering noise, like someone gnashing their teeth. The moment that sound goes off in the narration, someone is going to die.
- The giant insects slowly but surely making their way across the Ruin and into Haven, killing guards along the way. And we're not spared the details either. Most of them get their heads bitten open, for one thing.
- Jenna coming across a huge river snake that seems to have its teeth growing out of the back of its head. Thankfully, it pays the humans no heed.
- Ron shanking James in order to get his immune blood.
- The moment Zarius and the Goblin's fight comes into view from Haven, EVERYTHING falls into chaos.
- The Behemoth Battle between Zarius and the Goblin isn't seen as entertaining or glorious as most film-goers would see it as. It's a violent, destructive affair that ends up flattening just about everything in Haven as Zarius for the most part curb-stomps the smaller monster.
- If that wasn't enough, the giant insect swarm invades! They start by violently killing Stidham, and then invade almost every living space, particularly the school.
- Allison's attempt at rescuing Jenna from the school is full of horror with the insects lurking around every corner. Had it not been for Bull, she'd be dead more than halfway away from where her sister was.
- While escaping the school from the horde of giant insects, the teacher Maria shoves Allison in order to get to safety first. Allison punches her in return...and the woman ends up facing a whole army of very hungry arthropods. Allison and Jenna try to pull her out, but they only get her upper half, the rest Devoured by the Horde. Her upper half is taken later.
- The baby kaiju eating Dr. Flanders alive, after he had just been flung into the air and got his legs broken.
- Earlier, Ron maniacally drinking the sample cure made from James' blood. Flanders even compares him to a vampire before he runs off.
- The way the Goblin is finished off by Zarius. It lifts its foot, and smashes the smaller monster's head before letting the insects do the rest of the job.
- Upon seeing his offspring get killed, Zarius unleashes his secret weapon. Here, kaiju don't just charge up their Breath Weapon (a sort of myth in this world). No, they just kick their metabolism into overdrive and build up insane amounts of flesh and tissue. Zarius does just that, glows a bright white...and proceeds to unleash burning white plasma unto everything, burning away at its excess flesh for energy. It reduces what's left of Haven to a glassed wasteland. You don't F*CK with Zarius, because it'll f*ck himself up to kill you!
- The EGS getting flipped by Zarius while it's still shooting rapid-fire bullets, mowing down countless people trying to escape the carnage. Allison ends up getting her arm shot off, causing her to bleed out and die.
- James must inject the deadly chemical meant to kill Zarius manually. This means actually getting on top of the monster's leg, and doing the deed. This ends up causing his skin to slowly burn and melt away, and he's just barely able to succeed before being flung back into the EGS. He basically went into a microwave to kill his enemy, and he died for it.
- Related to the above, Zarius violently bursting and collapsing due to the destruction of its cells by the chemical. Instead of blighted blood, its blood is a crimson red, and it ends up falling to gorily-reduced pieces as Square-Cube Law it applied to its biology by the chemical.
- Jenna being turned into some kind of human/fungus hybrid tethered to a seat. Sure, she's free from all of the pain and suffering, but at the cost of her humanity. It's saying something when this is one of the more positive outcomes in the entire story.
- The being that convinces her to do so is heavily implied to be the Blight having taken over Ron's body after he left Haven, implying that it is no longer bound by anti-mammal biology. At least it seems to have a conscious now...
