A 2011 YA novel by Daniel Kraus. The plot revolves around Joey Crouch, an ordinary (if a bit sheltered) 16 year-old who after his beloved mother's death, is sent to rural Iowa to live with the father he has never known and who wants nothing to do with him, preferring to go on trips for unknown periods of time, leaving him starving. To make matters worse, Joey instantly becomes a pariah at his new school due to his father's reputation as "The Garbage Man" (despite never taking anybody's trash) and the bad odor of his dad's cabin sticking to his skin.
Eventually, Joey finds out what his dad actually does for a living: he's a Digger; a member of a secret society of grave robbers who date since the ninetieth-century with the Scottish resurrection men.
At first, Joey is grossed out by the truth behind his dad's work but is also oddly interested in it. He then insists to his dad to teach him, leading to his life taking a turn to the macabre and exhilarating. The problem is, how far this is going to take him?
This book contain examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Joey's father Ken Harnett is the neglectful version. He wants nothing to do with his son and leaves him alone for days on end without food, to the point that Joey tries to steal lunch money from someone's locker. However, after he starts teaching Joey about grave-robbing, he becomes a more attentive father and grows to love him.
- Adults Are Useless: The school faculty does nothing about the horrible bullying Joey is submitted to through most of the book (with one of the teaches even joining in) and only noticing that he has been starving after caughting him stealing from someone's locker. After that incident, they do step in by putting Joey in a free lunch program and summoning Harnett to stop going out on such long trips (although it's noted to be mostly motivated for their antipathy for "The Garbage Man" than any sort of concern over Joey).
- Alliterative Name: Celeste Carpenter.
- All the Other Reindeer: Joey becomes this in Bloughton right out of the bat because of his bad smell and for being Harnett's son, who also suffers from this trope.
- Alpha Bitch: Celeste Carpenter, the typical Queen Bee from Joey's new school who is the Jerk Jock's on-again-off-again girlfriend.
- Ambiguous Ending: It's unknown whether Joey will return to digging or not.
- Bookworm: One of the first things Joey notices about Harnett's cabin is that it's filled to the brim with piles and piles of books.
- Brainy Brunette: Joey himself, who's an A-straight student with aspirations to going to college.
- Butt-Monkey: DEAR GOD, Joey! His mother dies in a freak accident; he's sent to live in the middle of nowhere with a father who wants nothing with him; has to sleep in the floor; is frequently humiliated by his Biology teacher in front of his whole class; gets picked on by bullies; is treated with suspicion over his parentage; starves through days due to having so little money; his old best friend moves on from him; and eventually, he gets his fingers cut off. No wonder he embraces the Digger lifestyle so quickly!
- Cool Teacher: Joey's music teacher Ted, who unlike the rest of the faculty insists on seeing the best on Joey even when he starts to slack off on his trumpet lessons and even invites him to see an opera with him. After Harnett dies, Ted helps Joey to find an apartment and convinces him to get his high school diploma and keeps contact with him.
- Escapism: A huge theme of the book. Despite his initial objections, Joey finds himself drawn to the Digger lifestyle as a form to escape the torments of high school. Even Celeste confess to Joey that she indulges in it via her dream of becoming a famous dancer and leaving Bloughton,Iowa.Celeste: A fantasy world is the best kind of world to live in because if you don't want it to end it doesn't have to, and it can totally takeover Mere Reality.
- Fingore: In the middle of a digging, a drunk Harnett accidentally cuts off the top halves of Joey's index, middle and ring fingers, making it impossible for him to play the trumpet ever again.
- Metalhead: Foley. He even lends Joey his Discman and CDs.
- Title Drop: "Rotters" is how Boggs refers to the living. In the midst of his Sanity Slippage, Joey adopts the habit.
