Zone One by Colson Whitehead

In this wry take on the post-apocalyptic horror novel, a pandemic has devastated the planet. The plague has sorted humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead.
Now the plague is receding, and Americans are busy rebuild­ing civilization under orders from the provisional govern­ment based in Buffalo. Their top mission: the resettlement of Manhattan. Armed forces have successfully reclaimed the island south of Canal Street—aka Zone One—but pockets of plague-ridden squatters remain. While the army has eliminated the most dangerous of the infected, teams of civilian volunteers are tasked with clearing out a more innocuous variety—the “malfunctioning” stragglers, who exist in a catatonic state, transfixed by their former lives.
Mark Spitz is a member of one of the civilian teams work­ing in lower Manhattan. Alternating between flashbacks of Spitz’s desperate fight for survival during the worst of the outbreak and his present narrative, the novel unfolds over three surreal days, as it depicts the mundane mission of straggler removal, the rigors of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder, and the impossible job of coming to grips with the fallen world.
And then things start to go wrong.

I had heard great things about this book and was excited to read it. I love a good zombie book. Unfortunately, this was not a good zombie book. I just didn't get it.

Zone One is an area of Manhattan. The Marines have come and gone, cleaning up the hoards up zombies in the city. "Mark Spitz" is a sweeper. With his team, he goes through every inch of the city and cleans up the straggling undead, in hopes that they can re-inhabit the city soon.

Whiteheads writing, in this novel, just didn't work for me. He rambled on and went off the story line, if you can call it that, repeatedly. He went into a lot of detail but most of it was worthless. Because of this writing style, the book was very confusing. I had a hard time figuring out what was going on. I, also, didn't feel anything for the characters.

The few times Whitehead stuck to the story for more than a paragraph, you could glimpse the good writer he is. These parts were few and far between, though.

I have heard people say that Zone One was terrifying. I just can't see that. There were a few scenes with the zombies that I really enjoyed, the only parts of the book I did enjoy actually, but I wouldn't call the book terrifying or even scary.

I really struggled to finish this book. Eventually, I just started scanning paragraphs because most of the story was so dense.

If you are looking for a good post-apocalyptic zombie story, I would wait for the next one.

2 out of 5 stars.

BUY IT HERE: Zone One: A Novel