Review by librasgroove - Zone One

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librasgroove 's review for:

Zone One by Colson Whitehead

3.5

This is not a horror novel, but literary fiction featuring the zombie apocalypse. Zone One’s world is corporatized - the capitalism machine finds new ways to exist in the conclaves of USAmerican society. Parts of the government efforts are sponsored by the remains of corporations, providing cigarettes and beer to those apart of the “American Phoenix”. Mark Spitz is one such person and tasked with clearing out straggler zombies to make way for the reconstruction of Manhattan. The higher ups make very specific directives for avoiding “stealing” from sponsors, and breaking costly items while disposing of stragglers for Mark and his coworkers. It may be the apocalypse but it’s important to think about maintaining the investment value of Manhattan real estate. These stragglers have an interesting quirk about them - they are less concerned with eating the living and more with whatever their living counterparts were occupied with in life. They are lying in fields with kites, attempting to fill balloons in party store, and trying to make copies at the office.

The timeline jumps around a lot, as Mark recalls his Last Night in the old world, how he has survived this long and all the different people he has met. It can be confusing at times because Whitehead does not always clearly transition between Mark’s present and past. This isn’t a scary book, but it is bleak. There are some suspenseful moments when I was waiting for the hatchet to come down, as it always does in apocalyptic fiction. There are some good characters who fit well to break Mark’s narration - Gary’s cruelty, Kaitlyn’s strictness, Mim’s hopefulness.

This book is definitely an acquired taste. If you liked reading all the random side stories in The Last of Us 1 found in letters/signs/etc., then you might like this.

Content Warnings