Whiteheads’ Zone One takes a unique approach to the zombie apocalypse. The story takes place in lower Manhattan, with the uninfected building a quarantine zone to avoid the skels. The Skels in this booka re not all dangerous; some of these infected just sit around, as if stuck in a moment of their old lives. After reading the book, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the open ending and the story overall. I looked up some reviews to see what other people thought of this novel. While reading Zone One, one of my first thoughts was how disappointed the avid zombie fan would be with this book. There is hardly any action at all, and everytime we think an action scene is going to take place, Whitehead takes us back to a memory or flashback of some sort. The reviews I found on Amazon certainly helped prove my theory;
“This book doesn’t even get a star in my opinion but because amazon says I have to at least give it one star I will. Review’s say it is a “literary novel” rather a science fiction novel, but I say its neither. Try describing a chair using highly advanced lexicon and metaphors for three pages and call it a novel. Okay so its not about a chair, it’s about “skels” nonetheless its the most boring novel i’ve ever read, I’m still in the process of reading it and can’t get past page one-seventy something. My creative writing teacher is forcing the class to read it. Its lame. This guy (whitehead) must have been wicked high or drunk while writing this book and the only way you’ll ever be able to finish the book is being one of the two–or both?”
“The idea of the story itself is a decent one but sadly it gets lost in this poorly written attempt at a post zombie apocalypse story. The time line bounces all over the place, making it next to impossible to understand what’s going on when. The prose is far too descriptive and goes off track often. Somewhere behind all the ‘filler’ and non-sensical time lines there’s a solid story, but it’s not worth the chore of reading this book to attempt to uncover it. I am sorry I toughed it out and read it all the way through”
As seen from these one star reviews, the lack of a timeline or zombie action went over some readers’ heads. After reading an interview with the author, I looked back on the story and almost enjoyed it more. He talked about his inspiration came from the death of his father and a divorce, and how he was just trying to find the next safety in life. This book reflected the struggles many of us go through each and every day. Though our issues may not be super thrilling to other people, it can feel like the end of the world to us. I think Zone One realistically explores what might happen if a zombie-like disease were to plague the world.
