Literary zombie novel. Comparing it to The Passage, which was particularly well-written genre fiction by a 'literary' author, Zone One feels closer to actual literature with zombie elements; a good example is the several pages near the start in which the main character, Mark Spitz, is being attacked by a group of 'skels' in an office tower, the immediate action intercut with paragraphs-long passages of interior-expository recollection. The prose is melodious, sometimes a bit lyrical, generally very readable, occasionally too flowery; the story is engaging enough; the post-apocalypse persuasively 'things fall apart, the centre cannot hold' even though it opens at a point when the remnants of human civilisation seem to be tentatively reasserting themselves. 7.5 out of 10, in a good way.
