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    Zone One
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    Zone One
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    Zone One
    Audiobook9 hours

    Zone One

    Written by Colson Whitehead

    Narrated by Beresford Bennett

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A pandemic has devastated the planet, sorting humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead. The worst of the plague is now past, and Manhattan is slowly being resettled. Armed forces have successfully reclaimed the island south of Canal Street - aka 'Zone One' and teams of civilian volunteers are clearing out the remaining infected 'stragglers'.

    Mark Spitz is a member of one of these taskforces and over three surreal days he undertakes the mundane mission of malfunctioning zombie removal, the rigours of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder, and attempting to come to terms with a fallen world.

    But then things start to go terribly wrong…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House UK Audio
    Release dateOct 6, 2011
    ISBN9781448112845
    Unavailable
    Zone One
    Author

    Colson Whitehead

    Colson Whitehead was born in New York City in 1969 and graduated from Harvard College in 1991. He has written four novels, including the Pulitzer-Prize-nominated ‘John Henry Days.’ He has written for, amongst others, The New York Times, Salon and The Village Voice.

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    Reviews for Zone One

    3.5/5

    579 ratings69 reviews

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    • 4/5
      2012. Like brain candy. Like if Stephen King was a really good writer. Lyrical zombie apocalypse novel set in NYC. What more could you ask for? Genuinely harrowing at times, funny, the language is stunning. Clever. Why didn't I give it more stars? Well it's the characterization I guess. The book is suspenseful and plot driven, but the protagonist, Mark Spitz, is pretty shell-shocked and just not very compelling, and neither do you get to know any of the other characters very well. So, while i think Colson Whitehead should try to dethrone Stephen King in the horror game, he may need to work on his characterization a little first.
    • 4/5
      Set in the terrifying aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, Whitehead's novel follows Mark Spitz, a member of a team charged with clearing the dead bodies from a small section of New York. Whitehead parcels out background details slowly, so the reader slowly begins to understand what's gone on and just how bad things are. And then ...
    • 5/5
      In "Zone One", Colson Whitehead has given us one of the best literary treatments of the Post-Apocalypse ever written, perhaps the finest since Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend". As a zombie novel, it is the best of that sub-genre of horror fiction. Much of its excellence derives from Whitehead's skill as a satirist. He has a deft touch for turning a phrase and a power of description that elevates "Zone One" into the realm of "serious" works that study and comment upon the American mass psychology.We never learn the true name of Mark Spitz, the protagonist of the novel. We only discover the source of his nickname, a reference to him supposedly not being a good swimmer, late in the story. We learn enough about him in flashback to know that he has lost everyone he loves in the pandemic that has divided the world into the tormented living and the animate, cannibalistic dead. He refers to the universality of PASD (Post-Apocalypse Stress Disorder) among the living, such that he and every other survivor of the plague is coping, or not, with the lingering effects of shock, intense fear, and crippling levels of grief and guilt.Mark Spitz is a member of a team that is assigned to search and remove the "stragglers" from a section of Manhattan below Canal Street, Zone One, after the Marines have retaken the southern part of the island in a massive search and destroy campaign against the "skels". Stragglers are apparently passive plague victims, unlike the more numerous and dangerous un-dead who are constantly on the prowl for human flesh. The stragglers, activated by some latent memory in their otherwise plague-befuddled brains, return to the places that appear to have some emotional resonance for them. Once there, they remain frozen in position in their catatonic state. But it is extremely foolish to assume that a straggler is harmless, as a member of Spitz' team learns in a scene of true horror.The government in "Zone One", unlike Robert Kirkman's libertarian fantasy in "The Walking Dead", does not collapse. It manages to rally and restore a center of order in Buffalo, the new U.S. capital, from which it wages a war to slowly reclaim the nation from the infected hordes. Whitehead gets in some especially funny commentary about military bureaucracy and the neurotic themes of our perpetual War on Terror and our efforts to create friendly regimes in foreign lands where we Americans are not welcome. The government works with the corporate world to create official sponsors for the war effort against the "skels". Mark Spitz and his comrades carry "No-No" cards which specify which branded products they are allowed to loot as they clear their way through Manhattan, and which are off-limits. Spitz and his fellow sweepers share stories of "Last Night" (before all hell broke loose) and their lives before and after that great, terrible, dividing event in time. We are told, repeatedly, that Connecticut is the most loathsome place on Earth, but are given no details as to how it acquires its reputation. That's an example of Whitehead's quirky humor and how he blends it so well with the horror of "Zone One" to suggest that Zombie America is not that different from the violent, fearful and materialistic nation in which we live before the Apocalypse.
    • 4/5
      I wasn't sure about this book at first, not being a huge Zombie fan. But Whitehead really knows his way around a sentence, and he sucked me in pretty fast. There is just so much here; politics, family dynamics, humor. The hero "Mark Spitz," as he calls himself, is trying to help rebuild after a zombie pandemic, and suffering from PASD (Post Apocalypse Stress Disorder). Here is a favorite sentence:"Josh didn't have the bearing of one who was going to make it to the other side; there was something taffy to him, despite the fact he'd survived this long, and to tell him the story would be like pouring coffee into a broken saucer."
    • 4/5
      Very slow, very cerebral, very not a typical horror novel. I'm the only person I know who enjoyed this. I lent it to my husband with a glowing review, and he hated it. Random guy at the airport hated it so much, when he saw my husband reading it, he felt compelled to comment. They spent an entertaining 20 minutes enumerating all the reasons they hated it and coming up with new ways to describe how much they hated it.
    • 2/5
      A little bit too pretentious for my tastes.

      This book just felt like Whitehead was trying too hard to write a capital N Novel as opposed to a story that was actually engaging and/or substantial.
    • 1/5
      This book seemed like it would be perfect for me, with the apocalyptic/zombie theme. As I was reading it, I kept wavering between hoping it would get better and thinking maybe I've been reading young adult novels for too long. First I found the book boring, then I thought maybe the more difficult vocabulary was throwing me off. After finally finishing the book, I realized that I just didn't like the book. I didn't really connect with any of the characters and I found it hard to follow the constantly changing timeline. I've read plenty of books written for adults. So in the end, I've decided that it wasn't me it was the book. ;)
    • 5/5
      I admit I discovered this book because of the current Pandemic situation we’re living in and while there are some eerie parallels in Colson whitehead’s zone one to COVID-19, this book is much bigger than that. Whitehead uses this dystopian environment to refocus on how we view everyday activities when it’s taken away from us. There are periods of dark humor but also great moments for reflection. One of the biggest enjoyment in reading this book for me was Whitehead's poetic use of language. He is a true master of vocabulary and poetic images. A fascinating and enjoyable read that is hard to put down.

    • 4/5
      Very slow, very cerebral, very not a typical horror novel. I'm the only person I know who enjoyed this. I lent it to my husband with a glowing review, and he hated it. Random guy at the airport hated it so much, when he saw my husband reading it, he felt compelled to comment. They spent an entertaining 20 minutes enumerating all the reasons they hated it and coming up with new ways to describe how much they hated it.
    • 1/5
      Surprisingly boring for a novel about the zombie apocalypse. I got through the first two parts of the audiobook and realized that even if I kept going, really, nothing was going to happen. Some nice language in parts, but other parts feel over-written. Perhaps this is a "literary" zombie novel. Not my cup of tea.
    • 2/5
      I get it, you own a thesaurus. The underlying story was engaging, but the prose was frustrating. I'm not sure imitating Tim O'Brien is always a good choice.
    • 3/5
      This is a typical zombie apocalypse story. Set in the deserted waste of New York City, the main charter is Mark Spitz, a man who has been running ever since the epidemic surfaced. Mark is part of a sweeper team based in Chinatown. The propaganda suggests that mankind is on the verge of turning things around. This novel is somber, poetic, and haunting, if a tad predictable.
    • 3/5
      I realized just before I started this review that I think this is the first zombie novel I've ever read. I've certainly recommended zombie novels to other people through my job, but don't think I've ever read one. Zombies have never really appealed to me. They aren't the horrors that fill my nightmares. They still aren't, even after reading this book. So, I really can't compare this to other novels in the genre. But in the grand scheme of my literary life, I suppose I enjoyed it.

      It was difficult keeping the time lines straight. But I think that made it more true to life. I'm pretty sure I'd become very introspective if I survived an apocalyptic event. The only real problem I had with the book was being bashed over the head with the blind consumerism=zombie metaphor. But I suppose any time you read a zombie novel, that's what you're signing up for.
    • 2/5
      zzzzzzzzz

      It took me a long time to finish this book. Every few pages, I'd fall asleep or zone out and have to go back and reread what I had just read. The author has a good vocabulary, and shows it. I've never used the Kindle dictionary as often as with this book. It FELT like I was reading a dictionary -- just a wall of words.

      The book meanders in and out of flashbacks, seamlessly, so I sometimes had to go back and make sure WHERE the story had started going into the flashback.

      I only give it a 2 rating because the action level did pick up towards the end, and I liked the ending.
    • 3/5
      adult fiction. I'm fairly certain that a sharper, more intelligent novel about the zombie apocalypse has never been written--unfortunately, CW drones on for a good 100-200 pages longer than I've got the time or patience for. If you enjoy reading elegant prose just for the sake of reading elegant prose, by all means, devour this from cover to cover--if however, you'd just as soon move on to the next book in your to-read stack, read the first 100 pages or so, then skip ahead to the ending.
    • 3/5
      Good, but the end (though somewhat ambiguous) is extremely bleak. I enjoyed the play with expectations about Mark Spitz's race, though I personally know little about the Olympian (sports is not my bag), and I've never heard the ridiculous idea that people of African descent cannot swim. I had already pegged Mark Spitz as different from me, since he was male and I am not, so I suppose he was already othered in my head.

      Another note: I listened to the audio version of this. The reader sounded like he was struggling. I don't know why this would have been a good idea, but the words did not roll off his tongue as I generally expect of audiobooks. This is one of the reasons I ranked the book lower than I might have otherwise, though I certainly appreciated many of the word choices made.
    • 2/5
      Too clever by half. A dense frustrating read that was tough to get through.

      Not recommended.
    • 4/5
      A good setup and some good characters, but this didn't really click with me. I would prefer my zombie apocalypse, literary or otherwise, to not sacrifice characterization for flowery language.It seemed to me that the characters, while interesting, mostly existed in the narrative descriptions and didn't actually interact much. For all that she is talked about, we barely see anything of Mim. Yes, the main character avoids long term connections as part of his survival policy, but we don't even really see him ditching people. We are just told that he ditches others, and characters vanish from the narrative.The atmosphere and imagery were very well done, bleak with shots of grim humor, but sometimes there were so many images and metaphors on each page that they got in each others' way and none of them really landed. I don't know how else to describe it. This book tells (with many, many adjectives) what it could be showing (with character interaction or action).
    • 4/5
      Zone one set me a little off balance while reading it. It was a book of false expectations. It read like an long epoch but lacked the cumbersome length the style suggested. I think most people picking up the book know the general premise, post apocalyptic zombie ridden New York. What impressed me however, was the author's delivery and craft. The novel was beautifully written, the language and style was superb, especially toward the end of the novel. And I was surprised to find character development playing a stronger role in the momentum in this book than action, I didn't feel that I knew the main character to the very end, and my desire to know more is what drove me forward.
    • 4/5
      Zone One is lower Manhattan. The inevitable zombie apocalypse has overtaken the planet. The provisional government in Buffalo is trying to rebuild and they want Zone One to show it can be done.How do you like your zombie books? If the answer is moody, atmospheric, and oozing with metaphors then you will enjoy Colson Whitehead's depiction of the lower Manhattan cleanup.
    • 4/5
      Well who doesn't love a book about a survivor who found his niche in the zombie apocalypse? Good plot, characters were a bit one dimensional as expected in a book set in the zombie apocalypse. Set in Manhattan because who wouldn't want to make the cesspool of NYC into the utopian zombie free settlement? I don't want to give much away because well it's a zombie book and they are pretty much all the same. Zombie outbreak leads to apocalypse. Survivors fight the undead. Lots of blood and gore ensue.
    • 4/5
      Wonderful writing. If you only read one zombie novel, then this is the one. A squad of volunteers is assigned to Zone One in New York City to finish the sweeping job of ridding the city of the zombie stragglers not destroyed by the Army. Set over three days, it flows backwards and forwards in time to give a clear picture of Last Night.
    • 4/5
      A wordsmith writes a gritty novel with a new spin on the zombie apocalypse genre. Filled with a certain wit and talent for turning a phrase. The author searched for synonyms on google a bit too often, undermining the literary quality he was shooting for. Overall, an enjoyable read.
    • 4/5
      Mark Spitz is a survivor. When the Last Night happened and the dead started chowing down on his neighbors, he took to the wilds and lived via a combination of insight and insurmountable luck. Now humanity is beginning to regain small footholds, fragments of civilization amid the chaos, even if everyone is diagnosed with PASD (post apocalyptic stress disorder). Mark Spitz is working as a sweeper in Zone One (Manhattan island), going from building to building in search of any stragglers the marines left behind. It looks like the world might return to a new normal, with higher ups to repopulate Zone One, once it's cleared.This book is a vivid, literary and contemplative zombie novel, one that explores what it means to be human in a world of monsters that look like a more decrepit versions of yourself. As Mark Spitz explores the empty streets of Zone One, he flashes back both to the time before Last Night and his time as a survivor in the wild. This has to be one of the most intelligent zombie novels I've ever read, and while it meanders through the past in poetic nostalgia and metaphoric interpretations of the apocalyptic landscape, it need looses sight of Mark Spitz as a character or the thread of the story. It remains compelling and I found myself caught up in the people he meets, in their own little madnesses. It's at times gross (dead goo and fluids well described) and at times frightening, but always fascinating.
    • 3/5
      I nearly abandoned this after about 50 pages, but I decided to press on.

      I'm all done, and I can't decide if I want to give this a Single Star or Five Stars. I'm settling for an average. At times, I thought this was an amazing book, and at others, I couldn't figure out why I was bothering. And don't get me started about the ending.

      There was a lot of "whoa" moments, with interesting turns of phrases or pokes at the way people live their lives. It was definitely a very different take on the zombie novel than anything else I've ever read.

      Overall, I'm glad I read it, but I don't know that I'm in a hurry to read something else by Whitehead.
    • 4/5
      If you're a fan of zombies, you should read this. It's going up to #2 in my rankings of zombie books, right behind World War Z. Reason? It's really, really well written. Whitehead has a way with words...
      However, I couldn't help wishing that the book had a bit more narrative tension. I understand the futility and not-going-anywhere inherent in a zombie story. I understand the narrator's struggle with his PASD (Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder!), and his lack of linear thinking. I still wanted a bit more linear progress in the book.
      But the delight of Whitehead's incisive social commentary, the insight into the psychology of disaster, and, as I said, the language of the book, made me enjoy it all the way through, even when nothing much was happening. And it ended just the way a zombie story ought...
    • 3/5
      This was an interesting read and I think I'll need to digest it a bit. It is one of those books that begs you to reread the ending. I know a lot of people like this book and it's attempt to bridge or mesh Literary Fiction and Horror. I applaud the effort, but it didn't really work for me. Perhaps I needed to know more about this book going into it so my expectations were different.
    • 2/5
      eh, i really wanted to like it but it is rather wordy and rambling and hard to flow with the story line. i am not interested in the main character and like 30 pages in and i still am not sure if he is the main character. also if i had not read the reviews i would have no idea they were hunting zombies or people affected by a virus of some sort that turned the world upside down. so i may or may not finish it.
    • 5/5
      Highest quality literary zombie-fiction. I'm reminded of all the things Bret Easton Ellis said in "Less Than Zero" only here, the loss of words to describe the separation becomes the metaphor of the zombie apocalypse. Some of the phrasing here is utterly devastating. This novel was a real surprise to me--I didn't know that zombie fiction could get this good unless it was Kirkman. The scathing examination of late capitalism is precise and good in a way that "Shaun of the Dead" approaches but never quite achieves. HIGHLY recommended.
    • 1/5
      I know this book probably lets snooty, literati types slum it for a few days on the "genre fiction" side of the tracks, like rich college kids going to a "dive" bar to get an authentic experience. And good for them...but it's not for me. It's literary masturbation at it's worst, the prose so overwrought and pretentious I couldn't get past a single page without rolling my eyes. We don't need "literary fiction writers" to legitimize speculative fiction, so just give do yourself a favor and read The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell. Goes down smooth, no guilty aftertaste.