Literally Dead Book Club discussion
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Zone One
ZONE ONE DISCUSSION
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Zone One - part one
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My copy won't arrive until Monday so I need to control my curiosity and stay away from the Discussions until I've had a chance to read it. But thanks for providing the sections! I'll be sure to mark them when I receive my book.
I'm enjoying this so far! I like how thoroughly this world has been set up, and it's interesting being dropped into the aftermath of an apocalypse where the rebuilding of society is starting (rather than a story about the complete destruction of a society, or an established post-apocalyptic world, which I have read more often). The way it's written is interesting, moving from one topic to another like Mark's train of thought, but I'm having to really concentrate sometimes! Some descriptions are lost on me, I'm not sure how to picture things, but maybe I'm not familiar enough with NYC to picture the streets and architecture (I'm from the UK and our cities are very different). I'm interested to see where the story goes, hopefully there'll be more action in part 2!
This is a lot different than I was expecting so far, I finished part one earlier today. It’s very, very, slow, and very stream of consciousness, which can be hard to follow at times, but I got used to it closer to the end of part one. It reminds me a lot of Severance by Ling Ma, though I think that had better pacing in the beginning. Minor part one spoilers:
My predictions are that something HAS to happen plot-wise. The radio being disconnected has to mean something, and I don’t trust Gary. I’m hoping they either find a survivor out there (his uncle maybe?) or the camp has been like decimated by another wave of the disease (which they’ve been very lax on the details of so far) or like a natural disaster or something. I love the idea of the rehabilitation being like “funded” by a corporation and having branding and mascots and a marketing team. What a great concept! Horrifying, but great.
I feel like I have worked so hard to finish this section and it's only been 100 pages. Right off the bat I can say I like Whitehead's prose, but I'm not sure if zombies are just my thing in books, or if it's an odd combination of several factors (Whitehead's writing + military lingo + descriptions of a city that I have limited knowledge of) that is making it so hard for me. I actually just want something to happen, these pages were all pretty much just backstory.
Renata, I know exactly what you mean, I feel the same way about that combination.
I love horror, I love zombies, I love post-apocalyptic worlds, and I love literary fiction. What I don't like is a jumbled mess and that's what part 1 of this book felt like. I almost DNF'd at around 50 pages. I'm NOT enjoying his choice of prose in the over-use of complicated metaphors and symbolism. And the stream of consciousness style was really difficult to adjust to as well. I don't even feel like the author adjusted to the style well at first. But it does settle down somewhat in the second half of the first part, allowing some sort of "story" to begin to unfold. There have been bits of backstory I've really enjoyed as well, but, not gonna lie, it's still got a long way to go before this book actually become "good" in my humble opinion.
I ended up DNF'ing today, at about 58%. I felt like I was forcing myself to pick it up and I don't want to feel that way when reading.
Renata, I hope this doesn't turn you off future books with zombies. This is NOT a zombie story! I'm still not quite sure what "this" actually is but it's not representative of zombie sub-genre of horror.
Ended up DNF’ing this one at around 130 pages. I just really did not enjoy the writing style, it was so dull to me. I often felt myself wanting to fall asleep. I could not engage with the story at all it was like my eyes were reading the pages but my mind was off wandering about other things. For a book about zombies I just don’t understand how this was so boring to me! I hate DNF’ing books and I rarely ever do it but I have so many more books I’m really looking forward to so I can’t waste anymore time on this!
I dnf'd at page 56. There was nothing out of the bat to grab my attention or keep me interested at all. I love zombie stories, but maybe it is the military perspective that ruined this for me. Whitehead's writing style is also very different from what I am used to so that could be part of it too. I really wanted to keep going but in the span of those 56 pages I had picked it up and set it down three times, and each time I picked it back up it felt like a chore. Looking forward to next month's read though!
My first thought was: "whoa, this book vomited words". 300-ish pages with only 3 chapters?So far, it's not too bad. I've always liked books written in inner-monologue style. Although, if I had to choose a horror book, I would've read The Sun Down Motel instead (and I did. It was awesome!).
The concept of 'stragglers' is very interesting - this is a differentiator to other zombie stories I've read/watched/listened to. Hopefully there will be more coverage on what makes people turn into stragglers than skels later.
The concept of PASD is expected. Humans acting like jerks, societies trying to rebuild, and scarcities - these are all expected from a zombie book. I hope 'Saturday' will have a bit more action though - so far we've only seen Mark Spitz and co. finding 4 skels and a few stragglers, then they sleep in an office building.
The flashback stories are necessary, and I quite enjoy them. However, because they don't really have chapters, they often confuse me for a while before I realise they're actually flashbacks. I'm not sure that the choice of not having chapters is wise here. Is it supposed to be a representation of Mark Spitz' state of mind? That to him, past and present often blur into each other? It's quite annoying to me as a reader.
Anyway, will see what 'Saturday' brings.
I actually don't mind the lack of chapters. It's nice because you know you have one day, then the next.I'm not thoroughly enjoying this, but I'm interested enough to keep reading. I was mostly disappointed because I'm using my library's Ovedrive app to read, and I didn't realize it broke the page count to per chapter, so I was trying to push to finish the 130 pages, thinking that it was the whole book, only to realize that I had 2 more chapters to go, lol.
I like that we get some flashbacks to Last Night and get each individual's story. The imagery is really good, even if it's long winded. I have to check the publish dates, because this doesn't fit the style of his other books (at least Nickel Boys and Underground Railroad). I wonder what drove him to decide on this more stream of consciousness, opinion of the protagonist alone, based narration.
I really like Whitehead's idea that corporations would be involved in "donating" their goods when the entire society is basically gone. The fact that survivors are struggling to maintain some semblance of "normalcy" when everything is basically razed and needs to be rebuilt from scratch isn't something that I've seen tackled a lot. I'm hoping they find some survivors that shake up the system they've developed. It is feeling like things are going too well, and the rules may need to be questioned. Maybe the stragglers wake up? That would be a moral pickle, especially since Whitehead specifically made Mark Spitz point out that survivors still gave them pronouns.
I’ve also found this a bit difficult to follow at times. I am interested to read on and see how the story develops. The idea of “stragglers” is interesting. I wonder if the virus just affects people differently, or perhaps the virus mutated, resulting in “stragglers”. Not sure yet if I like this book or not, but I am interested to see what happens in the next chapter.
I am not a zombie lover. I’ve never really understood why, especially since I loved vampire/creature hunter type movies and shows as a kid. Seemed zombies would be up my alley too. I think I’ve realized with this book that the reason I don’t love zombie movies (or books now too) is that they tend to be more character based. I am someone who needs plot to keep me engaged (Stephen King being pretty much my one exception to this). I would have DNF’d it if it weren’t for this group, but I’m gonna see what happens on day 2. Also, I am listening to the audiobook with the book, and even still, I’m struggling with the tone of this book. Is it supposed to be humorous? Or only so far as people with PTSD can sometimes just be over all the shit and their cynicism comes across as self-deprecating humor?
Lastly, my husband watches the Game Grumps on YouTube, so I’ve seen several of their episodes. The game they play (I think it was Dead Rising 2)... this book reminds me of them playing that game sometimes. When he signed up for the military force, I could just hear Arin from Game Grumps saying “Let’s go kill some Zomboes!” 🤷🏻♀️🤪
Roxanne wrote: "I love horror, I love zombies, I love post-apocalyptic worlds, and I love literary fiction. What I don't like is a jumbled mess and that's what part 1 of this book felt like. I almost DNF'd at ar..."
I feel the same. Unfortunately I DNF'd as well as I just couldn't get past the writing style.
I am at page 103 and have started skimming as I agree with most of the posts here. The writing style is very hard to get into and even to understand completely. I am going to keep trucking along and hope that I can get into it more!
I’m really not liking this book guys. I got to page 44 before I realised that I had no clue what was going on. I thought that it was me just having my mind elsewhere. But I restarted it that night and I still have to concentrate 100% on each sentence to follow along properly. My mind is still wandering though so I often have to re read pages. It’s just a lot of hard work and I doubt the pay off will be worth it.I also don’t like zombie stories and I don’t really enjoy end of the world/ apocalyptic stuff either. But I am liking the fact that this takes place after the “end of the world” and is focused on the clean up and getting society back up and running again. It feels very apt for the present global situation.
I’m getting “Do Electric Sheep Dream of Androids”/ Bladerunner vibes but I liked Philip K Dick’s book better.
I guess I’ll see how I get along with Saturday before I decide if I want to continue but honestly the only thing making me read on is because I bought the book especially for this group and I don’t want to waste my money haha.
This is a slow one. It took a good 60 pages before I started getting into it. I like the premise and the world building and think the Last Night stories and the concept of stragglers is really interesting. Clearly something must be wrong back at camp and I think something more will have to unfold during Saturday before we get to Sunday and all hell breaks loose. At least I hope it picks up a bit.
Currently considering DNF ing this as i am about 3 hours into the audio book and just do not want to read it anymore. The writing style is not one i enjoy as it feels a bit overwritten for me. I prefer more straight forward writing. Also, listening on the audio book makes the stream of conscious quality even more confusing and so half of the time i only have a vague idea of what is going on. Urg, I don't want to DNF a book for the club but its making my current slump way worse :(
Annabelle wrote: "Currently considering DNF ing this as i am about 3 hours into the audio book and just do not want to read it anymore. The writing style is not one i enjoy as it feels a bit overwritten for me. I pr..."I was wondering if it would have been better as an audio book but I guess not. Part 1 is really hard to get through. But if you're in a slump, I'd put this aside. I had to hate-read my way through at least half of the 2nd part before I started to get a bit of enjoyment out if it. Reading this felt like "work" and probably isn't what you need to get over a slump. 🙁
decided to dnf @ 30 pages. reading this book started giving me a headache D: was really hoping this would be a solid read but right now is not the time
I'm strongly considering DNF-ing this book, it feels awfully slow and I'm really trying to hold out!
i just had to DNF this book. i had trouble following the story and just can not force myself to start at the beginning again :(
I'm really hoping this one picks up, because I found part one slow/boring and hard to follow at times. However, I think it's just going to be a case that this one's not be for me.
I actually enjoyed the first chapter. I found that Whitehead does the stream of consciousness narrative well. I personally haven't been confused about what scene Spitz is in or what's actually happening when he deep dives into a memory or train of thought. At least not yet. But I understand how it becomes convoluted and confusing. I've enjoyed the writing style. It's refreshing since it's the first stream of consciousness narrative I've read in a long time. Looking forward to finding out what happens next.
Finally finished the fist section and I feel so accomplished!! That was rough! I’m glad I’m not the only one finding this writing style confusing. I did end up picking up the audiobook because I struggled to stay focused while physically reading. I have to listen to the audio while following along in the physical book to get anything out of the story. I want to DNF but I cheated and looked at what people were saying about part two and three and they seem to agree it gets better! We’ll see
Larissa wrote: "I am at page 103 and have started skimming as I agree with most of the posts here. The writing style is very hard to get into and even to understand completely. I am going to keep trucking along an..."Yeah, I just skimmed through the entire first chapter. I just didn't care at all.
I feel a little bit better about choosing to forgo this one, but I'm so sad I can't get into Whitehead's writing and storytelling style yet. Maybe I'm just too newbie of a reader, but I still need stories to have a straightforward plot and easily understandable language in order to enjoy them. This is the second Colson Whitehead I've picked up and tried to understand, but I have to admit that his style is too much for my simple mind. Lol. I've read some reviews saying this book gets weighed down by the prose and doesn't focus on plot enough, so I'm not sure this one's for me. Sad days!
It seems that everyone has had a bit of trouble with this book. Omg I want to Dnf it sooo bad but I always feel awful when I do that especially with books I paid full price for. Whitehead's writing style is very complex and over dramatized and its just not for me. It literally took me 27 days to make it to page 128. the stragglers are about the only interesting part of this book so far.Im trying my best to finish this.
I think I am also DNFing at 50%. It's slow, sloggy, stream-of-consciousness in a way that is so hard to follow, and it's just annoying me at this point. Came on here to reassure myself it wasn't just me haha.
I dnfd after he checked out a zombie in a thong yick!
Aislyn wrote: "I actually enjoyed the first chapter. I found that Whitehead does the stream of consciousness narrative well. I personally haven't been confused about what scene Spitz is in or what's actually happ..."I agree with you Aislyn. It's been interesting jumping from thought to thought. It forces you to pay close attention if you don't want to miss anything. But reading while listening to the audiobook also helps.
Okay, so after I have caught up on comments I don’t feel bad for feeling like this book is extremely slow.
Zone One feels like a work of literary fiction featuring commentary on a plague apocalypse. I don't think this inner dialogue goes well with the subject matter. It makes it feel boring, the rare bits of dialogue save it enough for me to keep listening to the audiobook. Mark is a practical man without much hope for the future. His colleague, Gary, is interesting. I don't like him, but then knowing he's a triplet and lost his two siblings broke my heart. Caitlyn doesn't seem to have much of a personality (and hasn't spoken to another female yet that we've seen which means so far this book is failing the Bechtel test). If any of you know of a scene where she does speak to another female please let me know.I love the idea of small things like fresh corn and newborn triplets being a symbol of hope for the future. It makes me think about our own pandemic and the small joys we experience as we move to the next "phase".
I didn't like the commentary on sadism at all. UGH that made me feel icky. How could it be seen as a "healthy habit"? Gross.
PASD - Post Apocalytic Stress Disorder: I love new terms like this based on fictional future events.
skells: because they are eventually just skeletons, ewwwww
feral cities: another fictional/futuristic term that caught my ear
"Soon as we get to the island we're done climbing stairs" - Gary
I used to hate Gary but he's growing on me.
In my edition, this section ends at page 128.
Thoughts so far? Share below! No spoilers for upcoming sections please.