Final Reaction to Zone One

What an intense ending. Finally we get to the end of the book, and that's where all the action was hiding? Who would have known... huh? ;) In all honesty I feel like I would need to read this book a second time to fully understand and catch all of the details. I definitely could have predicted that someone was going to die, but I was surprised that it was Gary. All of the foreshadowing with Mark's 'bleeding-through' visions sets the reader up for a suspenseful moment, but wow! What is most surprising here is that the novel broke it's own rules, which is that straggler zombies do not attack. For the first time in the entire novel, a skel bites someone, and it just so happens to be Gary. I did not find myself very emotionally attached to the character, though, which I didn't notice until he died. I was disappointed to never hear from Caitlin again, but most disappointed that Mim never made a return. After Gary is bit, and the team is separated, everything falls apart from there, leaving Zone One in shambles with the defense wall gone and zombies everywhere. Mark decides that he is going to learn to swim here, by walking into the sea of dead. I thought that the dark, hopeless, cliffhanger ending was very Colson Whitehead-esque, and I don't think he could have pulled it off more smoothly. I enjoyed the book overall, with my biggest complaint being bored at some points.

Zone One Week 4

FINALLY! This ending of the book would be the point of which everyone has been waiting for! In the story we have rules of the zombies. we have two types. 1. they run and eat. 2. they just stand frozen. However a fortune teller bite off a thumb and thus the entire rule book is thrown out! The frozen zombies were animated and they have hordes of zombies re-infesting Zone One. All the hard work Mark and everyone is now gone. So Mark was right in the case that it'll only get worse. He also started before that he can't die at all, or really he hasn't died. He goes out in the sea of dead and starts mowing them down. How can all their years of work be gone in just a few days? Is Whitehead hinting that he might write another book in the sense of the end of the Apocalypse? The World my never know...

Okay i kind of liked the idea of the book more than the writing. The end was the best part, but the entire books plot dry and lifeless just like the zombies. But if he wrote more on the world reforming in a new era after the zombies it would be a great story and have a new threat or a new horde of zombies infesting Buffalo. 

Zone One: Week 3

I was hoping for more action in the third reading, but alas.... more talking. I mean yeah more talking! Ah, who am i kidding? I hate the book so far. They writing is becoming even more detailed and the story is barely moving along. We do learn more about Mark and his three different stories he tells people so they don't get to really know him, he still doesn't trust anyone, and even though they are his family now, he can't be vulnerable.  We start to see people leaving left and right too we don't hear from the, again at all. What happened to them? Why does Whitehead add this aspect to the story? I really think its because it shows that's nothing is permanent and people will die around you if you don't keep moving.

Zone One Week 2

Week 2: This part of the book is still the same as the first, barely anything but with last days. Even through the entire part of the book of death, death, and more death, they seem to have fun with one skel. It was a good light scene to show that not everything in the world that is bright is gone, they still have their sense of humor and they know when to act and when to fight. With their last days they explain to each other, it gives us a background and understanding of who they were and how the apocalypse changes them.

Zone One Week 1

Week 1:
This was a pretty interesting take on the Zombie Apocalypse. With the whole idea that its nearing the end of the of the apocalypse, and civilization is finally rebuilding itself. Mark Spitz is a sweeper that cleans up Zones and helps clean up the outside world, he seems to think the world as they know wont come back from the dead or be rebuilt in anyway. All hope in him is lost. As everyone explained in  class the book was waaaaay to detailed for me, it just goes on and on about little things left and right. Also the book didn't really flow between the past and present that well... I would rather spend my time reading a book that gave a little detail and have me imagine the rest. the book so far is an interesting start on a different kind of Zombie book.

Last of Zone One Readings

So the day comes where there will no longer be anymore reading of this slow paced, detailed story. Ultimately the book had an excellent process for describing the setting in such detail and giving a very good feel of what it may be like to be in such a situation. At the beginning of Sunday I found it interesting when they discussed the finding of different suicidal corpses. It help establish how intense the plague was for everyone. the status of these people's lifestyle got to intense to handle, to the point that they felt it was easier to kill themselves rather than live. It makes me think that if a plague was to occur, people would most likely be left in terrible living conditions and would no longer be able to handle. I felt the overall idea of the story was very interesting. To see less action but more of the rebuilding phase of civilization was unique and insightful. Colson Whitehead developed a very unique, dark setting that i could easily imagine myself in.

Final reaction

Well we have finished the book and I am sad that this was the end but man was the last reading insane! I do think it was nuts how the lieutenant killed himself and how he would have been able to benefit from the counterfeit medicine operation that was going on and maybe that would have prevented the inhalation of the grenade that killed him. From there we follow our groups unfortunate last mission into Zone One and man was it eventful. If only Gary would have just given the gypsy lady one reassured shot he might have been able to keep his finger and not die so tragically. Finally though all of the quick sentences where Mark kept saying its bleeding through came to light with Gary’s bite and it was interesting to see the skell sit there as long as it did before attacking Gary. Then the truth really came out though with Marks return to Won Ton for medicine and the breaking of the wall as he said civilizations always fall no mater how good the defenses. Miss Macy really opens up telling the soldiers that her visit was a pure publicity stunt and how there was no summit but whilst reading I had a feeling that in the end that would have been the case. It saddened me though not to know what happened to Caitlyn after she ran from the gypsy holdup. In the end though it crazy to see Mark somewhat concern his fear of swimming it would have been better to swim in water not an ocean of the dead.

zone one pt 3

It was really interesting to see Mark finally warm up to someone and give his obituary to Mim. Mim was a very dynamic character and it was disappointing when she never returned from the pepper run. The story seems to be moving at the same rhythm, developing the characters through flashbacks and conversation. Although the character development and flashbacks are beautifully detailed, and necessary for the reader to understand the story, I find myself a little bored with the slow pace. None the less, Whitehead takes on the three-day timeline logically. The last part of the chapter was pretty intense and exciting though, so that was a nice change. We have read some pretty gruesome skel kills already, but Mark's glory moment on the car was bad ass! I feel like this scene is preparing us for a really dramatic ending perhaps. I sure hope there is more action like this!

Forgot to do part two.

I find it very interesting that the marines that die in battle were just burned with the rest of the skel's. I guess in such a chaotic frenzy there isn't much time to do proper burials. I also find it interesting how the different characters few the skel's. Spitz at one point wants to leave copy boy Ned alone but doesn't know why. Gary likes to torment the skel's in this book and it's actually considered a healthy release for people with PASD. Also there was a reference to people putting up physical barriers to block out the skel's but also psychological barriers to make it through the day. Made me think about how stressful that must be and if anyone could be the same after the apocalypse. Some people think its all going to pass and everything will go back to normal while people like mark spitz realize that the world will never be the same and there is no point in thinking about it. Very interesting to me how different people deal with different situations.

Zone one 3rd blog

I liked this weeks reading because there was finally some action. We see Spitz have a kind of hero moment when he doesn't jump off the bridge but instead jumps on the hood of a car and takes out a fairly large group of skel's. And I thought the new characters were interesting. Mim has a pretty unique last night story and also a crazy story about a guy named Abel who basically lost his mind and lured skel's to her first groups house. I like how the action picked up in the last 20 pages. The bombs blowing up and the chaos. I kind of wish the whole book would have been this action packed. I guess it's better late than never though.  As far as the actual story goes I really have no idea where its headed. So far the only thing I find interesting is the development of the characters.

Zone One: Part 3

In the third portion of our reading, I expected more development of the story itself but it continues to elaborate on flashbacks from earlier times. Whitehead has done an excellent job developing the characters using their past experiences, which allows us to relate with them a little more. I still feel it is very easy to loose interests in the actual story though. I did find that introducing Mim was a key factor in this novel. Mim showed a different point of view on the Last Night stories considering she was a mother. Through Mim, we see that peoples pasts really did affect how they act in a post apocalyptic world. Mim also gives the author a chance to allow Mark Spitz to show trust in someone and also allows us to see more of his story and learn more about his character. I feel that the story still feels slow and hasn't picked up enough for me to fully be interested. Although I find the story slow, Whitehead has done a good job showing a difference between the past and the present and the affect this plague has had on people and their lives.

Reaction pt3

Finally we meet Mim! As I was reading through this book I thought to myself will there be anyone Mark warms up to enough to tell the obituary? We also see Mark doing a lot of looking to the past with and a little to the future with Mim. Ironically the thing he most hates about Mim is her belief that Buffalo exists. But there for a while he has found someone and potentially fell in love only for that inevitable day where she goes out for some pepper and never comes back. We see that she didn’t leave him or run off when Mark tells us that all of her stashed packs were still there. So what other option does he have but to continue on. I really liked this section of the book because we see into Marks mind his being if you will quite a bit. We finally understand the troubles he’s seen to get to the present day. Yet again he finds a small sanctuary where he thinks maybe they could hold out until this thing is figures out. But keeping Mim’s advice fresh in his mind he always stashes the pack which was a good idea. Because once the someone goes nuts it’s a free for all as we see with the residence of the country house. As I read I keep getting these quick snippets of Mark or Caitlyn talking about a bandage seeping through. I think as we go on we may see that Mark has finally let his guard down enough to be bitten and is on his death bead recapping his travels to the present day. This is only a theory though nothing more.

Zone One Reaction pt 2.

After surviving all of the endless rambling and reminiscing, which I find extremely hard to read through but still significant, I have come to find myself indifferent about this book. I'm not quite favoring any character, although usually, I'm immediately attached to the main character. I wonder if the author does this on purpose, it feels like he does to create a sense of being lost, or hopelessness. Caitlyn we haven't learned much about still, yet she is leader. I find it interesting and related to our class theme of gender roles, how the two teams Nova and Omega are lead by women. I find this interesting because I am doing my exploratory essay on a topic of gender roles. In every other zombie movie or book, men take the lead role, no matter what it be. Driver, killer, leader. But here we see equality for the most part, distributed among the living, all working together to bring this shambled city back to life. My favorite thing about this book so far is the abstract qualities that stray away from typical zombie-genre stereotypes. Such as the women leaders, practically functioning government, and stagnant skels. The unique aspects make the rambling worth reading through.

Zone One: Pt 2

The most interesting thing to me at this point in the story is the different ways in which the survivors act towards the zombies and each other in order to cope with what's going on around them and in order to keep moving forward and living their lives. For instance when Mark and team are clearing out a building they find a lone skel and play guessing games about the backstory of the skel, where it came from, why it came here, who it was before it turned etc. In a time of strict business and not much room for fun, it's pretty interesting that these silly moments shared among this group between killing zombies/being killed by zombies are actually incredibly significant and important. These people need these moments to stay in touch with who they were and who they still are buried under all the zombie apocalypse nonsense.

Zone One: Part 2

In the second part of reading Zone One, there is still an exhausting amount of side stories and explanations. At times it is a little difficult to follow along with. Although there is a large amount of flash backs and thought, it does help develop the setting to further explain the world now and then. In the second part of reading this book, they went on to explain more about what the survivors were doing, why there were doing it and their goal for the city. I found a lot of this was explained in the portion where Mark Spitz arrived at Fort Wonton and was speaking with the Lieutenant. The Lieutenant discussed their mission and the goal to rebuild the city sections at a time using barricades. I liked that they went on to explain, briefly, what Kaitlyn and Gary were doing when the plague started. It reminds us that they were individuals and had their own normal lives but now are together as a team and a family. As the stories progress, it is interesting to see the pasts of these characters and show how their differentiating personalities and pasts help one another work as a team.

Zone one section two reading reaction

It is interesting to see in this section of the book the origins of our character’s Mark, Caitlyn and Gary. Up until this point we don’t really know anything about theses characters other than the work details they were put on and the living conditions they are in. I really like how Mark has his various versions of his last night story, only brandishing the copy needed per the person he comes across. Earlier on in the book it struck me quite confused to see over and over again Gary’s character refer to himself in the 3^rd person as if he were the 3 brothers all wrapped into one shell always saying “we” seems odd to me as if he has a psychosis that has yet to rear its head only waiting for the breaking point or the time he has to share his last night story and then he snaps. Gary as a character interests me, he doesn’t seem like the person to take orders from a young somewhat upbeat sorority type girl. Caitlyn we still know the least about her other than she is in some sort of managerial position over the guys, always enforcing the “regs” even when it comes to a minuscule candy bar. I hope as the novel progresses we can find out some of the hardships that helped Caitlyn come to the position and place she is at as of the moment she’s a different yet awesome character. With that being said for omega team I did also notice that Nomas’s team was also lead by a female Angela. Its interesting to see when all this chaos is happening that in the book females haven’t lost their equality in society while so much has reverted back to a former time occupied by less technology. Lastly I like that while all this chaos from the plague is happening from the outside looking in it almost looks like a normal city with persons aimlessly roaming the streets and parks all be it they are reanimated corpses, but still the city is still alive and we see that in many descriptions that we are given by Mark.