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.