Alright, so I wasn't sure about this book. In fact, I was hoping it was bad. Really hoping I wouldn't like it all. Why? Zombies. I can't do zombies. 
 So, this book started off slowly but that's okay, I was hoping to avoid action. I wanted to ease into it; throw a shambling for my brains zombie right off and I'm out the door faster than you can say "Won't sleep for a week." And for those of you who don't like slow, at arms length zombies this section does some great world building. The world building is really what kept me intrigued throughout all of Mary's initial whining and the like. The mere fact that this is set generations after whichever zombie apocalypse makes it quite different from others within the zombie genre that are set during/following the outbreak. 
 With the world building being my favourite part of the writing, I must say that I did have difficulty with the narrative sometimes. Yes, the first person present does keep the reader in the moment and keeps up the suspense of what Mary knows and doesn't. However, sometimes if felt awkward, partially because of her vocabularly (what with the religious nomenclature, etc) but also some possible verb tense disagreements. 
 And while Mary was well fleshed out, I felt some of the other characters could've used some rounding out. Such as Travis, we spend so much time with him but don't get to see much of him (again, we know what Mary knows). 
 It just felt overall, there was some detail and definition lacking. Which I hope does get cleared up as Ryan can explore this world more. Anyhow, I will read the next in the series, with all the lights on of course.