This actually does contain spoilers, but I find that spoiler warning annoying. How can you tell whether you'll want to read this review, if you don't get to see any of it? 
 I came very close to giving this three stars. I did. There are good things about it, and I will probably check out the sequel, because I understand it doesn't deal with the same characters. Parts were exciting (parts were the opposite of exciting). The world is interesting. The idea of it being several generations past the Zombie Apocalypse, of knowledge of the world before being lost, is interesting. 
 Here's what's not interesting: love triangles (quadrangles?) where you can't connect emotionally with any of the participants. That's what took up far too much of this book, and is the reason I just couldn't give three stars. 
 I was also not in love with the writing style, which I found sparse and repetitive. I don't think it was bad; quite the contrary, it was very effective. It helped create a feeling of claustrophobic greyness. It was kind of dead itself, oppressive almost, shambling. I thought it worked, I just didn't like it that much, and I'm baffled that so many found it elegant. Apropos, yes; elegant, no. 
 I am willing to give these characters the benefit of the doubt, somewhat. Say you'd lived all your life surrounded by walking death, hemmed in by a fence and by religion. You might very well end up stunted, emotionally and in your capacity to imagine. Maybe these characters, who all seem incapable of complexity, are utterly realistic. At the very least, they are one person's deliberate vision of what people under such circumstances might be like. Still, I really don't enjoy spending time with these people. 
 The most interesting person in the book was the Outsider, and she gets maybe two speaking lines before she's undead. Even undead, however, she manages to have more personality than most of the living characters. 
 ETA: stumbled across a really interesting explanation of the love triangle at the author's blog: http://carrie-ryan.livejournal.com/60... 
 That makes me reconsider my response to the love triangle a bit, I have to admit. In the end, though, I'm not sure that understanding the author's intention better would help me connect emotionally with the characters any better.