This is a book about survival, not zombies, but it's no less interesting for that fact. The writing was lovely, the story unfolded well, and the tension rose and fell in a great rhythm. 
 The thing that keeps me from rating this 4 or 5 stars is hard to explain. The best way I can say it is that something about Sloane, the main character, didn't connect with me. I found it hard to understand her a lot of the time. Perhaps I had expectations for an abused person that she didn't meet. Regardless, it jarred me out of the story several times throughout, and I found it hard to figure out her place in the group of survivors. 
 Still - it was an interesting book, and I found the ending pretty surprising. And besides that, the writing and narration style kept me more interested than the actual narrator did.