Monster Island: A Review

I am in the middle of a new FOW buildings and Open Fire does not get released until Saturday, so i though I would write a review of a book i just read.  A friend of mine gave me a copy of the trilogy a few years back.  I will try to keep it vague so I don't spoil anything for anyone interested in reading it.   

"Monster Island" is a zombie novel written by David Wellington.  It was originally a web serial and was eventually published.  It is the first of a trilogy.  The novel takes place in Manhattan shortly after New York is over run by zombies.  It appears that the world is in the middle of the zombie apocalypses and there are very few pockets of humans left. 

The main character is a man named Dekalb.  He is a former UN inspector.  He is forced to accompany a group of teenage Somalian child soldiers to New York to find medication for a warlord (Somalia is one of the last strongholds of humans remaining).  As with every good zombie story, all plans go horribly wrong.

The basic plot is nothing special but the author takes a different approach with the zombies.  They act and appear very much like typical zombies.  However as the story progresses you find that the dead are all connected.  Thus leading to specific powerful zombies can control the other weaker ones.  It is like "The Walking Dead" meets "Army of Darkness".  The story also has a unique antagonist, Gary the Intelligent zombie.  (and for some reason I kept picturing Roger from "American Dad" as Gary).  

For me the characters of the book were not the highlight.    I found that the characters were very 1 dimensional.  The people were not complex and particularly interesting.  New "Useful" characters had a tendency to pop up out of no wear when they were needed for a plot turn.  There is never really any build up to this people.  I do like how the main character is not a highly trained super soldier, and that he relies on the teenage girl soldiers to stay alive.

There was also several times when characters (mainly Jack and Gary) would make a decision that felt unnatural to how they had be developing.  Gary (the thinking-mans zombie) denies he is a monster, then says he is evil and a monster, and denies being a monster again at the end.

I really dont want to give much away.  Over all I enjoyed the book.  It was not great literature but it was fun.  It was easy to read.  The book jumped back and forth between Dekalb's story and Gary's story.  The author does a great job keeping me invested by keeping chapters short (4-8 pages) and alternating between the two characters.  David Wellington does set up a very bleak vision that is more then a little unsettling.  He does a great job describing the city and the atmosphere.  This is what kept my eagerly turning the pages.  

I would defiantly recommend this book to a zombie fan.  It wont take you long to get through (I am a slow reader and I got through in a few days),  so give it a try.
Kevin