One Yellow Eye

ONE YELLOW EYE

LEIGH RADFORD

*****

Full of heartbreak, revulsion and black humour, a scientist desperately searches for a cure to a zombie virus while also hiding a monumental secret – her undead husband.

Kesta’s husband Tim was the last person to be bitten in a zombie pandemic. The country is now in a period of respite, the government seemingly having rounded up and disposed of all the infected.

But Kesta has a secret . . .

Tim may have been bitten, but he’s not quite dead yet. In fact, he’s tied to a bed in her spare room. And she’s made him a promise: find a cure, bring him back.

A scientist by day, Kesta juggles intensive work under the microscope alongside Tim’s care, slipping him stolen drugs to keep him docile, knowing she is hiding the only zombie left. But Kesta is running out of drugs – and time. Can she save her husband before he is discovered? Or worse . . . will they trigger another outbreak?

MY REVIEW

*****

I do have a love of dystopian thrillers, although I have to admit that since the Covid pandemic my love of the zombie genre has waned a little. Upon reading the blurb for One Yellow Eye, however, I was excited to request and start reading – hoping to re-ignite that spark!

Kesta has survived a zombie outbreak, the infected have all been destroyed and Londoners are just trying to live their lives in the new world. However, Kesta is hiding a secret, her zombie husband, locked in her flat, ready and waiting for a cure. Can it be found before it’s too late?

What I think sets One Yellow Eye apart from the usual zombie horrors, is that it very much focuses on Kesta’s love for her husband. It presents the reader with a question – if the person you love has been changed by a virus, how far will you go to try and save them and at what cost? Some may say that this is a slow burn read, but the writing is so beautiful and the setting so great that I didn’t really mind. There is enough information and twists drip fed to the reader about the mysterious Project Dawn and the origins of the virus that I felt hooked at every turn.

I enjoyed how we initially empathise completely with Kesta, which lures us into a false sense of security as she starts to make decisions that are questionable. I liked that the virus is not just a take on Covid – the language used is different and the virus itself and its origins are interesting and felt realistic whilst still being unique to anything I had read before. It’s one of those books that is so hard to have a satisfying ending, but without giving any spoilers, I really liked the choices made and it’s a conclusion I still think about after I have finished reading it.

Overall, One Yellow Eye is not a fast-paced zombie horror - it’s a poignant story of grief and the inability to let go of those you love and the consequences of that in a dystopian setting. Gripping and sad and highly recommended. Thank you to NetGalley, Tor Books UK and Tor Nightfire for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

LINKS TO BUY

Amazon UK

Waterstones