I knew going in that this was a zombie novel (or at least, a novel with zombies; I believe there is a distinction to be made), so this bit as Sloane sees the end of the world is morbidly hilarious: "A group of people run down the road, so frenzied their movements are jerky and uncontrolled. I watch one of them fall, a man. The others surround him, they're so desperate to pull him to his feet they overwhelm him and I can't tell where he stops and they begin."

Sloane is a girl who has had enough of life, its hardships and betrayals. She doesn't want to be here anymore. In a quirk of fate, she is one of the few in her area who lives through the initial brutal apocalypse.

"I don't know how I'm going to do this, move through the hours like someone who wants to still be breathing when I had so firmly made up my mind to stop." I like this - not the feeling indicated, but it shows that even removing the source of abuse does not remove the depression and suicidal ideation.