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One Yellow Eye
In this heartrending spin on the zombie mythos, a brilliant scientist desperately searches for a cure after a devastating epidemic while also hiding a monumental secret—her undead husband.
Having always preferred the company of microbes, British scientist Kesta Shelley has spent her life peering through a microscope rather than cultivating personal relationships. That changed when Kesta met Tim—her cheerleader, her best friend, her absolute everything. So when he was one of the last people in London to be infected with a perplexing virus that left the city ravaged, Kesta went into triage mode.
Although the government rounded up and disposed of all the infected, Kesta is able to keep her husband (un)alive—and hidden—with resources from the hospital where she works. She spends her days reviewing biopsy slides and her evenings caring for him, but he’s clearly declining. The sedatives aren’t working like they used to, and his violent outbursts are becoming more frequent. As Kesta races against the clock, her colleagues start noticing changes in her behavior and appearance. Her care for Tim has spiraled into absolute obsession. Whispers circulate that a top-secret lab is working on a cure, and Kesta clings to the possibility of being recruited, but can she save her husband before he is discovered?
Having always preferred the company of microbes, British scientist Kesta Shelley has spent her life peering through a microscope rather than cultivating personal relationships. That changed when Kesta met Tim—her cheerleader, her best friend, her absolute everything. So when he was one of the last people in London to be infected with a perplexing virus that left the city ravaged, Kesta went into triage mode.
Although the government rounded up and disposed of all the infected, Kesta is able to keep her husband (un)alive—and hidden—with resources from the hospital where she works. She spends her days reviewing biopsy slides and her evenings caring for him, but he’s clearly declining. The sedatives aren’t working like they used to, and his violent outbursts are becoming more frequent. As Kesta races against the clock, her colleagues start noticing changes in her behavior and appearance. Her care for Tim has spiraled into absolute obsession. Whispers circulate that a top-secret lab is working on a cure, and Kesta clings to the possibility of being recruited, but can she save her husband before he is discovered?
352 pages, Hardcover
First published July 15, 2025
220 people are currently reading
23015 people want to read
About the author
Leigh Radford
1 book66 followersLeigh Radford trained as a broadcast journalist. She produced and presented arts and entertainment content and documentaries for British commercial radio, BBC Radio, The Times, and more. A former book publicist, she is a 2023 graduate of Faber Academy. She is currently developing content for film and television through her production company, Kenosha Kickers.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 305 reviews
July 9, 2025
I do love a zombie book, and this one felt very refreshing.
Set in London, we follow Kesta, who has chained her husband, Tim, to the radiator in the spare room. He has recently been bitten by a zombie and has turned into the undead. If the authorities find out about him, he will be killed. Kesta hopes she can keep him a secret until a cure is developed.
This is probably the most science I've seen in a zombie book, and it felt very assessable. I had to look up what gain of function research was, but that aside, I understood what was going on and was invested in the lab works. It made me think a lot about vaccines in general and how they come to be. This is probably the first zombie book I've read where I feel like I've been educated a bit.
I was really into this. The author really got my anxiety going, kept me on the edge of my seat, while giving her characters real depth.
There's so much to think about here in Kesta's thought process, her actions, and how far she went to keep Tim alive. Her exhaustion, grief, and motivation really came alive on the page.
Five stars.
Set in London, we follow Kesta, who has chained her husband, Tim, to the radiator in the spare room. He has recently been bitten by a zombie and has turned into the undead. If the authorities find out about him, he will be killed. Kesta hopes she can keep him a secret until a cure is developed.
This is probably the most science I've seen in a zombie book, and it felt very assessable. I had to look up what gain of function research was, but that aside, I understood what was going on and was invested in the lab works. It made me think a lot about vaccines in general and how they come to be. This is probably the first zombie book I've read where I feel like I've been educated a bit.
I was really into this. The author really got my anxiety going, kept me on the edge of my seat, while giving her characters real depth.
There's so much to think about here in Kesta's thought process, her actions, and how far she went to keep Tim alive. Her exhaustion, grief, and motivation really came alive on the page.
Five stars.
July 25, 2025
One Yellow Eye boldly asks the question - "What if Victor Frankenstein were a grieving widow virologist in modern day London?" and boy does it deliver a compelling answer to a question I never knew to ask. As a certified Frankenstein super-fan, I absolutely ate this up. Yes this is a zombie novel, but at its core, it's also a story about a woman pushed to the absolute brink and then over the edge. About careening in a grief freefall while embarking on a singular, self-sacrificial quest to save a soulmate from their horrific undead fate.
Kesta is a "difficult woman" from the start - the kind of challenging protagonist who is equal parts fascinating and infuriating to be inside the headspace of. She's reckless, selfish, and impulsive - taking risks that jeopardize everyone in her ever expanding blast radius on a daily basis. But she's also devastatingly human. You can't help but empathize with her plight, as she slowly wastes away and struggles to maintain an increasingly tenuous grip on reality. I felt an ache in my chest as she marked anniversaries and birthdays with her husband Tim handcuffed to the radiator in their spare bedroom, yellow eyes listlessly peering back at her as she regaled him with stories from their past.
When the story begins it's been 3ish months since Tim was infected in the final days of a zombie outbreak that swept London. While the city is collectively moving on and everyone in her life believes Tim to be dead and buried (as required by law), in reality he remains locked behind 4 deadbolts, sedated and pumped full of a cocktail of drugs while Kesta hunts for a cure. The lore in One Yellow Eye can feel quite dense, but I found this to be a fascinating expansion to the story. As a former pre-med survivor who lights up everytime there's a Biology category on Jeopardy, I appreciated the peek behind the curtain into the virus' origins and the research being done to develop a cure. It added an impactful sense of realism to Kesta's plight, in the way that Danny Boyle's take on zombies shook up the genre's depiction on film.
The final 50ish pages are what really sealed the deal for me, cementing this as my favourite debut of 2025 thus far. To spoil it would be a disservice to any future readers, but suffice it say that Radford's heartfelt words in the Acknowledgments really brought the novel's climactic events full circle.
Read this book!!!
Kesta is a "difficult woman" from the start - the kind of challenging protagonist who is equal parts fascinating and infuriating to be inside the headspace of. She's reckless, selfish, and impulsive - taking risks that jeopardize everyone in her ever expanding blast radius on a daily basis. But she's also devastatingly human. You can't help but empathize with her plight, as she slowly wastes away and struggles to maintain an increasingly tenuous grip on reality. I felt an ache in my chest as she marked anniversaries and birthdays with her husband Tim handcuffed to the radiator in their spare bedroom, yellow eyes listlessly peering back at her as she regaled him with stories from their past.
When the story begins it's been 3ish months since Tim was infected in the final days of a zombie outbreak that swept London. While the city is collectively moving on and everyone in her life believes Tim to be dead and buried (as required by law), in reality he remains locked behind 4 deadbolts, sedated and pumped full of a cocktail of drugs while Kesta hunts for a cure. The lore in One Yellow Eye can feel quite dense, but I found this to be a fascinating expansion to the story. As a former pre-med survivor who lights up everytime there's a Biology category on Jeopardy, I appreciated the peek behind the curtain into the virus' origins and the research being done to develop a cure. It added an impactful sense of realism to Kesta's plight, in the way that Danny Boyle's take on zombies shook up the genre's depiction on film.
The final 50ish pages are what really sealed the deal for me, cementing this as my favourite debut of 2025 thus far. To spoil it would be a disservice to any future readers, but suffice it say that Radford's heartfelt words in the Acknowledgments really brought the novel's climactic events full circle.
Read this book!!!
May 4, 2025
I've always said that I don't think I'd have what it takes to survive a zombie apocalypse. Though I would try like hell, I just know that I'd never make it. I'd probably die early on, in a stupid accident or starve to death if a zombie didn't bite me first. So I've never really spent time a lot of time thinking about how I would react if my husband was infected and I was the one left alive. Though that's exactly what Leigh Radford is doing with One Yellow Eye.
As the book opens, it's a few months after the London government manages to contain a zombie outbreak, and we watch as the country is slowly starting to return itself to a semi-normal way of life. Here we follow Kesta, a scientist who is desperate to discover a way to restore those who were infected with the virus. And she's harboring a pretty massive, motivating secret - her husband, who was bitten and turned. She's got him drugged and locked up in their apartment as she and her fellow co-workers work tirelessly to discover the origins of the virus in the hopes of developing a cure.
Conceptually the book was great. I appreciated how it humanizes the zombies, who appear to have retained some of their memories and personality, while also exploring a fairly creative cause for the outbreak AND that it shows what it could look like if the government was able to catch it in time, identify and destroy all of the infected, and attempt to get people back to living their lives. But it was a little slow and tried my patience along the way with some of its repetitiveness and with Kesta's overall approach to literally everything. Yes, I get it, Kesta loves her husband and will do whatever it takes to make him well again, even treat her BFF and co-workers like shit or as simply a means to an end. She bordered on obnoxious and was wholly unlikeable, even in the face of what she was up against. And yet everything seem to mostly go her way, and everyone seemed to mostly forgive and support her and it was all just a smidge too convenient for me.
One Yellow Eye explores love, grief, and the maddening desire to do absolutely anything, and I mean ANYthing... to find a way to bring your loved ones back from the brink. And c'mon, that cover?!? It's so dark and moody! I just wish the book was a better match for the vibes that cover gives.
For fans of books like Wagner's The Only Safe Place Left is the Dark; Davis-Goff's Last Ones Left Alive; Hunter's The End We Start From; and Malcom's And Then I Woke Up
As the book opens, it's a few months after the London government manages to contain a zombie outbreak, and we watch as the country is slowly starting to return itself to a semi-normal way of life. Here we follow Kesta, a scientist who is desperate to discover a way to restore those who were infected with the virus. And she's harboring a pretty massive, motivating secret - her husband, who was bitten and turned. She's got him drugged and locked up in their apartment as she and her fellow co-workers work tirelessly to discover the origins of the virus in the hopes of developing a cure.
Conceptually the book was great. I appreciated how it humanizes the zombies, who appear to have retained some of their memories and personality, while also exploring a fairly creative cause for the outbreak AND that it shows what it could look like if the government was able to catch it in time, identify and destroy all of the infected, and attempt to get people back to living their lives. But it was a little slow and tried my patience along the way with some of its repetitiveness and with Kesta's overall approach to literally everything. Yes, I get it, Kesta loves her husband and will do whatever it takes to make him well again, even treat her BFF and co-workers like shit or as simply a means to an end. She bordered on obnoxious and was wholly unlikeable, even in the face of what she was up against. And yet everything seem to mostly go her way, and everyone seemed to mostly forgive and support her and it was all just a smidge too convenient for me.
One Yellow Eye explores love, grief, and the maddening desire to do absolutely anything, and I mean ANYthing... to find a way to bring your loved ones back from the brink. And c'mon, that cover?!? It's so dark and moody! I just wish the book was a better match for the vibes that cover gives.
For fans of books like Wagner's The Only Safe Place Left is the Dark; Davis-Goff's Last Ones Left Alive; Hunter's The End We Start From; and Malcom's And Then I Woke Up
January 12, 2025
3.5 stars rounded down.
Unintentionally, this is the second zombie book I’ve read in three weeks and it’s interesting that both did something to zombies that most authors don’t - had them retain their human consciousness on some level. Maybe because both were written by women and both were exploring the boundaries of love rather than true zombie logistics.
I made a promise to myself to be pickier about what I choose to read this year and I’m hugely disappointed that this book fell short of a 4 star rating for me. It moved so slowly, and walked a rather uninteresting path between love story and zombie sci-fi. It really needed to be wholly one or the other.
As far as how much Kesta loved her husband, it was portrayed mostly through desperation and an unwillingness to let go. But we weren’t ever given a really good picture of what it was she was refusing to let go of. A happy marriage? Ok…but show us what made it special. Instead, there were a couple of anecdotes from side characters telling us how much they loved him, but we weren’t ever given a chance to get to actually know him. In the end, although we were to be convinced she acted out of love, it was clear to me that she put her unwillingness to be without him before her willingness to show him mercy or even to consider the torturous existence she had imprisoned him in. Doesn’t sound like love to me.
When we weren’t at home with her caretaking her husband’s shell, we were at the lab with Kesta, where she was living out the sci-fi part of the story for a (not at all) secret government organization that was both tasked with finding a cure and with basically weaponizing the virus. Sounds exciting, right? It wasn’t. It was wildly far fetched and unrealistic, even with allowing for the imagining of something that has never happened…where was the security? The protocol? The hierarchy? It was easy to sneak in and out, one small man was in charge, and very little was actually being accomplished for much of the book. And seemingly everyone, including other countries, knew exactly what they project was, what it was called and where its secret location was.
Add a couple of loose ends to the mix (what happened to the journalist storyline?) and this book fell a little flat for me. All that being said, I enjoyed reading it mostly because I expected something huge to be coming for most of the book. When I realized it wasn’t going to happen, I found myself at the end, so I suppose you could say it kept me interested.
It was a decent effort, but I really wish it could go back to the drawing board and improved before publishing.
Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.
Unintentionally, this is the second zombie book I’ve read in three weeks and it’s interesting that both did something to zombies that most authors don’t - had them retain their human consciousness on some level. Maybe because both were written by women and both were exploring the boundaries of love rather than true zombie logistics.
I made a promise to myself to be pickier about what I choose to read this year and I’m hugely disappointed that this book fell short of a 4 star rating for me. It moved so slowly, and walked a rather uninteresting path between love story and zombie sci-fi. It really needed to be wholly one or the other.
As far as how much Kesta loved her husband, it was portrayed mostly through desperation and an unwillingness to let go. But we weren’t ever given a really good picture of what it was she was refusing to let go of. A happy marriage? Ok…but show us what made it special. Instead, there were a couple of anecdotes from side characters telling us how much they loved him, but we weren’t ever given a chance to get to actually know him. In the end, although we were to be convinced she acted out of love, it was clear to me that she put her unwillingness to be without him before her willingness to show him mercy or even to consider the torturous existence she had imprisoned him in. Doesn’t sound like love to me.
When we weren’t at home with her caretaking her husband’s shell, we were at the lab with Kesta, where she was living out the sci-fi part of the story for a (not at all) secret government organization that was both tasked with finding a cure and with basically weaponizing the virus. Sounds exciting, right? It wasn’t. It was wildly far fetched and unrealistic, even with allowing for the imagining of something that has never happened…where was the security? The protocol? The hierarchy? It was easy to sneak in and out, one small man was in charge, and very little was actually being accomplished for much of the book. And seemingly everyone, including other countries, knew exactly what they project was, what it was called and where its secret location was.
Add a couple of loose ends to the mix (what happened to the journalist storyline?) and this book fell a little flat for me. All that being said, I enjoyed reading it mostly because I expected something huge to be coming for most of the book. When I realized it wasn’t going to happen, I found myself at the end, so I suppose you could say it kept me interested.
It was a decent effort, but I really wish it could go back to the drawing board and improved before publishing.
Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.
September 10, 2025
3.5★
”One yellow eye watched her. It saw but didn’t see, and it never, ever blinked.”
So far I’ve read a small handful of apocalypse related books, and this one really stands out in that category! My only issue is it could’ve been shorter and less repetitive.
Kesta is a scientist, and when the apocalypse hits London, her husband becomes infected. Rather than doing what most would, she handcuffs him to the radiator in the guest bedroom, monitoring his vitals and keeping him heavily sedated.
How far will she go to try to find a cure?
”One yellow eye watched her. It saw but didn’t see, and it never, ever blinked.”
So far I’ve read a small handful of apocalypse related books, and this one really stands out in that category! My only issue is it could’ve been shorter and less repetitive.
Kesta is a scientist, and when the apocalypse hits London, her husband becomes infected. Rather than doing what most would, she handcuffs him to the radiator in the guest bedroom, monitoring his vitals and keeping him heavily sedated.
How far will she go to try to find a cure?
August 4, 2025
A zombie here, a zombie there. In this saturated trope, this one actually was different and stood out. It was entirely too long though. 😂
July 12, 2025
A zombie book like no other. Kesta is a scientist working on the virus and reanimator cure. Three months ago there was an outbreak of zombies in London; relatively small in scale as they contained this quickly with a head shot to all of the zombies. When all of the infected were killed, the quarantine was lifted. But no one knew that Kesta is keeping her husband, Tim, in her London flat. She has him shackled and is using him to test and keeping him secured u til she and her team find a cure.
But in her obsession and grief she is going rapidly downhill into exhaustion, burn out, and alcoholism.
This book has the pacing of a mystery/thriller, all the emotion of a romance, the sponge-tingling creepies of horror, and all of the virus technical science of a science fiction novel. I loved it and was deeply moved by the story. I saw myself in Kesta and felt the world scene reaction of this virus was very realistic.
Thanks to Gallery Books for the free copy. #partner #gifted
But in her obsession and grief she is going rapidly downhill into exhaustion, burn out, and alcoholism.
This book has the pacing of a mystery/thriller, all the emotion of a romance, the sponge-tingling creepies of horror, and all of the virus technical science of a science fiction novel. I loved it and was deeply moved by the story. I saw myself in Kesta and felt the world scene reaction of this virus was very realistic.
Thanks to Gallery Books for the free copy. #partner #gifted
July 17, 2025
A refreshingly weird spin on the whole zombie apocalypse thing, honestly, it’s less “brains!” and more “aww,” which was unexpectedly sweet.
Buttttt despite the undead running amok, the real horror was how little I connected with the characters. The protagonist just felt off and I wanted to root for someone but ended up emotionally invested in… no one. Even the pacing was like a zombie shuffle: slow, disjointed, and occasionally tripping over itself.
Also, can we talk about the setting of this book, London: one of THE most diverse cities on the planet and yet we’re following the adventures of Kesta, Tim, Cooke, Jess, Dudley etc etc. I mean, what is this, the cast list for a BBC sitcom from 1994? Representation matters!
Did this book go through an editing process or?
It was ok, 2.5 stars
Buttttt despite the undead running amok, the real horror was how little I connected with the characters. The protagonist just felt off and I wanted to root for someone but ended up emotionally invested in… no one. Even the pacing was like a zombie shuffle: slow, disjointed, and occasionally tripping over itself.
Also, can we talk about the setting of this book, London: one of THE most diverse cities on the planet and yet we’re following the adventures of Kesta, Tim, Cooke, Jess, Dudley etc etc. I mean, what is this, the cast list for a BBC sitcom from 1994? Representation matters!
Did this book go through an editing process or?
It was ok, 2.5 stars
July 21, 2025
(rounded up from 2.5)
This book was an excellent example of a great idea (showing through human connection and loss what sorts of hard ethical limits are placed on scientific research and why), but it loses its potency during the execution.
One of the reasons I think the execution was lacking here is the characters. It's hard to connect to Kesta and Tim or their relationship pre-zombification because we never really see much of it. We are told over and over that their relationship was special and their marriage was a bright spot for both of them, and we see Kesta's increasingly desperate attempts to hold on to Tim, but we can never really emotionally connect with her for it. This is a shame because, if done right, the sorts of things Kesta does to save Tim are incredibly alarming and perfectly illustrate how grief, loss and desperation can screw with a clearly brilliant scientific mind.
Unfortunately, aside from Kesta, we have a smattering of side characters who are not particularly interesting or remarkable to pick up the slack. Jess, Dr. Caring, Cooke, and Lundeen are all thinly-sketched out characters who are one-dimensional, both through the perfunctionary prose and through Kesta's lack of interest in any of them. It's hard to care about a group of characters like this at all, which makes me barely invested in the outcome of the story.
The star here is the idea at the core of it all: shady government contracts to research organisations that have an obvious stated mission and then another for-profit mission hidden away, the shadowy world of scientific reasearch for a "breakthrough" and finally, what lengths a single person will go to in order to fast-track a process that takes meticulous time and trials before unleashing on humans. Unfortunately, we focus so long and hard on Kesta, who is a deeply bland and uninteresting protagonist, and zombie Tim, that we don't explore these ethical dilemmas in much detail, and the overall pacing of the book drags as a result.
TL;DR: Really interesting idea but the execution was sorely lacking, unfortunately.
This book was an excellent example of a great idea (showing through human connection and loss what sorts of hard ethical limits are placed on scientific research and why), but it loses its potency during the execution.
One of the reasons I think the execution was lacking here is the characters. It's hard to connect to Kesta and Tim or their relationship pre-zombification because we never really see much of it. We are told over and over that their relationship was special and their marriage was a bright spot for both of them, and we see Kesta's increasingly desperate attempts to hold on to Tim, but we can never really emotionally connect with her for it. This is a shame because, if done right, the sorts of things Kesta does to save Tim are incredibly alarming and perfectly illustrate how grief, loss and desperation can screw with a clearly brilliant scientific mind.
Unfortunately, aside from Kesta, we have a smattering of side characters who are not particularly interesting or remarkable to pick up the slack. Jess, Dr. Caring, Cooke, and Lundeen are all thinly-sketched out characters who are one-dimensional, both through the perfunctionary prose and through Kesta's lack of interest in any of them. It's hard to care about a group of characters like this at all, which makes me barely invested in the outcome of the story.
The star here is the idea at the core of it all: shady government contracts to research organisations that have an obvious stated mission and then another for-profit mission hidden away, the shadowy world of scientific reasearch for a "breakthrough" and finally, what lengths a single person will go to in order to fast-track a process that takes meticulous time and trials before unleashing on humans. Unfortunately, we focus so long and hard on Kesta, who is a deeply bland and uninteresting protagonist, and zombie Tim, that we don't explore these ethical dilemmas in much detail, and the overall pacing of the book drags as a result.
TL;DR: Really interesting idea but the execution was sorely lacking, unfortunately.
August 22, 2025
2.5 stars
This was not your typical run-chase zombie story and for that alone I rounded up my rating.
The story starts right after the zombie epidemic broke out in the UK where all zombies have already been gathered up and summarily exterminated.
Now in the aftermath there is a secret lab working furiously on a vaccine, just in case.
Kesta has fought long and hard to be included in Project Dawn not just for the chance to do incredible research but because she has a secret, and he is tied up in her bedroom back home….
The story walks an uneven line between zombie sci fi and love story. The former worked much better than the latter
This was not your typical run-chase zombie story and for that alone I rounded up my rating.
The story starts right after the zombie epidemic broke out in the UK where all zombies have already been gathered up and summarily exterminated.
Now in the aftermath there is a secret lab working furiously on a vaccine, just in case.
Kesta has fought long and hard to be included in Project Dawn not just for the chance to do incredible research but because she has a secret, and he is tied up in her bedroom back home….
The story walks an uneven line between zombie sci fi and love story. The former worked much better than the latter
August 8, 2025
this book was just so sloppy. poorly written and absurd (and not in a fun way) plot with “science” that felt decades behind the year in which this story is supposed to take place. this read like it came from a textbook from the 90s. i dont think leigh radford did any research on science or virology at all before writing this. why is kesta identifying viruses via microscopy????? this takes place in 2023. do some genetic sequencing of infected tissue My God!!!!!
bad technical science aside, i dont think leigh radford could have written a book that was more insulting to science and medical researchers if she tried. the only person who seemed to care about science ethics at ALL was the guy who was portrayed as a comically evil bioweapons researcher. every monstrous thing kesta did was immediately excused and forgiven. because apparently it’s normal for scientists to break research regulations and also their own moral code when its done to move their science forward. Awesome book. if i know you personally and you liked this book please consider not speaking to me again
bad technical science aside, i dont think leigh radford could have written a book that was more insulting to science and medical researchers if she tried. the only person who seemed to care about science ethics at ALL was the guy who was portrayed as a comically evil bioweapons researcher. every monstrous thing kesta did was immediately excused and forgiven. because apparently it’s normal for scientists to break research regulations and also their own moral code when its done to move their science forward. Awesome book. if i know you personally and you liked this book please consider not speaking to me again
August 26, 2025
Great for fans of: slow burns, contagions, zombies, stories of grief
London is a fresh wound following the height of a virus that devastated the city. Although the outbreak seems to have been contained, the grief, loss, and fear still fester.
Kesta (mc) is a British scientist newly assigned to a covert research team tasked with finding a cure. She has been vying for this opportunity since losing her husband to the virus. For Kesta, this cure will change everything, will make it all right again. That is, if her research doesn't kill her first.
--
Where One Yellow Eye lacks in scare factor, it makes up for in character spotlight. Experiencing Kesta's grief, exhaustion, and desperate attempt to cling to hope puts you right there with her from start to finish. Combined with the bleak environment of a world recouping from a deadly virus outbreak, there is really no escape from the fear of what the future may hold.
A bit of a slow burn, I found myself waiting for what would happen next to the point of not feeling the full impact when it did. That kind of delivery hits for a lot of readers but for me, it often breaks the immersion.
London is a fresh wound following the height of a virus that devastated the city. Although the outbreak seems to have been contained, the grief, loss, and fear still fester.
Kesta (mc) is a British scientist newly assigned to a covert research team tasked with finding a cure. She has been vying for this opportunity since losing her husband to the virus. For Kesta, this cure will change everything, will make it all right again. That is, if her research doesn't kill her first.
--
Where One Yellow Eye lacks in scare factor, it makes up for in character spotlight. Experiencing Kesta's grief, exhaustion, and desperate attempt to cling to hope puts you right there with her from start to finish. Combined with the bleak environment of a world recouping from a deadly virus outbreak, there is really no escape from the fear of what the future may hold.
A bit of a slow burn, I found myself waiting for what would happen next to the point of not feeling the full impact when it did. That kind of delivery hits for a lot of readers but for me, it often breaks the immersion.
August 10, 2025
3.25/5
This novel’s in desperate need of better editing. It has the potential to be great but the repetition needs to be purged. Redundancies become glaringly obvious midway, making the final half drag on far longer than necessary.
This novel’s in desperate need of better editing. It has the potential to be great but the repetition needs to be purged. Redundancies become glaringly obvious midway, making the final half drag on far longer than necessary.
May 14, 2025
spousal horror is IN!
July 27, 2025
Once upon a time, I was deep in my zombie era. Books, games, movies, TV shows—you name it, I consumed it. Resident Evil, 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, and yes, even those early seasons of The Walking Dead had me hooked. But after a while, especially around season four of TWD, the thrill wore off. Zombies felt overdone, the plots got repetitive, and the subgenre started to feel stale. So I stepped away.
But lately? That itch has started to return. I've caught myself eyeing old favorites like Rhiannon Frater’s series As the World Dies and Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth, wondering if it’s time for a re-read. Then this book came across my radar, and the moment I read the synopsis, I knew I had to have it. A zombie-adjacent outbreak? A desperate scientist harboring her infected husband while looking for a cure? Medical intrigue and emotional wreckage? Yes, please.
And I’m happy to report: this book delivered.
This isn’t your typical zombie apocalypse story. We’re not dropped into a wasteland where society has crumbled and humans are scavenging for canned goods and morality. Instead, Radford gives us a more intimate, grounded approach: what if a viral outbreak like COVID had zombie-like consequences? What if it was (mostly) contained by way of immediately wiping out the infected, but the threat still lingered? What if you worked in a hospital by day searching for a cure … and hid your undead spouse at home by night?
That’s the exact situation Kesta Shelley finds herself in. She’s a microbiologist who prefers the company of slides and samples to people, which made her unlikely whirlwind romance with her husband Tim all the more powerful. He was her balance, her joy, her cheerleader. And then he got infected. As the government worked quickly and ruthlessly to round up and dispose of anyone who showed signs of infection, Kesta used her access and connections to keep him alive—barely.
Now, months later, she’s racing against time to find a cure while keeping his presence a secret. The sedatives are failing. His body is deteriorating. He’s becoming more aggressive. But she’s not ready to let him go. The emotional stakes are brutal, and Radford doesn’t hold back when showing just how far grief can push a person toward obsession.
One of the strongest elements of this book is how smart it is. The medical thriller aspect is fully realized. There’s a ton of epidemiological detail, but it never feels dry or overly technical. You feel like you’re right there in the lab with Kesta, flipping through biopsy slides, chasing hope in a sea of uncertainty. Radford clearly did her homework, and it makes the world feel terrifyingly plausible.
And while the science is sharp, the heart of the book is very much an emotional rollercoaster. Kesta is a fascinating protagonist and slightly unreliable (which is exactly how I like them). Her desperation is raw and honest, and even when her decisions veer into ethically murky territory, you understand where she’s coming from. She’s not trying to save the world. She’s just trying to save one person. The one person who made life worth living.
The supporting characters are equally well drawn. Her coworkers suspect something’s off. One in particular is sniffing a little too close to the truth. Tension builds steadily as the world starts to close in on Kesta, and the possibility of being found out feels inevitable. And then there's the threat of another wave of the virus hitting before a cure is found. It creates this slow, simmering dread that runs under the entire book. You're constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop, and when it does? The payoff lands.
What really worked for me, though, was the blend of tones. It’s sad, yes. But also funny at times. It's also thoughtful. Suspenseful. Tense. Radford never lets the story sit in just one emotional register. And despite the undead premise, the beating heart of the book is grief. It’s about what we do when love and loss collide. It’s about holding on too tightly, and what happens when the line between science and obsession blurs.
This book is weird and wonderful and wholly unique and I absolutely devoured it. If you’re like me and you’ve grown tired of the same old zombie storylines, but still want something that gives you those unsettling what-if vibes, this is one to grab. It's hands-down one of my favorite reds of the summer.
But lately? That itch has started to return. I've caught myself eyeing old favorites like Rhiannon Frater’s series As the World Dies and Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth, wondering if it’s time for a re-read. Then this book came across my radar, and the moment I read the synopsis, I knew I had to have it. A zombie-adjacent outbreak? A desperate scientist harboring her infected husband while looking for a cure? Medical intrigue and emotional wreckage? Yes, please.
And I’m happy to report: this book delivered.
This isn’t your typical zombie apocalypse story. We’re not dropped into a wasteland where society has crumbled and humans are scavenging for canned goods and morality. Instead, Radford gives us a more intimate, grounded approach: what if a viral outbreak like COVID had zombie-like consequences? What if it was (mostly) contained by way of immediately wiping out the infected, but the threat still lingered? What if you worked in a hospital by day searching for a cure … and hid your undead spouse at home by night?
That’s the exact situation Kesta Shelley finds herself in. She’s a microbiologist who prefers the company of slides and samples to people, which made her unlikely whirlwind romance with her husband Tim all the more powerful. He was her balance, her joy, her cheerleader. And then he got infected. As the government worked quickly and ruthlessly to round up and dispose of anyone who showed signs of infection, Kesta used her access and connections to keep him alive—barely.
Now, months later, she’s racing against time to find a cure while keeping his presence a secret. The sedatives are failing. His body is deteriorating. He’s becoming more aggressive. But she’s not ready to let him go. The emotional stakes are brutal, and Radford doesn’t hold back when showing just how far grief can push a person toward obsession.
One of the strongest elements of this book is how smart it is. The medical thriller aspect is fully realized. There’s a ton of epidemiological detail, but it never feels dry or overly technical. You feel like you’re right there in the lab with Kesta, flipping through biopsy slides, chasing hope in a sea of uncertainty. Radford clearly did her homework, and it makes the world feel terrifyingly plausible.
And while the science is sharp, the heart of the book is very much an emotional rollercoaster. Kesta is a fascinating protagonist and slightly unreliable (which is exactly how I like them). Her desperation is raw and honest, and even when her decisions veer into ethically murky territory, you understand where she’s coming from. She’s not trying to save the world. She’s just trying to save one person. The one person who made life worth living.
The supporting characters are equally well drawn. Her coworkers suspect something’s off. One in particular is sniffing a little too close to the truth. Tension builds steadily as the world starts to close in on Kesta, and the possibility of being found out feels inevitable. And then there's the threat of another wave of the virus hitting before a cure is found. It creates this slow, simmering dread that runs under the entire book. You're constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop, and when it does? The payoff lands.
What really worked for me, though, was the blend of tones. It’s sad, yes. But also funny at times. It's also thoughtful. Suspenseful. Tense. Radford never lets the story sit in just one emotional register. And despite the undead premise, the beating heart of the book is grief. It’s about what we do when love and loss collide. It’s about holding on too tightly, and what happens when the line between science and obsession blurs.
This book is weird and wonderful and wholly unique and I absolutely devoured it. If you’re like me and you’ve grown tired of the same old zombie storylines, but still want something that gives you those unsettling what-if vibes, this is one to grab. It's hands-down one of my favorite reds of the summer.
July 24, 2025
ARC || Who knew that a zombie story could be so beautiful? Kesta would do anything to save her husband, Tim, who’s been infected with the virus. She’s a scientist willing to go to extremes in order to get him back. When she’s brought on to a program that’s supposed to find the cure, she works herself ragged to find an antidote. Along the way, there’s a lot of issues that come up to get in her way. From a nosey reporter, to the loud noises Tim makes in her apartment when she’s away, she’s running out of time. How far is Kesta willing to go to save her husband? What will her efforts resort to? And is it enough to save her husband from the virus?
August 10, 2025
This was a really gripping read, I enjoyed every moment of this!! I found it to be quite personal in moments, many parts of this reminded me of the mass hysteria of COVID and the time we spend in lockdown. The similarities obviously draw from the fact that we are reading about a widespread virus outbreak, in the case of one yellow eye it's zombies!! It was such a thrilling read for me, I went into this one practically blind, I knew very little about this book before going into it and that's how I'd recommend everyone to go into it - no details should be revealed otherwise it won't hit the same as it's supposed to!
Also the authors acknowledgements at the end were really heartfelt and was a very lovely addition to the book!!
Also the authors acknowledgements at the end were really heartfelt and was a very lovely addition to the book!!
July 15, 2025
This is first and foremost a love story. The type of love we all dream about but at the same time completely destructive and all encompassing. A story of a woman who loves her husband too much to let him go and enough to sacrifice everything she has left to keep him safe.
Kesta's husband is one of the last people infected with a new virus that turns people into zombies. Instead of letting the authorities know what happened, she hides him away in their flat and tries her best to keep him alive and docile while she's trying to find a cure.
This is exactly the type of zombie book I was hoping we will get more of after covid. Where the infection doesn't lead to a complete collapse of society but rather is a temporary stumbling block after which we are all supposed to "go back to normal" as if that's even an option. And the real focus of the story is on emotions and how people deal with losing so much because of a virus.
I love zombie books that really go deep into how a virus could have happened and this one had a concept that was unique and fascinating. The science felt possible for a layman like me and honestly I could have read a whole book just about this one aspect of it.
This was a fascinating read, even when Kesta is constantly making the worst decisions she could possibly make, it's completely understandable why she's doing it. Her husband is her reason to keep going and the grief is too scary to let it catch up to her. And it makes for one relatable read.
Thank you to Pan Macmillan and Leigh Radford for granting me this ARC.
Kesta's husband is one of the last people infected with a new virus that turns people into zombies. Instead of letting the authorities know what happened, she hides him away in their flat and tries her best to keep him alive and docile while she's trying to find a cure.
This is exactly the type of zombie book I was hoping we will get more of after covid. Where the infection doesn't lead to a complete collapse of society but rather is a temporary stumbling block after which we are all supposed to "go back to normal" as if that's even an option. And the real focus of the story is on emotions and how people deal with losing so much because of a virus.
I love zombie books that really go deep into how a virus could have happened and this one had a concept that was unique and fascinating. The science felt possible for a layman like me and honestly I could have read a whole book just about this one aspect of it.
This was a fascinating read, even when Kesta is constantly making the worst decisions she could possibly make, it's completely understandable why she's doing it. Her husband is her reason to keep going and the grief is too scary to let it catch up to her. And it makes for one relatable read.
Thank you to Pan Macmillan and Leigh Radford for granting me this ARC.
dnf
August 13, 2025There wasn't anything wrong with this so far it just isn't the tone I'm in the mood for.
July 15, 2025
4.5*
We can call One Yellow Eye a zombie story, sure. But it's really a grief story, at its heart. Anyone who has lost someone to a long illness can see the mirrors in this story, how the grief process unfurls, and how brutal it is. On a personal note, my mother lives this every day, and to see Kesta's pain mirrored in hers was, quite frankly, brutal. But it was also incredibly honest, and I plan to get this book for my mother in the hopes that it may also be cathartic.
This isn't the world-ending apocalypse of The Walking Dead, as this one has seemingly been contained to the greater London area. But as any pandemic, its effects were devastating, and Kesta's husband Tim was among its victims. Only, when the order came to euthanize all zombified persons, Kesta decided to hide Tim in their apartment instead, in an attempt to use her medical expertise to find a cure. Only there is so much that no one knows about the virus and its pathology, so Kesta has a long road ahead of her. She's dealing with this awful grief-limbo situation, and she cannot tell even her nearest and dearest that Tim is quasi-alive, complicating the process.
I was also really invested in finding out the origins of this virus, and how it got to the point where human zombies were a thing. It was so fascinating, especially once we started to get some answers. So not only was I very much here for Kesta's story, I was eager to find out all the things about zombies, too!
Bottom Line: Zombies, but make 'em feel really plausible. But also, grief is hell.
You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
We can call One Yellow Eye a zombie story, sure. But it's really a grief story, at its heart. Anyone who has lost someone to a long illness can see the mirrors in this story, how the grief process unfurls, and how brutal it is. On a personal note, my mother lives this every day, and to see Kesta's pain mirrored in hers was, quite frankly, brutal. But it was also incredibly honest, and I plan to get this book for my mother in the hopes that it may also be cathartic.
This isn't the world-ending apocalypse of The Walking Dead, as this one has seemingly been contained to the greater London area. But as any pandemic, its effects were devastating, and Kesta's husband Tim was among its victims. Only, when the order came to euthanize all zombified persons, Kesta decided to hide Tim in their apartment instead, in an attempt to use her medical expertise to find a cure. Only there is so much that no one knows about the virus and its pathology, so Kesta has a long road ahead of her. She's dealing with this awful grief-limbo situation, and she cannot tell even her nearest and dearest that Tim is quasi-alive, complicating the process.
I was also really invested in finding out the origins of this virus, and how it got to the point where human zombies were a thing. It was so fascinating, especially once we started to get some answers. So not only was I very much here for Kesta's story, I was eager to find out all the things about zombies, too!
Bottom Line: Zombies, but make 'em feel really plausible. But also, grief is hell.
You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
December 14, 2024
One Yellow Eye is a chilling and dark novel with mixed dry humor and wit. The novel follows scientist Ketsa Shelly as she struggles to find a cure for the zombie virus that killed her husband. The amount of detail and scientific fact mixed with horrific fiction made this novel both extremely enlightening and terrifying. Kesta was a character you both rooted for and fought against throughout the novel and her progressive obsession with finding a cure was gripping. I loved the witty writing style but I wished the end of the novel had more clarity. All in all, this was an intense scientific horror that had me on the edge of my seat with every turn of the page.
July 16, 2025
Leigh Radford's debut novel One Yellow Eye arrives as a breathtaking reinvention of the zombie genre, trading gore for genuine emotion and cheap thrills for complex moral questions. This is not your typical shambling-corpse narrative. Instead, Radford crafts a sophisticated horror story that uses the undead as a lens to examine the lengths we'll go to for love, and the devastating consequences of refusing to let go.
Set in post-apocalyptic London, the story follows Dr. Kesta Shelley, a brilliant biomedical scientist who has spent months secretly caring for her infected husband Tim in their spare bedroom. While the government has supposedly eliminated all zombies, Kesta has managed to keep Tim "alive" through a combination of sedatives, blood transfusions, and sheer determination. When an opportunity arises to work at the mysterious Project Dawn facility, Kesta sees it as her chance to finally find a cure for the virus that has stolen her husband's humanity.
The Science of Sorrow
What elevates One Yellow Eye beyond typical zombie fiction is Radford's background in broadcast journalism and her meticulous attention to scientific detail. The novel's exploration of virology feels authentic and grounded, particularly in Kesta's discovery that the zombie virus may be linked to Inclusion Body Disease—a real condition that affects reptiles. This scientific foundation gives weight to the horror, making the impossible feel terrifyingly plausible.
Radford's prose alternates between clinical precision and lyrical beauty, mirroring Kesta's dual nature as both scientist and grieving wife. The author's descriptive passages are particularly striking:
"The little purple jellybeans. An image of a cream-colored snake tied into an impossible knot."
The book's title itself comes from a pivotal moment when Kesta discovers a reptilian disease manual in a dusty library, the cover adorned with a snake's predatory yellow eye—a perfect metaphor for the virus that watches and waits within its victims.
Character Development and Emotional Resonance
Kesta emerges as one of the most compelling protagonists in recent horror fiction. Radford skillfully depicts her transformation from a reserved scientist who "always preferred the company of microbes" to a woman consumed by obsession. Her internal monologue reveals the gradual erosion of her sanity as she struggles to maintain the illusion that Tim is still salvageable.
The supporting cast, including the sympathetic Dr. Dudley Caring and the sharp-tongued lab technician June Cooke, provides necessary grounding for Kesta's increasingly erratic behavior. Tim himself, despite being largely catatonic, maintains a haunting presence throughout the narrative. Radford manages to keep his humanity visible even as the virus consumes him, making his ultimate fate all the more tragic.
Thematic Depth and Social Commentary
Beyond its horror elements, One Yellow Eye functions as a profound meditation on grief, denial, and the medical-industrial complex. Kesta's refusal to accept Tim's death mirrors the stages of grief, while her increasingly dangerous experiments raise questions about medical ethics and the pursuit of knowledge at any cost.
The novel's exploration of Project Dawn—a secret government facility conducting illegal "Gain-of-Function" research—feels particularly relevant in our post-pandemic world. Radford examines how crisis can be exploited for political and financial gain, and how scientists can become complicit in morally dubious research when driven by desperation.
Narrative Structure and Pacing
The story unfolds through multiple timeframes, gradually revealing the full scope of the outbreak and its aftermath. This structure creates mounting tension as readers piece together the truth about Tim's condition and Kesta's increasingly desperate measures. The pacing is deliberately methodical, building dread through accumulating details rather than relying on jump scares.
However, this measured approach may frustrate readers expecting more traditional zombie action. The novel's focus on character psychology over visceral thrills requires patience and emotional investment that not all horror fans may be willing to provide.
Areas for Improvement
While One Yellow Eye succeeds as literary horror, it occasionally suffers from pacing issues in its middle section. Some sequences in the Project Dawn facility feel overextended, and certain scientific explanations border on exposition-heavy. The novel's ending, while thematically appropriate, may leave some readers wanting more concrete resolution.
Additionally, some secondary characters feel underdeveloped, particularly Tim's friend Jess, who appears intermittently but never quite achieves the depth needed to fully support the narrative's emotional weight.
Writing Style and Atmosphere
Radford's prose style perfectly matches her protagonist's clinical mindset while gradually becoming more fragmented and urgent as Kesta's mental state deteriorates. The author excels at creating atmosphere through subtle details—the constant hum of medical equipment, the antiseptic smell of the makeshift hospital room, the way Tim's eyes never blink.
The London setting is rendered with convincing post-apocalyptic detail, from abandoned streets to underground laboratories. Radford's background in broadcast journalism serves her well in depicting the media response to the crisis and the government's attempts at damage control.
Final Verdict
One Yellow Eye stands as a remarkable debut that transcends genre boundaries. While it may not satisfy readers seeking traditional zombie thrills, it offers something far more valuable: a genuine exploration of love, loss, and the moral complexities of scientific progress. Radford has created a work that lingers in the mind long after the final page, raising questions about the nature of humanity and the price of hope.
This is horror fiction at its most sophisticated—cerebral, emotionally resonant, and deeply unsettling. For readers willing to engage with its challenging themes and deliberate pacing, One Yellow Eye offers a rewarding experience that elevates the zombie genre to new heights.
Set in post-apocalyptic London, the story follows Dr. Kesta Shelley, a brilliant biomedical scientist who has spent months secretly caring for her infected husband Tim in their spare bedroom. While the government has supposedly eliminated all zombies, Kesta has managed to keep Tim "alive" through a combination of sedatives, blood transfusions, and sheer determination. When an opportunity arises to work at the mysterious Project Dawn facility, Kesta sees it as her chance to finally find a cure for the virus that has stolen her husband's humanity.
The Science of Sorrow
What elevates One Yellow Eye beyond typical zombie fiction is Radford's background in broadcast journalism and her meticulous attention to scientific detail. The novel's exploration of virology feels authentic and grounded, particularly in Kesta's discovery that the zombie virus may be linked to Inclusion Body Disease—a real condition that affects reptiles. This scientific foundation gives weight to the horror, making the impossible feel terrifyingly plausible.
Radford's prose alternates between clinical precision and lyrical beauty, mirroring Kesta's dual nature as both scientist and grieving wife. The author's descriptive passages are particularly striking:
"The little purple jellybeans. An image of a cream-colored snake tied into an impossible knot."
The book's title itself comes from a pivotal moment when Kesta discovers a reptilian disease manual in a dusty library, the cover adorned with a snake's predatory yellow eye—a perfect metaphor for the virus that watches and waits within its victims.
Character Development and Emotional Resonance
Kesta emerges as one of the most compelling protagonists in recent horror fiction. Radford skillfully depicts her transformation from a reserved scientist who "always preferred the company of microbes" to a woman consumed by obsession. Her internal monologue reveals the gradual erosion of her sanity as she struggles to maintain the illusion that Tim is still salvageable.
The supporting cast, including the sympathetic Dr. Dudley Caring and the sharp-tongued lab technician June Cooke, provides necessary grounding for Kesta's increasingly erratic behavior. Tim himself, despite being largely catatonic, maintains a haunting presence throughout the narrative. Radford manages to keep his humanity visible even as the virus consumes him, making his ultimate fate all the more tragic.
Thematic Depth and Social Commentary
Beyond its horror elements, One Yellow Eye functions as a profound meditation on grief, denial, and the medical-industrial complex. Kesta's refusal to accept Tim's death mirrors the stages of grief, while her increasingly dangerous experiments raise questions about medical ethics and the pursuit of knowledge at any cost.
The novel's exploration of Project Dawn—a secret government facility conducting illegal "Gain-of-Function" research—feels particularly relevant in our post-pandemic world. Radford examines how crisis can be exploited for political and financial gain, and how scientists can become complicit in morally dubious research when driven by desperation.
Narrative Structure and Pacing
The story unfolds through multiple timeframes, gradually revealing the full scope of the outbreak and its aftermath. This structure creates mounting tension as readers piece together the truth about Tim's condition and Kesta's increasingly desperate measures. The pacing is deliberately methodical, building dread through accumulating details rather than relying on jump scares.
However, this measured approach may frustrate readers expecting more traditional zombie action. The novel's focus on character psychology over visceral thrills requires patience and emotional investment that not all horror fans may be willing to provide.
Areas for Improvement
While One Yellow Eye succeeds as literary horror, it occasionally suffers from pacing issues in its middle section. Some sequences in the Project Dawn facility feel overextended, and certain scientific explanations border on exposition-heavy. The novel's ending, while thematically appropriate, may leave some readers wanting more concrete resolution.
Additionally, some secondary characters feel underdeveloped, particularly Tim's friend Jess, who appears intermittently but never quite achieves the depth needed to fully support the narrative's emotional weight.
Writing Style and Atmosphere
Radford's prose style perfectly matches her protagonist's clinical mindset while gradually becoming more fragmented and urgent as Kesta's mental state deteriorates. The author excels at creating atmosphere through subtle details—the constant hum of medical equipment, the antiseptic smell of the makeshift hospital room, the way Tim's eyes never blink.
The London setting is rendered with convincing post-apocalyptic detail, from abandoned streets to underground laboratories. Radford's background in broadcast journalism serves her well in depicting the media response to the crisis and the government's attempts at damage control.
Final Verdict
One Yellow Eye stands as a remarkable debut that transcends genre boundaries. While it may not satisfy readers seeking traditional zombie thrills, it offers something far more valuable: a genuine exploration of love, loss, and the moral complexities of scientific progress. Radford has created a work that lingers in the mind long after the final page, raising questions about the nature of humanity and the price of hope.
This is horror fiction at its most sophisticated—cerebral, emotionally resonant, and deeply unsettling. For readers willing to engage with its challenging themes and deliberate pacing, One Yellow Eye offers a rewarding experience that elevates the zombie genre to new heights.
August 18, 2025
Spousal horror is a whole different kind of terrifying—and One Yellow Eye leans all the way into that truth. This isn’t about zombies overrunning the streets or society collapsing. It’s about what happens behind closed doors, when love and grief push someone past every boundary of reason. And honestly? That makes it so much scarier.
Kesta is a microbiologist who spends her days trying to find a cure for a vicious infection, while her nights are spent hiding her undead husband, Tim, chained to a radiator in their London flat. The world thinks it’s keeping the outbreak contained by killing the infected on sight. Kesta thinks she can outwit the system long enough to save the one person who made her life worth living. That desperation—and the way it festers into obsession—is what kept me glued to these pages.
What set this apart from so many zombie books I’ve read is how grounded and plausible it felt. The medical detail is sharp but never alienating; I found myself actually learning things while also sweating through the tension. The science feels as urgent as the horror, which makes the stakes cut that much deeper.
And then there’s Kesta herself. Exhausted, grieving, not always reliable, but painfully human. Her love for Tim is gutting, even as his body deteriorates and her choices grow murkier. I felt every ounce of her desperation and denial, and that emotional rawness elevated the whole story.
If I have one small critique, it’s that the book takes a little time to settle into its rhythm. But once it does, the dread is relentless, the emotional stakes sky-high, and the payoff absolutely worth it.
One Yellow Eye is fresh, unnerving, and far more intimate than most zombie stories dare to be. It’s less about the end of the world and more about what we’ll do to avoid the end of our world—the person we can’t bear to lose. Leigh Radford has written something both terrifying and tender, and I devoured it.
4.5/5
Kesta is a microbiologist who spends her days trying to find a cure for a vicious infection, while her nights are spent hiding her undead husband, Tim, chained to a radiator in their London flat. The world thinks it’s keeping the outbreak contained by killing the infected on sight. Kesta thinks she can outwit the system long enough to save the one person who made her life worth living. That desperation—and the way it festers into obsession—is what kept me glued to these pages.
What set this apart from so many zombie books I’ve read is how grounded and plausible it felt. The medical detail is sharp but never alienating; I found myself actually learning things while also sweating through the tension. The science feels as urgent as the horror, which makes the stakes cut that much deeper.
And then there’s Kesta herself. Exhausted, grieving, not always reliable, but painfully human. Her love for Tim is gutting, even as his body deteriorates and her choices grow murkier. I felt every ounce of her desperation and denial, and that emotional rawness elevated the whole story.
If I have one small critique, it’s that the book takes a little time to settle into its rhythm. But once it does, the dread is relentless, the emotional stakes sky-high, and the payoff absolutely worth it.
One Yellow Eye is fresh, unnerving, and far more intimate than most zombie stories dare to be. It’s less about the end of the world and more about what we’ll do to avoid the end of our world—the person we can’t bear to lose. Leigh Radford has written something both terrifying and tender, and I devoured it.
4.5/5
July 13, 2025
This book was such an experience. At first I thought it was going to be like 28 Days Later with fast zombies and constant terror but it surprised me by leaning hard into the aftermath and the desperate search for a cure to prevent another outbreak. It felt slow at first but it blossoms into such a beautiful and well crafted story of love and raw human desperation.
One Yellow Eye is grimy, atmospheric, and so beautifully bleak it absolutely burrowed under my skin. It’s dark, introspective fantasy that feels raw and unsettling with a world falling apart at the seams and characters who are just as ruined.
What really did it for me was the writing. Radford’s prose is vivid and lyrical without feeling overdone perfectly capturing the rot, the dread, and that strange folkloric vibe that makes everything feel both ancient and painfully real. The moral complexity here is top-tier. These characters are flawed and hard to love and that is exactly why I found them so compelling.
A solid five-star read for me because it felt so immersive and different. It doesn’t hand you easy answers but instead drags you into this haunting beautifully grotesque world. If you want fantasy that leans into horror and the uncanny this is absolutely worth picking up.
One Yellow Eye is grimy, atmospheric, and so beautifully bleak it absolutely burrowed under my skin. It’s dark, introspective fantasy that feels raw and unsettling with a world falling apart at the seams and characters who are just as ruined.
What really did it for me was the writing. Radford’s prose is vivid and lyrical without feeling overdone perfectly capturing the rot, the dread, and that strange folkloric vibe that makes everything feel both ancient and painfully real. The moral complexity here is top-tier. These characters are flawed and hard to love and that is exactly why I found them so compelling.
A solid five-star read for me because it felt so immersive and different. It doesn’t hand you easy answers but instead drags you into this haunting beautifully grotesque world. If you want fantasy that leans into horror and the uncanny this is absolutely worth picking up.
July 22, 2025
“Because with my mum, I understood that there came a point when I had to let her go,” he said … “Because it was the natural order of things. It made me understand that there are limits to what science can and should be doing. That it shouldn’t interfere with that natural order.”
Overall: What did I think of One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford?
Rating: 4.75/5
Genre: Zombie Horror
What a book. One Yellow Eye is what made me realise I like post apocalyptic books and this one talks about grief, what it means to lose your loved one and has scientific additions to it. If you have been here for a while, you’ll know that I lost my grandmother in September 2023 and she was one of my best friends, a part of my soul. Losing my grandmother felt like losing myself and I dont think I will ever find that part of me again. This is very similar to what Kesta goes through and because of that, One Yellow Eye will always have a special place in my heart as I saw too much of the old me in Kesta and related to the story a lot. Grief is hard and heavy, yet Radford deliveries it in an eerie and beautiful way.
What is One Yellow Eye about?
One Yellow Eye discusses how far and to what extent would you let the horrors consume you and try to save your loved ones?
I think once upon a time, maybe I would have done what Kesta did but now, I could never. The reason behind this is, while we want our loved ones to stick around forever, you want to encourage them to fight through their disease, to stay and be the beam of sunlight that you know them to be; however, you realise that the disease tends to chip away at their bright sunlight and what is left of them is something you cant selfishly wish to keep them around for.
Death, Grief and all the things in between
Kesta goes through a journey here only a selected few in the book can understand as Tim was the last human bitten in the book out of 11 others. She is stuck playing a role as she nurses a secret of keeping Tim (un)alive.
“Thing is, Kesta” Jess sniffed, "he’d definitely want you to be happy”… Kesta just nodded and smiled. People didn’t have a clue what Tim had wanted, and yet these days, they seemed intent on telling her that he’d want her to move on.”
She is stuck listening to others in her life tell her what Tim would have wanted, that he would want to see her move on. She has a few people around her that do try to help her but this does nothing. It made me think of how when you lose a loved one, everyone starts to tell you what to do like: Its time to move on, its time to live life again… etc.
Everyone begins to tell you that they understand what you are going through, even if they have never lost someone they considered one of their soul mates (be it a friend, spouse or family member). Kesta is surrounded by advises and tips that they understand her pain but she needs to MOVE on. As a person who grieved very differently than others, I related ALOT to this.
“Jess, Grief isn��t something you can leave behind in the long stay car park at Gatwick Airport. It goes with you everywhere.”
Scientific Elements in One Yellow Eye
Kesta is a scientist and we see a lot of elements of pathology and biomedical science in here!
"The microscope always held the answers. It foretold the future. It sealed your fate. It bore hope and death together, clutching them in the same impartial hand. The microscope never lied at 350 times magnification.”
And there are a few comparisons of scientific knowledges with grief that just makes my STEM loving heart soar (this is how I found out I love books that tackle zombie apocalypse in a scientific way guys) as Kesta dives deep into Histology and histopathology.
“She was in the grip of mitosis, collapsing in on herself and splitting into two. A new version of Kesta had separated from the first, taking all the hallmarks of the original, but something other, something different. The two Kestas must exist as one: the grieving widow at work and the scientist nursing a zombie in her flat.”
Who are you doing it for?
Throughout the story, Kesta maintains that she is doing everything to keep Tim (un)alive so that he can survive, get the cure and make it through. However, throughout the story, we see character development that shows us Kesta realising who she is actually doing it for.
“… she realised she wasn’t doing all of this for Time. She was doing it for herself, perhaps more so. She didn’t want him to die because she didn’t want to lose him, didn’t want to accept that this irrevocable schism in her life was permanent.”
Kesta has an internal conflict throughout the book about whether it is Tim still in his own body or if the virus has replaced who he once was. This is something she struggles to accept and refuses to aknowledge for most of the book. It is what we all think when we start to see a loved one become sick and as they struggle with their treatment: Is it still them there? Are they different now?
“As she sat there in the afterglow, she knew she had been deluding herself. She’d thought they were in this together, she and him, as they had been since the night they met, when they gave up their own lives to share a single life between them. But Time was in this alone, wasn’t he? He was soldiering his way down to the abyss without her.”
Wrapping up the review:
I hope you choose to pick up One Yellow Eye, that you see what it is like to lose someone you loved so much, you couldnt see a life without them. I hope you understand Kesta’s point of view and that you see what she struggled with. This is a beautiful story that tells us about the pain of life, grief and love. Everyone deserves a chance to tell their story and this was Kesta’s story.
Thank you to Tor Books, Book Break and the author for letting me partake in this tour! I am so excited to be able to partake in a tour with my substack for the first time and all opinions in here are my honest one.
February 18, 2025
4 to 4.5. Zombie settings have always been apt for that dual potential for comedy and tragedy, two sides of the same coin, and this book sits on the edge between. For a book about a scientist keeping her zombified husband locked up in their apartment until she finds a cure, there’s an impressive amount of humor in this story. Excellent scientific underpinnings, too. Mostly though, this is a profoundly moving story about grief, the edges of loss raw and untidied. This isn’t really a book about the apocalypse; it’s about illness and how it dehumanizes, ravages the living and the dying and the dead. A beautiful book that I think pushes horror as a genre into its most emotional contours.
September 9, 2025
Great premise: a pandemic that turns people into zombies, a main character keeping her turned husband chained to the radiator, and all the grief, love, and politics that come with surviving it.
Some elements felt a bit too close to the real pandemic we all lived through (with fewer zombies, at least), which made it harder to enjoy. I also found myself judging the character for some of her choices, while at the same time admiring her stubborn, sometimes unhinged, hope and love for her husband.
An unsettling blend of dystopia and horror - perhaps best read when 2020 feels more like the distant past than the close present.
⭐ 3/5
Some elements felt a bit too close to the real pandemic we all lived through (with fewer zombies, at least), which made it harder to enjoy. I also found myself judging the character for some of her choices, while at the same time admiring her stubborn, sometimes unhinged, hope and love for her husband.
An unsettling blend of dystopia and horror - perhaps best read when 2020 feels more like the distant past than the close present.
⭐ 3/5
June 19, 2025
This was so good! The narrator brought this book to LIFE and I absolutely adored this audiobook!
The story itself was so good, i loved the balance between jargon and lay language, the way the story progressed. I was on the edge of my seat, stomach in knots and the ending was exactly what it needed to be albeit absolutely HEARTBREAKING!!! The choice of virus origin was novel and the parallels between project dawn and Tim at home were so interesting!! It was all completely devastating, and so awful— the author did such a bloody good job w the emotional side of the story, and it made for such a fantastic book!!
Really enjoyed this one even if it made my stomach hurt from stress & heartbreak 😭
Thank u panmac & NetGalley for this early e-copy xx
The story itself was so good, i loved the balance between jargon and lay language, the way the story progressed. I was on the edge of my seat, stomach in knots and the ending was exactly what it needed to be albeit absolutely HEARTBREAKING!!! The choice of virus origin was novel and the parallels between project dawn and Tim at home were so interesting!! It was all completely devastating, and so awful— the author did such a bloody good job w the emotional side of the story, and it made for such a fantastic book!!
Really enjoyed this one even if it made my stomach hurt from stress & heartbreak 😭
Thank u panmac & NetGalley for this early e-copy xx
June 15, 2025
I loved this take on the zombie genre. It was a great POV as a doctor who refuses to give up on her zombie husband after he was bitten 8 months previous during the zombie apocalypse in London. The lengths she went to to try and find a cure, stealing medications from her previous job as a doctor in a hospital and then at a secret lab co-labing with the brightest minds to find a cure, a vaccine and having patient zero right there in the morgue.
*I was kindly given the audiobook by netgalley for review*
*I was kindly given the audiobook by netgalley for review*
August 13, 2025
I usually avoid zombie books because they're all the same. This one is SO GOOD and refreshingly different. Kesta broke my heart. It was a stark reminder of why I would never want to survive something like this.
This is very much focused on the behind the scenes of an apocalypse and the grief that goes along with it. I really enjoyed it.
This is very much focused on the behind the scenes of an apocalypse and the grief that goes along with it. I really enjoyed it.
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