Book Review: One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford

received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford

Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Genre: Horror

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Gallery Books (July 15, 2025)

Length: 352 pages

Author Information: Website

I have read a lot of zombie books, and many of them feature similar themes of chaos in the streets or a desperate fight for survival. Once in a rare while, however, I’ll come across one that’s far more intimate and slow-burning.

In One Yellow Eye, author Leigh Radford delivers her introspective take on a zombie apocalypse that feels deeply personal. Set in a near-future London just months after the outbreak of a contagious virus that turns people into mindless, violent husks for their former selves, the city has mostly managed to contain the pandemic. With the infected purged, the government can finally now turn its attention to finding a cure. Dubbed Project Dawn, the new initiative is drawing some of the country’s best and brightest scientific minds, each determined to uncover the origins of the virus and ensure that something like this would never happen again.

One of these research scientists is our protagonist Kesta Shelley. Like many others, she wants to be part of the effort to safeguard the future of the world, except Kesta is also hiding a terrible secret. While the government claims that the crisis is over and all infections have been eliminated for now, Kesta’s husband Tim, one of the last to be infected, is still alive. And he’s currently chained up in their apartment, where he exists in a state of constant sedation to prevent his violent urges from surfacing—and to buy Kesta more time. Unable to let Tim go, her only hope is to secure a position in Project Dawn and secretly use its resources for her own research before anyone discovers what she’s hiding at home. But as the clock ticks down and Tim gets increasingly harder to control, Kesta will have to face the question of how far she’s willing to go to save the man she loves.

For the most part, I really enjoyed this book, especially the first half. From a conceptual standpoint, there’s a lot that makes One Yellow Eye special. While Radford is certainly not the first author to humanize her zombies, I appreciated the way she added a layer of tragedy here by letting them retain flickers of their identity and memories still trapped inside the prison of the virus. I also liked the emphasis on the science behind the outbreak. Much like The Last of Us, it features an origin for the zombie virus with roots in the natural world, and I always find those kinds of connections fascinating. Better yet, even if you’re someone who’s burned out on pandemic fiction, there’s just enough sci-fi here to keep it from feeling like yet another COVID-inspired novel.

But arguably, the main selling point of One Yellow Eye is the heartbreaking nature of it. Kesta’s situation is awful, and her desperation is palpable. The story is most engaging when she is interacting with her husband, even in his zombified state. Though we only see him as a shell of the man he once was, Kesta’s memories help paint a fuller picture of who he used to be and what he meant to her, allowing readers to understand the depth of her devotion. Her love for Tim drives the entire plot, but over time, it becomes clear that the author is also inviting us to question when love crosses the line into unhealthy obsession. Because of this, Kesta’s motivations aren’t always easy to empathize with, but the idea of loving someone so much that you’d do anything to save them is undeniably relatable, even if her choices sometimes feel extreme.

I also felt that, while the first half of the book built strong emotional and thematic foundations, the second half was a little messier by comparison. The plot began to feel a little scattered, with a few sub threads fizzling out here and there without resolution. The pacing also started to flag, weighed down by more than just Kesta’s questionable decisions at this point, as repetitive conflicts with the same people and problems started cropping up. Ultimately, I found myself wishing the ending had been more cohesive and impactful.

That said, I didn’t regret my time with One Yellow Eye. Despite my issues with it, I still found it to be a smart and thoughtful debut that brings something new to the zombie horror genre. Leigh Radford’s writing was also compelling, hitting the right notes at the right parts to be both poignant and disturbing. If you want a “traditional” zombie novel, this isn’t it. But if you’re in the mood for something more personal and introspective, and the premise interests you, One Yellow Eye is well worth a look.