I'm going to fall in line with those who loved this story. I'm not exactly an aficionado of Zombie fiction, but I enjoy them as a variant of the "end of civilization" genre, which I do like. This was one of the best I've come across. While the literary obfuscation was strong, I didn't feel it detracted from the story at all. Without the "reveal", this just becomes a character study of two souls at the end of their world and ropes, ending with infanticide and suicide, which I personally find to be the most boring of reads (or in this case listens). Had it ended this way, my reaction would have been very different. And I felt it was quite subtle. It is not as if the newscasters suddenly broke in to say, "And the shambling dead have been kept from our shores for another day." Frankly, the balcony jump was the most obvious part of the story to me. I had no expectation that it wouldn't happen at the end.
As was said above, the twist brought a whole new imagery to the baby "chewing" at the breast -- or whatever, I can't remember now, and don't have time to listen again; either way, the word chosen wasn't one that would describe normal nursing behavior, and I remember thinking at the time that it was an odd choice. In hindsight, it seems more like a very subtle foreshadowing. In my case, the reveal that the baby
was already dead snapped the horror into full focus for me (in its variant definition of "the feeling of revulsion that usually occurs after something frightening is seen, heard, or otherwise experienced. It is the feeling one gets after coming to an awful realization or experiencing a deeply unpleasant occurrence." (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_%28emotion%29)
We don't have kids, but at the time the realization hit me, I could think of few things more horrific than an undead baby gnawing at a nipple. It still makes me shudder. Which, to me, is the mark of an excellent horror story.
