World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

For quite a while now, people whose reading judgement I trust have been saying to me “you must read this book.” Instead of encouraging me to rush out and immerse myself in whatever narrative is being recommended, a kind of reluctance, an inertia to do as I am bid, creeps over me. This occurs for two reasons: one, I’m afraid that the suggested book will fall short of my growing expectations and that I’ll be disappointed. This leads to the second reason which is, how do I tell someone who loved the book so much they wanted me to share the experience that it fell short? Will it be the end of a friendship, the end of exchanging novel ideas?; the exclusion from the all-important book-sharing club? Will my friend think less of me if I don’t like it as much as he or she did? I find these notions always beset me when I am told I “must” read a particular book. That I am often far from disappointed when I finally do doesn’t seem to matter, the apathy/fear hits me time and time again and makes me procrastinate about starting the new title.I am a damn fool. If I’d listened to those who told me I must read World War Z by Max Brooks a couple of years ago and since sooner, I could have had the incredible, exhilarating, heart-wrenching, fist-clenching, teeth-grinding, anxiety-provoking experience reading it was much, much earlier.Would I have wanted that? Hell. Yeah.I may as well get it out of the way upfront; World War Z was not what I expected. I knew it was a “zombie story” and, having read and loved Mira Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy (again, a recommended “must-read” that didn’t disappoint me one iota) and being absolutely enthralled by the Walking Dead Compendium by Robert Kirkman et. Al (and TV show), I shouldn’t have stereotyped Brooks’ novel (no relation BTW) as a lighter-weight version of what had already been done magnificently – but I did. More fool me. Admittedly, seeing shorts for the Brad Pitt film fuelled that notion and, while I love that type of full-scale action-adventure in my film, I desire something a little more intelligent, psychological, challenging and probing in my zombie novels.Enter World War Z – from stage right left and every other conceivable direction. I finally bought it and began reading it… Well. This book grasped me by the imagination, throat and soul and didn’t let me go. To call it remarkable is to undersell it. Brooks’ work is an erudite, humane, political, emotional and psychological reckoning of what happens when humanity turns on itself – when the enemy is already dead and killing fellow humans who might not agree with your religion, ideology, culture, sexual preferences or anything else, simply adds to their ranks and places the future of the planet at greater risk.Let me explain without spoilers. The book is set ten years after a decade-long war with zombies has all but finished and is basically the remnants (the humanity component) of a report that was commissioned by an organisation to record for posterity what occurred in the lead up to mass infection, during the outbreak and consequently. The lead investigator has taken it upon himself to include unique stories from all the people and countries he visits, much to the chagrin of his boss who feels that history wants facts only. But, as the investigator (who is largely absent from the novel) states: “what’s history without humanity?” Indeed.So, World War Z is what’s been left out of the official report. As such, it’s a collection of very personal accounts and opinions, a memory bank if you like, of a huge variety of people. From an astronaut stranded in a space station, to a marketeer looking to profit from fear, to Japan, China, Uruguay, Russia, the United States, Mexico, and many, many other countries big and small; from veterans, to teachers to blind gardeners and everything in between, this other report is the voices of those who aren’t normally heard. It’s a testimony, their testimonies of what they feared, endured, survived and their memories of the times and those who didn’t. It’s what they were forced to do to simply survive, to recognise what they could either raise or lower themselves to do when everything, absolutely everything is at stake.It’s also about how individuals from different cultures, backgrounds, ages and occupations, with different needs, wants and desires, respond to a threat that has never before been imagined or experienced.I found this way of writing, the whole concept behind this book, utterly extraordinary. While the threat of zombies underpins the action and is the narrative drive, it’s also about so much more. Brooks manages to inhabit every character, no matter who they are, where they’re from or how brief their story. There’s a gravitas and respect for what’s being shared, what’s being exposed and this is felt in every word and page. I didn’t want this to end and yet, I did. It’s harrowing, amazing, thrilling and above all, it’s humane.Now I am joining the ranks of those who say, “you must read this book”. It doesn’t matter if you think you “like” zombies or not. In this instance, it’s irrelevant. If you’re reticent like I was to start with, I do understand but all I can do is urge you to ignore this feeling so you don’t have any regrets – the regret I didn’t “know” this book sooner.For now, I am going to read it again.

I'd give this 4.5 stars easily... This book was certainly not what I was expecting, but what a pleasant surprise I got! First of all, if you've seen the movie and want to read the full length book, sorry, it doesn't exist, especially not here. None of the movie characters are found in this book, and even the zombies are different. The ones in this story are more generic where they're out to eat people, etc., and after being bitten, it will take a while before the victim is also turned into a zombie. The zombies in the movie however are content to just bite, convert in 10 seconds and then move on. Clearly the ones in the movie are more destructive and threatening. Another change was that the movie focuses on finding a vaccine for the zombie epidemic, while in the book no such thing exists... The only similarity I caught was the building of the giant wall in Israel, although the book and movie present different outcomes to that construction.Although this book is more traditional in its interpretation of zombies, the approach is very different. It focuses on a series of interviews with people around the world. The interviews are presented in a general order that moves you through the discovery of the epidemic, the panic, and ultimately the reclaiming of the world by the remaining humans. This book was not as grim as I was expecting. It was very thought provoking, and to the point. I thin Max Brooks was right on with his ideas about what could happen in the state of a zombie emergency. He's clearly put a lot of thought into the possibility on a global spectrum. What I thought was particularly clever was the creation of a medication that prevented zombie-ism but an opportunistic, greedy entrepreneur. He knew this medication would never work, but he didn't care because the premise of it sure made him rich! Feeding off the fears of the public this was a wide marketing success, and I could definitely see something like that happening.Another interesting idea (one of many) was the reality show with celebrities hanging out on a safe house in an island. Yep I can definitely see that happening! There were so many genius ideas here that I could totally see happening! Like North Korea! Dangit but I am going to be up at night wondering what in the world happened to the Koreans! And the Chinese that escaped China on the stolen nuclear submarine. I was so invested in that account... So so many great stories in here. I could never touch on all of them and do them all the credit they deserve...However, the draw of this story did start to loose it for me in the end. It seemed to drag a bit, and while in the beginning I instantly became invested in the characters portrayed in each interview, by the end I was having trouble relating, and couldn't wait for most of the interviews to be over so I could move onto another, hopefully more interesting tale. Some tales inevitably were better than others in this sense. Still, I was often frustrated because a story ended prematurely, without enough answers to questions I was asking, and I was found wanting more. By the end, when some of the characters were re-visited for final thoughts and goodbyes, I had no idea who the characters were! I'd read probably 100 other interviews in between at that point so I couldn't for the life of me remember these people!Also at times the interviews were a bit gimmicky. They didn't read like an interview really would. When you're telling a story from your life, you tell it straight. You don't think to withhold information to make the big reveal more dramatic in the end. Of course that's how a lot of interviews took place here. Of course it reads better as a story this way, but it takes away some of the realism that these are legit interviews.In closing I would just say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it really got me thinking. I'm impressed because Max Brooks clearly did his research and had really accurate viewpoints about the states of countries throughout the world, their religions, politics, history, criminal dealings, etc. He really thought this through on a global level! I think this book could appeal to a wider demographic than I originally predicted. Those that don't like Zombie or horror genres could still find something in here in regards to psychology, politics, world affairs, apocalyptic scenarios, etc. And ultimately human kinds resiliency in making a comeback, once the war was over was quite uplifting. Great story, truly a very surprising, new favorite read of mine.

It's just such a gripping, gritty, but easy read. Believable in every section and in such a subtle way too.

I though I would be reading fiction. But it’s like a political science book and leftist too.

What a book ! Okay for fellow readers out there, this is not a big novel with a protagonist and a plot but this book is in a universe where a zombie apocalypse would take place and the stories of people from different backgrounds responding to it and their ways of adaptation. The author has a truly unorthodox way to write books I believe so. This would be the hands-down best book to read if you are into zombie horror books.Overall, ranging from paper quality to font size and reader experience, its a 5 out of 5.

We may not be facing zombies but we are reacting these ways to current world situations. Hopefully we’ll be able to see how terrible our reactions have been.

This is a great book from Max Brooks. I know he probably doesn't want to ride off the coattails but I was dumbfounded when I found out his dad was Mel Brooks. Now with that said, this book is really well researched and it really feels like Maximillian was able to get into the perspectives of many different people. The book is a collection of different people's experiences during the zombie apocalypse. Now the reason I said it's a good toilet book is that each story can be read fairly quickly and it's a "low time investment" book. You can put it down after a small part. I got this book for a friend who doesn't really read and I don't care if it takes 3 years, the book can be read like a series of short stories. Highly recommended.