To start off, I strongly felt the need to review this book. After all, no one takes me seriously when I tell them that a book about zombies slowly taking over the world is a fantastic read. But I don't blame them. After all, when we have gory zombie movies coming out at least once a year, and when the world seems to be infested with a strong love of vampires (particularly those that sparkle and can produce children even though they are technically the undead), who can blame the average person from shying away from the least loved and romantic supernatural creature? The Zombie is a brain munching creature villain with virtually no way to romanticize it. Imagine for a moment trying to create even a semi-credible romance story between a male/female and a brain-dead mostly decaying creature. But I digress; the point is that in this book I found zombies and an alternate world so believable, I would catch myself thinking about how I would fend off zombies should they start taking over my country. Perhaps a bit sad on my part, but strong evidence for what a good read this book is.
This book's genre is, as it would seem, almost obvious; a post-apocalyptic horror novel. Written with a collection of individual accounts that are given to the reader as a first-person anecdote instead of the normal grand overview following the thoughts of a single character, this book manages to suck you in and make the events that take place that much more believable. In the novel, Brooks plays the role of an agent of the United Nations Postwar Commission who published his report on the zombie war a decade after the fact. The interviews that Brook records and writes about are from the view point of many different people of various nationalities, classes and backgrounds. The personal accounts also describe the changing religious, geo-political, and environmental aftermath of the Zombie War. Meaning, this is about a Zombie War, but its perspective on what the war does to people and places during and after the fact give it an eerie believability. Max Brooks takes current international/national affairs for countries in this modern era and simply lets their very real histories affect their futures within his Zombie scenario. Sadly enough, I actually learned some interesting cultural facts from this book which means the book has that gritty edge of reality as well as that I must read up more on my world affairs.
If you want a fast-paced read with a good dose of horror (the intelligent kind, not simply the bloody kind, though there is that in here as well) and an interesting look at people and cultures in the middle of an extreme crisis, then you will enjoy this read. Its journalistic nature makes it hard to put down and I would actually challenge those who don't think its their cup of tea to try to borrow it for free and try out the first few chapters and see if they could put it down. Kudos to Brooks for a great read, that is exciting and entertaining as well as surprisingly thought provoking
at certain moments. This is a book that redefines the Zombie genre and sets the standard for those authors who want to write about fictional creatures.
Here is the official teaser,
We survived the zombie apocalypse, but how many of us are still haunted by that terrible time? We have (temporarily?) defeated the living dead, but at what cost? Told in the haunting and riveting voices of the men and women who witnessed the horror first hand, World War Z is the only record of the plague years.
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