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.
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![World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by [Max Brooks]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51QTf-0eQWL._SY346_.jpg)
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| The Zombie Survival Guide | Devolution | The Harlem Hellfighters | Minecraft: The Island | Minecraft: The Mountain | |
| More from Max Brooks: | Fully illustrated and exhaustively comprehensive, The Zombie Survival Guide is your key to survival against the hordes of undead who may be stalking you right now. | Part survival narrative, part bloody horror tale, part scientific journey into the boundaries between truth and fiction, this is a Bigfoot story as only Max Brooks could chronicle it. | The riveting story of the highly decorated, barrier-breaking, historic black regiment—the Harlem Hellfighters | The first official Minecraft novel! Max Brooks tells the story of a hero—stranded in the world of Minecraft—who must unravel the secrets of a mysterious island in order to survive. | In the thrilling sequel to Minecraft: The Island, a stranded hero stumbles upon another castaway—and discovers that teamwork might just be the secret to survival. |
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Chapter transition isn't as fluid as I wanted it to be. Audiobook would probably be better.
Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2018
Actual rating: 3.5Reading this book was fun because I was buddy reading this with 3 others from different nationalities and this is a book about the zombie apocalypse around the world.Narration:What was difficult with buddy reading this was the lack of chapter numbers because in its place we have locations around the world instead. No chapter numbers but instead we're given the country and city where the interview is being held. Yes, interview. This book is written in interview formatbut it's the interviewee who speaks most of the time with the interviewer/author interjecting only occasionally or not at all. This adds realism to the story but there are times when I would just gloss over some words especially when the author goes into more details on the military tech things that I don't really care for. Some people will find that truly enjoyable though.It was a fun but confusing experience because some were reading through an audiobook and I was on an ebook so we couldn't have a page number as a marker. Keeping track of where everyone was was easy when we started but as we got further it started being difficult because there are multiple visits on the same country/city mostly US and China so saying "I just passed Denver, where are you guys reading now?" will be met with "Which Denver? The 1st one or the 2nd one?".Now one problem with that is, I can't really recall much of what happened in that city/country when it comes up again. Not always, but there are times I catch myself wondering what happened there again? The constant jumping from one country to another is fun and it adds to the sense of a true zombie apocalypse unlike other zombie stories where it's actually only happening in one country being passed as happening around the world (ew). The downside is making it hard to track on what was happening on where, individually speaking. But as a whole it's not that confusing... but the lag of connecting things is there for me.This is not the kind of book you can just stop in the middle and smoothly continue whenever. I find that I have to finish a whole "chapter" or else I would be confused when I get back to it. What country am I in again?Setting:As I've mentioned, the zombie apocalypse is happening around the world and we are treated to happenings to many countries. Not all, but it's enough for me to have a sense of "worldwideness" unlike other stories that claim to be a universal event but were actually only in one country.What was missing though is zombies in the desert. I can't recall us going in the desert for this book hmmm. But that doesn't take away anything from the story. We have cities and country sides, we have mountains and seas, we have winter and summer. The author has really covered a lot which for me is worth the title World War Z.Theme:What was recurring and really jumped out for me was blame and responsibility, and the guilt that followed. I really liked that the author, in some instances, paralleled it with the Holocaust.Characters:This is where most my problem lies with this book and is why I won't rate it higher. I can't remember most their names.Why?Probably because sometimes they all sound like the same person. To be fair, some of them had only a few paragraphs but even those with longer exposure I can't really recall much. I usually just refer to them as "the blind Japanese guy" or "the guy in the castle" or "the pilot girl". I think this is part of the reason why I can't remember fully what had happened in which country; I don't have a name to relate it to for continuity.Granted the author has made them describing their experience fun to read about but sometimes I just want a character to hold on to and follow. I think the interviewer would have been the best option to do that but no, he just suddenly appears where the interviewees are and they start talking. They being the interviewee most of the time. The interviewer feels so detached ironically after that intro about the human factor. (My first highlight if you want to know what I mean.)We know what the interviewees are feeling but as for the interviewer? He's just there.Side note: Animals are also mentioned (not all but they're there) and I highly appreciate that the author covered that too because in this world, it's not only humans that are affected but also every single life form.Final Thoughts:This is a great book for buddy reading and discussion and is a great zombie book. What would've made it a better experience for me is if the interviewer was more involved instead of just an occasional interjection to the interview. Over all, it was a fun and insightful read I would recommend to those looking for a good zombie read.A very close 4 stars for me.This work would also probably be great as an audiobook. There's this audiobook that really put effort into having different voice actors/accents for each character interviewed and I feel like that would be an awesome experience. Unfortunately it's not available in my country...
Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2018
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Dorset Reader
Everyone should read this book!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 15, 2020
Vayne77
I can recommend World War Z - A diary into the Zombie War
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 22, 2022
Nick Roberts
My third reread?My fifth?
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 26, 2020
Chris Worth
Really, really different. Brilliantly so.
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