World War Z is a zombie horror novel, which at this point most would consider this a modern horror classic. Max Brooks creates a zombie apocalypse like no other.
Quick Info
- Title: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
- Author: Max Brooks
- Publish Date: 12th September 2006
- Genre: Horror
- Sub-Genre: Zombie
- What to Expect:
- Many POVs
- Traveling around the world
- Interview style format
- Millions of zombies
– Rating: 3.5 stars –
Trigger Warnings
War, death, gore, injury, injury detail, military operations, gun violence, mental health issues, suicide, death of a parent, death of a child, cannibalism, racism & xenophobia, classism, pregnancy, animal abuse, death of a pet, religious indoctrination
If I have missed any out or you feel like something should be added, please leave a comment.
Synopsis
Max Brooks travels across the world to gather first hand experiences from experts to leaders to ordinary citizens and how they survived the zombie apocalypse, also known as the Great Zombie War. It begins with accounts of how it spread, from patient zero in a remote village in the United Federation of China to smuggling infected patients across the world. But quickly the tides change and everything is overrun by zombies.
My Thoughts
When I first began to read this, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was going to live up to the hype. The hype that other people had for this but also the hype I had created in my own head. I really wanted this to be amazing, I love zombie horror and this had been very high on my TBR for the longest time. So, did it? Well, yes and no.
Yes, it did live up to the hype. This is one of the most in depth and well thought out zombie apocalypses I have ever seen. The world building and thought put into this apocalypse is unmatched, and it truly cannot be understated. I found it so realistic but in ways I hadn’t thought of. To avoid spoilers, I’ll give a very early example. In the opening section of the book, which explores the spread. There is a man who smuggles people out of China to see there loved ones, which yes, would happen and I love how it’s such little actions that spreads the virus. There is another chapter where an infected heart is transplanted into a healthy man, who then turns. That’s such a unique concept and something I hadn’t considered. What would happen to the organ black market? It’s ingenious and gripping.
I also liked the different perspectives. It added expert knowledge while bypassing the issue of “how do we get the information?” I liked how some were evasive to giving information, not all were open books. Some had secrets, some couldn’t remember, some had other mental blocks that stopped them.
However, this also didn’t help because there were some perspectives that I thought were very dull which made it hard to get through. Later in the novel, the perspectives take on a lot more of a militaristic tone. A lot of interviews felt like military history, which is not my favourite. A lot of the later chapters blurred together because we gain no new information aside from specific tactics they used in combat, which for me was very boring. So, the last 30% was very hard to get through. So, no it didn’t live up to the hype because whilst its called World War Z, I had heard it was an all encompassing look at the zombie apocalypse, not just the military side of it. I think this will a “to each their own” situation, where some won’t mind it, but for some – like me – they will.
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