World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

By Max Brooks

Published 2007

“There’s a word for that kind of lie. Hope.”

I can’t get past a well done scary movie. Horror, guts, gore, all of it. I LOVE it. I am the person sitting in the theater laughing hysterically as the villain cuts the skin off the back of his neck, only to obtain the numbers to unlock the door of his entrapment (excerpt from one of the many Saw movies). Slasher movies are my comedies (Don’t ask I have a terrible sense of humor) so World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks, son of the ever hysterical Mel Brooks, fell into my lap I was beyond eager to immerse myself.

This book was recommended to me by my manager at work, after he found out that we had a shared obsession of everything Zombie. It was           EVERYTHING I thought it was going to be.  The story unfolds in interview format post The Great Panic. These interviews occur in China, to Canada, down to Mexico. With people who were part of the military force, to those who were just teenagers with their world revolving around their computers. There is a plenty of balance between zombie gore, apocalypse preparation, and military tactics. It is evident that the zombies themselves are the soundtrack to this novel, it is more of the journey of the individual characters, and their ability to deal with something that seemed so fantastical.

Even though the documentary style was right up my alley I found myself getting a little lost with all the characters, and stories I was introduced to in such a short amount of time. When the interviews did wrap back around and we were encountering people we had already heard from I found myself not realizing which character it was until half way through the interview.  In other words, the novel just wasn’t long enough for me.