I can easily see this book becoming a new "cult classic." You know, the type of book which is worshiped by teenage boys and young guys in their 20s. The type of book they maul over for hours, discussing all different ways of killing zombies, the new (zombie) war strategies, or, if they are of a smarter bunch, looking for analogies between current political and economical events and those in the book. Well, you get the picture...

Not that I don't appreciate Brooks' novel approach to a dead-beat zombie story. I liked his attempt to write a book which is based on exploring the influence of political climate on the way the zombie epidemic is handled. I just honestly expected this "oral history" to be more relatable. I expected some actual accounts of survival, something to sympathize with, someone to feel sorry for. Instead I got a series of interviews that delivered in a somewhat lecture tone a rather dry account of war tactics, political crises, various strategies with dealing with the zombie war aftermath, etc. Basically, Brooks produced what he was supposedly attempting to avoid in the introduction to the book - cold hard data, albeit told by multiple narrators instead of on the pages of a report.

I don't know, maybe something got lost in abridgment (I listened to a well done audio version of the book), something that would have made this book come alive for me. Or maybe I am just not the target audience. It was a moderately interesting book, with some original ideas, but ultimately it left me cold and uninvolved.

Reading challenge: #13, 4 of 5.

This global view of a fictional war against zombies is a cool idea and it begins well but it's quite repetitive.

The book is written in the style of a research paper, or at least like the book is composed of extracts from different reports.

The story is clever and if you like the style you will enjoy it however I prefer more character driven stories.

Wow, this had an amazing amount of detail. Told in sort of a memoir style, the narrator goes back and interviews various people from all around the world to get their perspective on the zombie war after it has unfolded and they are in recovery. It's an interesting storytelling style. You get the gradual story of how the outbreak unfolded, and since its both from the narrator's interviewing perspective, but also really from the pov's of so many third parties, you really get a global feel. There was a strong military feel to this. The author had a good sense of jargon and nice voice. Enjoyed it.

Please excuse typos. Entered on screen reader.

This wasn’t what I expected. Maybe the subtitle should have clued me in, but I was expecting something a little more along the lines of The Handmaid’s Tale. Not in subject matter of course, but in the sense that The Handmaid’s Tale is written in such a way as to make it sound like the main character is recounting her story orally. I figured World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War would be told in a similar style, by one character, or maybe a handful of characters, “talking” about what happened.

Instead, this book is a collection of interviews that the author conducted with a huge number of people after the zombie war was over. Um, I mean that in a fictional sense of course. We “hear” from each person for a few pages, learn about what they saw or did or learned during some aspect of the war, and then we move on to a new person. I like to go into books blind, and mostly I think that enhances my reading experiences, but occasionally it doesn’t serve me well and this was one of those cases. It’s been a while since I’ve managed to get really engrossed in a book, and I was hoping this might be one I could really sink my teeth into. In a non-zombie-like way. If I’d known about (or remembered, since I know I’ve read other people’s reviews for it over the years) the style of the book, I probably would have saved it for another time.

It was moderately interesting, and it does tell a pretty coherent story. The interviews are grouped in chronological order, so the early interviews show us the beginning of things and the final interviews show us more of the aftermath after things started to calm down. There are usually only a few short comments or questions from the author, so it’s mostly the interviewees who are doing the talking. Some of their stories were pretty interesting, and sometimes I got caught up in them, especially the longer passages in which the person was telling about things that had happened to them personally as opposed to just talking in general about the impact of events and what people were thinking and deciding.

The problem was, there was no suspense whatsoever. The very nature of the book implied from the beginning that things would be more-or-less handled by the end, and of course you knew each person telling their story would survive because they were still there at the end to be interviewed. I also never felt any investment in the characters since we spent so little time with each one before moving on to new people.

One thing I did appreciate was that we saw what happened in many different parts the world. As I read, I was contrasting that to Stephen King’s The Stand which I read earlier this year. The Stand was originally published in the late 1970’s and dealt with a flu epidemic exclusively from the perspective of the US, with very little hint as to what if anything might have been happening elsewhere. It felt weird, reading that in the year 2022, especially after recent events, and feeling so confined to one country. This book, published in 2006, felt much more realistic in that regard. We not only learned what happened in a variety of countries, but most of the people were, as one would expect, aware of what was going on in other countries and often commented on it.

Overall though, this was another average read for me. Interesting, but not gripping.

a re-re-re-re-read for me

Zombies or the living dead are engulfing the entire world. It is called the great panic. This book starts at the end of the great panic and revisits what each continent did to survive the zombie attacks. The interviews are eye openers of dread, hopeless, heroic acts, impossible situations, and finally relieve that it has ended.

Everyone strated to head North because the zombies would freeze in the winter and come back to life after the first thaw. It was especially difficult in that the only way to kill a zombie is to kill his brain. This requires a direct head shot every time.

Quote:

"Evaluation"......that's what happens when it's your own side. It's only "interrogation" when it's the enemy.

You carried a gun? I lived in Rio. What do you think I carried, my "pinto"?

All armies, be they mechanized or mountain guerilla, have to abide by three basic restrictions: they have to be bred, fed, and led. Bred, fed, and led; and none of these restrictions applied to the living dead.

ME JUST SIMPLE ZOMBIE BUT NO UNDERSTAND WHY LIVING SO PREJUDICED AGAINST DEAD TOLERATE SUCH HATEFUL BOOK BOOK PRESENT TOTAL ONE-SIDED CASE OF FAKE WAR MAN VERSUS ZOMBIES PORTRAYS ZOMBIES AS MINDLESS AND HAS NO COMPASSION FOR FEELINGS HOPES DREAMS DESIRES OF RECENTLY ALIVE LIKE SMELL THE PRETTY FLOWERS ON GRAVE AND WHERE DID LEG GO USED TO HAVE TWO AND WHAT DOES BRAIN TASTE LIKE SO SUE ME AM CURIOUS ANYWAY BOOK GOES AROUND WORLD SHOWING MAN FIGHT ZOMBIES AND ALL TIMES MAN EITHER KILL ZOMBIE WITH RELISH OR ZOMBIE EAT MAN WITH RELISH HA HA SMALL JOKE BUT SERIOUSLY SEEM RACIST THAT AUTHOR NO THINK MAN AND ZOMBIE CAN LIVE PEACE LIKE WHY NOT GIVE ZOMBIE JUST SMALL TASTE OF HUMAN AND ALL GO ABOUT BUSINESS BUT NO MUST BE KILL KILL KILL HUMAN SO SENSITIVE BITE HEAD ONE TIME AND THINK WANT EAT NOTHING BUT BRAINS NEWSFLASH BRAINS NOT ALL THAT TASTY CONCLUSION WHY OK TO MAKE WAR WITH ZOMBIES ZOMBIES NOT EXACTLY NAZIS EXCEPT ONE TIME

re-read review

3 stars

Honestly, I'm not sure what to think of this other than that I don't think I fully enjoyed it. It felt, in many ways, extremely America-philic and as someone who low-key has always been adverse to overly patriotic stuff—even when I was like 5, I hated patriotic songs and only liked America the Beautiful because it isn't about the country, it's about the land—this was honestly really annoying sometimes. But the thing is, it's done well enough that it feels like it's the fake interviewee that has these annoying MAGA opinions and not the interviewer, a meta Max Brooks—essentially, it feels accurate that the people in question would have those opinions and feel that way. But Max chose to focus almost entirely on the States (and even when he ventured past its borders, it was still often about an ex-patriot American living there) and how we alone were the true hope for the world and that's really stupid, I just gotta say.

Imma go ahead and rename this: America War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War as told through America's Eyes.

It's very in depth and interesting but honestly, not my cup of tea anymore.

Original review

4 stars

Ignorance was the enemy. Lies and superstition, misinformation, disinformation. Sometimes, no information at all. Ignorance killed billions of people. Ignorance caused the Zombie War.

World War Z is absolutely nothing like the movie, I'll tell you that. Even the type of zombies was different (they're fast zombies in the movie, which does bring its own horror element, but they're slow zombies in the book for a reason that's central to the conflict and its resolution). The biggest difference was the turning point of the war, the catalyst of human victory. In the movie, it was a plot twist, a non-human element. In the book, it's human endurance. It was raw and emotional and very, very real. Suffice it to say that the book is way better than the movie.

The monsters that rose from the dead, they are nothing compared to the ones we carry in our hearts.

This book is very comprehensive, almost boring at parts because of it, but undeniably exciting and meaningful likewise. It has something for everyone (except for fluffy romance lovers, I suppose). It goes very in-depth with the war aspects, listing war jargon, guns, as many abbreviations as possible, but without feeling too technical. It had unsettling implications and subtle consequences that I would never have thought of. It really felt real and truly frightening because of that. For anyone who is confused about the format of this book, it is stylized like a nonfiction history book told in specialized interviews with survivors, the interviewer being a meta Max Brooks. It's like the mockumentary version of a book. I really enjoyed it. It left me feeling both terrified and hopeful, along with the survivors in the book. The atmosphere was extremely palpable.

For the first time in history, we faced an enemy that was actively waging total war. They had no limits of endurance. They would never negotiate, never surrender. They would fight until the very end because, unlike us, every single one of them, every second of every day, was devoted to consuming all life on Earth. That's the kind of enemy that was waiting for us beyond the Rockies. That's the kind of war we had to fight.

update...update...

To everything there is a time - a time to reap and a time to plant, a time to listen to Schoenberg and a time to listen to Lez Zeppelin, the all-girl tribute band, a time to read Marcel Proust and a time to read about zombie apocalypses. That time, for me, passed some years ago. I shouldn't've picked up this novel but I was seduced by shedloads of great reviews on this very site.

Although my copy has a front-cover blurb by Simon Pegg, it's his very own great little zom-romcom Shaun of the Dead, plus George Romero's splendid zombie trilogy which Shaun beautifully parodies, plus other movies like 28 Days Later and I Am Legend, and a thousand other post-apocalypse novels and B-movies, and plus NOW the fab series THE WALKING DEAD which I only just discovered, wow, I love it - it's all of these things which cumulatively undermine the not inconsiderable energy and sociopolitical insight of Max Brooks' own version of The War Against the People You Really Hoped You'd Never See Again. Every scene in this book we've seen or read several times before, and alas, mostly by less truthful writers. This is really an excellent novel, but for younger readers who haven't already slogged, as I have, through a lifetime of pulp.

Brooks's imagination is tough and unflinching, but you have to concede that zombie apocalypses bring out the macho in pretty much everybody. This really is a war book, chock full of pumped-up acronym-heavy military jargon. World War Z is mainly fought with TESTOSTERONE!!!

This book wanted to be for zombies what THE WIRE is for Baltimore, and for that I give it a crisp military salute and a bag of red tops. I think my 15 year old self would have rated this one four fat ones but that guy didn't have the best taste really.

**

That said, myself and daughter Georgia will be lurching, shambling and jerking our bodies towards the cinema when the Brad Pitt zombuster film-of-the-book is released soon. Me and Georgia love that stuff. Gwan, destroy the world again... and again...

Impostare un libro sull'apocalisse zombie basandolo sui resoconti dei sopravvissuti significa azzerarne completamente la tensione, per non parlare poi dei personaggi quasi tutti piatti ed uguali. Inspiegabile inoltre la totale assenza di sopravvissuti europei, viene citata giusto Parigi in una riga in tutto il libro. Si salva solo l'assalto dei soldati sulle note di "The Trooper" degli Iron Maiden.

Finito a fatica.

I know what you're thinking. "Five stars for this book? Why???"

If you've been following my reviews then you know I tend to stress over how many stars to give a book, and I'm not one to hand out five-star ratings willy-nilly. I'm usually quite cautious when it comes to handing out that all-important fifth star. I'm stingy. That being said, every once in a while a book, that may or may not be amazing, comes along and wows me.

And now you're (probably) thinking: "But Penny, it's a book about zombies. Zombies! Disgusting rotting corpses that stumble around, looking to sink their teeth into any living thing. How--how could that sort of thing wow you? Are you, like, smoking crack???"

First things first: No--I'm not smoking crack. Everyone knows crack is cheap--I much prefer the real thing*. Now that I've cleared that up, lets move on, shall we?

So. World War Z. I really enjoyed it, which was a surprise because I didn't think I would. This book is not something I would've picked up on my own. Had it not been for a couple of really nice Barnes & Noble employees who practically shoved this book in my hands while gushing about its supreme awesomeness, I definitely wouldn't have purchased it. But since they didn't have the book I was looking for (Storm Front by Jim Butcher), and since I'd already been bitten by the zombie bug over a year ago (The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan) I took a chance and purchased this book.

Despite the fact that Max Brooks used to write for SNL, and also happens to be Mel Brooks son, this book isn't funny, nor is it meant to be. Max Brooks tells this story through a series of interviews given by survivors of The Great Panic, or World War Z (the Z stands for Zombie, in case you didn't, you know, put two and two together...).

The interviewees come from different parts of the world and they tell their accounts of what happened to them, what they thought when they first heard of what was first referred to as "African Rabies"; what happened when the Great Panic started in their part of the world. A lot of these stories are sad and/or terrifying, but mostly I found them incredibly intriguing.

Before I go on I need to add that I totally geek-out over documentaries, and this book--were it in movie form--would be a documentary. I'm one that appreciates the method Max Brooks uses to tell this story.

To me the beginning of this book has more to do with the way things are done in this world--politics wise--than anything else. Of course, as the book goes on and more and more governments are collapsing due to the fact that zombies are basically taking over the world, we get a good look at human nature during times of crisis. I found the whole thing fascinating..

Hardcore zombie lovers need to know that this isn't a book that follows one set of characters, though some interviews have been broken up, and so a few characters are featured in this book more than once. Rather it is one story told by several different people. There is continuity in the order in which the stories are told to us, and sometimes one survivor's account answers a question that was raised by another survivor.

All that said, there is quite a bit of zombie slaying action. Lots of blood and guts and gore. We get to learn how best to stop a zombie--and let me assure you, there are many ways. We also learn about newest in improvised zombie killing weaponry and effective warfare techniques to decimate a raging-out-of-control zombie population.

But seriously, I loved reading it, everything in this whole entire book. Me. A church-going mother of three. Although, yeah, I'm not your typical church-going mother of three. But still...

P.S. I'd have finished this book a long time ago had it not been for my husband, who kept stealing this book away from me so he could read it too. He's really liking it, btw.

UPDATE 11/10/12: About a year ago I bought the audiobook from Audible only to discover, after purchasing, that it was the abridged version. I soon found out that was all they had to offer which was quite disappointing because some of my favorite eyewitness accounts from the book were not included. I've since heard from the World War Z's Facebook page that they are going to make an unabridged version. I am unaware of when it will be available for purchase. That said, I did end up liking the (abridged) audiobook well enough. The performances are pretty top notch.


*To those who have zero sense of humor, it must be said: I'm kidding, I don't do any drugs, and you need to chill.

So many people love this book and I really though I was going to be one of them. I can't believe I'm not..
First things first. This is not a story. Also, there were no characters and It almost felt like nothing happened....although how I can say that in a book where a zombie world war happens, I really don't know!
I really like character led stories. I knew the style and structure of this book before I started it and I was looking forward to reading something a bit different; however it quickly became apparent that it didn't agree with me..
The most interesting thing about the book is the global and political bigger picture view of what a zombie apocalypse might look like.
If you're thinking about reading this book- I would go ahead. For me it helped clarify what I do and don't like in my zombie apocalypse reading: I didn't know I had an opinion!