World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

Reviewed by Steffen Bergen

Screw vampires, zombies are cooler!
In media and popular culture the horror genre has seemingly been transformed into romance, just look at the runaway success of the Twilight book and movie franchise. However, the romance and brooding of Twilight does not resonate with me. I prefer a more traditional horror story with scary and chilling writing. World War Z (WWZ), written by Max Brooks, delivers these chilling and gripping storylines with every chapter and every page.
WWZ is a follow-up book to the 2003 novel, A Zombie Survival Guide, which introduced the “rules” or “framework” of zombies. The zombies are moved only by their craving to consume living flesh and, although they are slow moving, they tirelessly pursue their human prey. However, this novel is not your typical zombie gore fest and re-invents the zombie/horror genre. The book’s plot consists of numerous interviews with people from all over the world and from all walks of life who talk about their experiences with the zombie outbreak. This narrative style, combined with the extensive research Brooks did on technology, economics, culture, politics and military tactics gives the book a historical and eerily realistic feel.
WWZ’s plot begins with an initial zombie outbreak and follows the world’s response as the outbreak quickly spreads and the human race teeters close to extinction. The apocalyptic story explores major themes such as survivalism and touches on the more sombre aspects of the human condition, like uncertainty and anxiety about the end of the world. Brooks is also quite critical of government bureaucracy, corporate greed and American isolationism throughout WWZ.
This book was highly addictive. As soon as I finished the first 50 pages, I could not put the book down and found myself finding and making time to read. I quickly tore through the novel and still find myself re-reading sections, lusting for more novels from Max Brooks and anticipating the movie adaptation of WWZ that is in the works.

For other great fiction, check out Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy. Larsson’s crime novels are also highly addictive and schooled me in Sweden’s geography, currency and love of open faced sandwiches.

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