Author: Max Brooks
Genre: Zombie, Apocalyptic, Horror
Target Audience: Adults
Reading Experience: 7.5/10
Story: 7.5/10
Writing: 7/10
My Verdict: 7.5/10
I thought I may review this book, since it was a very interesting read. I read this book a year or two before the movie came out (in 2013), so even though I don't remember everything in the book, I remember plenty enough to say that the book was really good. It's not a favorite, but it was a very, very good read. I liked it, a LOT.
So the book has a unique narrative and structure. Picture this, humanity was almost eradicated by a zombie virus that turned almost all of humanity into zombies. It was the fastest-spreading virus in history, and the world stopped fighting and tried to survive.
Years (or maybe months?) after, that horrific, near-apocalyptic event became part of history and was known as World War Z, the time when zombies almost took over the planet. I mean, it was scary close to the end of the world as we know it!
Today, an interviewer (I don't recall his name being mentioned, but it is supposed to be Max Brooks himself) travels across the world, interviewing survivors and soldiers that were there when everything went down. He wants to hear from the people that had first-hand experience with the zombies. You get to learn more of this catastrophic event as the people who lived it tell you their side of the story. Experience yourself the fear these people felt as they either tried to survive the zombie apocalypse or tried fighting back (or had to do both). Learn what caused it and where it all began: with Patient Zero.
Reading Experience: 7.5/10
I'm weird. I love history. Most of the people I've met either hate history or avoid it by any cause (why people dislike history so much is beyond me). Not me. I jump right in. I love American history, as well as eastern history like china, the middle-east and even European history. Anybody that begins a conversation with a historical fact or steers it in that direction officially becomes my friend (I also like books, comic book heroes, movies and TV shows. *hint* *hint*). That being said, I'm not a particular fan of Caribbean/Latin-american history, more specifically my own, from Puerto Rico. I find that history somewhat... boring.
Anyway, the thing I loved about this book is that, by the time you begin the first chapter, WWZ is actually part of history. It was over, and humans (what remains of humanity, actually) are trying to recover. Everything went down, and now every part of the world is trying to rebuild itself. The narrator goes from one person to another, old and young, and of all social statuses, trying to build a story. From a mayor to a soldier to civilians, and so on. Slowly, he unravels, through the experience of others, how WWZ changed the world and how people are coping with the aftermath of it all.
I loved the idea. At some point, I felt like I was reading a documentary. As if WWZ actually happened. And having the first-hand experience of characters that were there made it much more believable. Many of the interviews were simply engrossing, others were downright gross, and one or two I had to skip because they were saying too much of nothing.
Still, I enjoyed myself reading. I took this book literally everywhere! I always had it in my hand, with a finger inside the pages, marking where I had stopped reading. I was starting to read books with more adult content, more series, in contrast to the YA novels I was reading before. I was breaking my literary cocoon. Needless to say, I was very pleased with it. It was then when I became an adult bookworm!
Can you picture me as a college freshman, reading during one of my laboratory courses, sitting by the electrophoresis chamber, my head buried in this book? I may have ruined a few experiments... but I blamed it on Max Brooks.
Story: 7.5/10
As I said, the story is mainly about the aftermath of a near-apocalyptic zombie outbreak. The interviewer searches for survivors and interviews them about their experience in WWZ.
I like zombie stories and movies. Anything zombie-related is a must in my book. I love Walking Dead, I love the Left for Dead video games as well as the Dead Rising ones. Anything that has to do with zombies, I either have to see it, play it, read it or have it! Or all of the above. That's why I didn't need much convincing on this book. I read no reviews, and I didn't even read the description. I saw the world zombie on it, and the huge Z on its cover, and I bought it.
To me the story was engaging because history is a favorite topic of mine. That's why it was so easy and fun to read. But reading reviews today, many people don't like it. I liked it, but everybody should have a different opinion. That's what makes the discussion interesting.
And then there are the zombies. The description of them is somewhat obscure. We read mostly about how the person survived in the midst of it all, but the actual science behind the zombies is not that clear. For those that have seen the 2013 adaptation of WWZ, the zombies are portrayed as aggressive beings that run around in hordes and trample everything in its way. In retrospect (since I read the book a year or two before I saw the movie), I think the way they portrayed the zombies was pretty much how I envisioned them in the book.
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| The military never stood a chance. INCOMING!!!! |
Imagine walking, minding your own business, and you hear growling and fast steps behind you. Not only that, you hear screams and shrills. You turn around...
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| It's like a Black Friday sale! But less bloody... |
I think the reality of it all is what makes the book very interesting and somewhat scary. The Walking Dead set the bar pretty high for other zombie-apocalypse-survival shows/movies/books, so making this book recount the events after the whole zombie apocalypse thing was quite brilliant, in my opinion. I could be wrong, but it's what I think.
Writing: 7/10
The writing is not the most perfect or engaging. The story itself did most of the heavy-lifting. The interviews varied. Some were engaging and engrossing, some fell flat and others were simply too much. I find history fascinating, but even I find some parts of it excruciatingly boring. The same happened here. This "historic moment" was fascinating, but it also had some dull sections that made me lose momentum when reading.
My Verdict: 7.5/10
It's not a perfect book. It's not the most thrilling or engaging. It won't change your life. In fact, I think more people will probably dislike it. We are used to reading books with depths and many layers, and we forget that sometimes, what we need is a book to simply entertain us. Isn't that why we read? To escape reality for a moment and have someone else entertain us with a story?
Again, it's not perfect and it's not the best. But it's good enough. I liked it. I loved the style, the unorthodox approach in the narrative and the idea of something that has "already happened". I thought it was a very fun read... but... that's my opinion.
Do I recommend it? Well, yeah. Apart from the occasional gore and horror, there is nothing sexual or explicit about the book. It's a documentary. It's reliving the event in the eyes of people that were there. So I guess young adults can read it too, if they can endure the fact that it's basically a history textbook. Also, it's somewhat lengthy, so keep that in mind too.
Also, if you wish to see the movie, I don't think it will ruin the book for you. The movie heads down a very different path when it comes to this story. For starters, the main character (played by Brad Pitt) and is family find themselves in the midst of the outbreak. He's not a character from the book, and there are no references to the book at all, other than Patient Zero. If you wish to see the movie, it's really good. It actually compliments the book.
I have no more to say about the book (or the movie), so here's the beloved, late Michael Jackson dancing with zombies. I thought it was only appropriate that I add this.
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| Dance, my fellow zombies, DANCE! Dance now, take over the world later... |
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Did you like this review? Do you agree with my thoughts on this book? Let me know what you think on the comments below, or add me on Twitter (right sidebar) and connect with me! Happy Reading!
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