Reviews tagging 'Classism'

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

7 reviews

mashtonok's review against another edition

dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Abandonment, War, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

holistichistorian's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

World War Z is unlike any book I’ve ever read. As a work of historical fiction, I find it extremely interesting. I thoroughly enjoy its interview style, it kept me turning pages and made for an interesting and surprisingly fast read. I found the excerpts from other countries (such as in the Around the World, and Above chapter) much more interesting than the many from America, the interview of Mister Khan from Rajasthan in particular. I felt that the ‘show, don’t tell’ aspect of this novel worked quite well in parts, eluding to certain world events and leaders as if the reader were a part of that universe and was already familiar with them. The emotional beats were well placed and fitting, I never felt overwhelmed but the grief and despair of the characters were warranted and written well. As a fan of horror, gore and all that comes with it, I am satisfied. There were plenty of gruesome depictions of zombies and battles, I found the retelling of combat just as gripping and tense as if I were watching it in real-time. 

 

As for my gripes, there are only a few. I found some of the characters, especially from the military, to be slightly too similar in their personality which, at points, made it difficult to differentiate accounts. Furthermore, as previously stated, I found that there was too much focus on America, both in its status during the war and in the amount of Americans interviewed. However, I do understand this novel’s fixation since the author is himself American. I’m sure a British author would have written too much about Britain. As for the depictions of other countries and cultures, I felt like this was absolutely necessary for a novel about a world war. I am interested to hear how other people feel about the accuracy of this representation. 

 

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I wish there was more on Scotland but I found some form of comfort or relatability in most of the characters in any case. I feel like it’s a must-read for any zombie nut and, possibly, for any aspiring historian as a fun bit of fiction. I recommend this to anyone who likes their action adventure on the dark side - it has depressingly realistic moments. Proceed with caution if you find mental health difficult to read about. I hope many more find World War Z as exhilarating a read as I have! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Chronic illness, Drug use, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Torture, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

gawdz0rz's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

decent book, well-written, interesting pov. 

i appreciated the (brief) mention of environmental impact of the war. i also learned some historical things while reading this. 

there were quite a few stereotypes of the characters that were not great, unfortunately. i also felt my brain and eyes glaze over every time there were details pertaining to military equipment or anything like that. 

i don’t remember the movie very well but from what i do remember, the book is not like the movie, which certainly isn’t a bad thing! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Suicide, and Cannibalism

Minor: Homophobia, Racism, and Classism

clarabooksit's review against another edition

The representation in this is super offensive. Nearly every character is a stereotype, they all spout offhand bigoted comments that often have no bearing on the narrative, and the racism and xenophobia go way beyond the in-story narrative elements that mirror real world responses to crises and pandemics. Not to mention the overt sexism and poorly written women. All this adds up to a big old “Nope” from me.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Fatphobia, Grief, and Medical trauma

bri__'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

The writing is exceptional and the post-war documentary format is different to any other book that I've read. The inconsistency of the characters (apart from the narrator), provided a more broad perspective of 'World War Z' and also helped to make the experiences of each character feel more individual and unique. The book itself is well thought-out and it is evident that Max Brooks has done his research. While some stories I found boring and confusing, there were others that I found thrilling and overall captivating. That is the beauty of this type of format with a variety of different stories, there are bound to be ones that are favoured over the others and that makes the experience all the more personal.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Ableism, Confinement, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, and Classism

percys_panda_pillow_pet's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Almost a year ago I picked up Max Brooks' book, Devolution. I hadn't even realized it was a horror book, nor that it was by the same author who wrote the New York Times Bestseller World War Z. Since, finishing Devolution in all its gory, terrifying glory, I decided I had to check out his previous, most famous work. 

Despite being written 14 years prior to Devolution, I didn't see much change in style and prose. It's not unusual to feel like an author's previous books are less well-written than their latest, many authors grow into their craft like any other author. However, World War Z was just as well written as the later book, which I really have to commend him for. This is not to say the books aren't different.

While World War Z took a more global perspective on the events within it, Devolution was much smaller and more personal. This heavily affected the horror in both books. The latter book was much more terrifying for its close perspective and heavy circumstances. The former, however, had a bit of a lighter tone at times, as there were so many victories to weigh out the losses in the war on Zombies. I would say that while Devolution is more frightening and makes for a better horror book, World War Z makes for a great introspection into humanity and has a bit more hope in it, which I actually preferred. I have to note that I actually rated Devolution lower because it was so heavy at times that I had to take mental breaks, which made the experience not as much fun.

I really liked the retrospective I had while reading this book post-COVID and many other important events that have happened between now and 2006 when the book was first published. I think it's amazing how Brooks actually captured certain pandemic ideologies that cropped up during COVID, and the way the government didn't do as much until trouble was beyond the doorstep and into the house, so to speak. So many plague/apocalyptic books failed to accurately predict what pandemic life was actually like, but Brooks got fairly close. I also really enjoyed the meta aspect as well and all the worldbuilding.

I think my only gripe was that I had an issue remembering all the new names for countries, as well as the names and places where the "author" was interviewing various characters. I had known that several of them repeated eventually, but I was only able to follow a few. I think perhaps a character list and map would've really helped this book.

Otherwise, I had a great time reading this and could picture myself rereading it in the future. I definitely want to check out the movie that was made and see how that is.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Excrement, Medical content, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Terminal illness, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Car accident, Classism, and Deportation

rynstagram's review against another edition

4.5

This book was a pleasant surprise. I didn't think it was gonna be bad by any means, but it really surpassed all expectations. The narrative is so wide-reaching and exhaustive, discussing things about a zombie war/infestation that I never would have thought of--religious repercussions both personal and community-wide, people who take advantage of disaster situations for personal gain, feral children and animals, new mental illnesses, etc. The "interviewer" goes all over the world to interview people who were involved in the war in all sorts of different places--not just different countries and regions, but different climates, under the sea, in isolation in the wilderness, even at the International Space Station. If this were real, I would be impressed by the interviewer's thoroughness. 

I think the main thing that was missing was more exploration of more indigenous communities. There's not a dearth of indigenous characters, but the communities' responses to the zombie plague isn't really explored. 

I like how self-aware this book is. There's bigotry, but only on the part of the characters. The author seems to include bigotry or fanaticism or general assholery to give a more comprehensive view of humanity dealing with a crisis. Without this, I wouldn't believe the story, even if it's not fun to read that part. 

The biggest problem I have with this book is that characters' POVs are rarely repeated. Only a couple have more than one interview section throughout the book until the last chapter called "Good-Byes". I ended up forgetting names easily because of this, and when they showed up in other people's stories or as interviewees, I had to do a lot of flipping back. In order to get the full experience, I think I would need to reread this book at least once more. 

All the interviewees sounded like real people, and sounded different from each other, which is hard to do just with a couple POVs, let alone dozens. And I am a big fan of the whole meta-media thing where creators pretend that their fiction is a real thing, hence the "oral history" part of the title and the "Introduction" describing the circumstances of the collection of these interviews. I love a good footnote, and the organization of interviews into related sections made the narrative more cohesive. 

Damn, who knew a zombie book could be so cool? (Not me, that's for sure!)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Medical trauma, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Cannibalism, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism