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A review by literaryjunarin
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
“The monsters that rose from the dead, they are nothing compared to the ones we carry in our hearts.”
Since I've been geeking out over documentaries these past months, I loved the format of this book. The interviews really did it for me. If you watched the movie, know that the only similarities it had with the book are the zombies, that wall in Israel, and the title.
So this book is a speculative zombie apocalypse report. It consists of different stories of survivors all over the world.
I think this is a really intelligent book and a bit political since it included real political events and speculated how the government would react to a zombie outbreak. Of course, some government officials noticed the problem and created a report on how to control the outbreak. But as we all know, reports tend to be ignored by those who are actually in charge.
Human nature was also explored really well through the different phases of this war. When The Great Panic started, the human smuggling business thrived because everyone was trying to get out of their infected countries. So it's easy to imagine how the infection reached the pandemic level.
Some people only saved those with money as if money is still important in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Other people went nuts and started acting like they were zombies too. Many people slept perfectly healthy and did not wake up. Doctors said that it's when the brain just decided to shut down the body because of long-term stress.
It was so fascinating for me to read about the stories of those people with prestigious jobs before the war, like real estate lawyers, multimedia directors, CEOs. After the war, those who were the bosses in the old times are suddenly useless. It was funny to see how angry they were to be taught carpentry skills by those they hired before to fix their toilet, all because they can't even fix a broken window. Maybe I should learn carpentry as well.
The military weapons and strategies are uninteresting to me though. But the zombie cleanup, especially the zombies under the ocean would've been fun to watch on a movie screen.
Since I've been geeking out over documentaries these past months, I loved the format of this book. The interviews really did it for me. If you watched the movie, know that the only similarities it had with the book are the zombies, that wall in Israel, and the title.
So this book is a speculative zombie apocalypse report. It consists of different stories of survivors all over the world.
I think this is a really intelligent book and a bit political since it included real political events and speculated how the government would react to a zombie outbreak. Of course, some government officials noticed the problem and created a report on how to control the outbreak. But as we all know, reports tend to be ignored by those who are actually in charge.
Human nature was also explored really well through the different phases of this war. When The Great Panic started, the human smuggling business thrived because everyone was trying to get out of their infected countries. So it's easy to imagine how the infection reached the pandemic level.
Some people only saved those with money as if money is still important in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Other people went nuts and started acting like they were zombies too. Many people slept perfectly healthy and did not wake up. Doctors said that it's when the brain just decided to shut down the body because of long-term stress.
It was so fascinating for me to read about the stories of those people with prestigious jobs before the war, like real estate lawyers, multimedia directors, CEOs. After the war, those who were the bosses in the old times are suddenly useless. It was funny to see how angry they were to be taught carpentry skills by those they hired before to fix their toilet, all because they can't even fix a broken window. Maybe I should learn carpentry as well.
The military weapons and strategies are uninteresting to me though. But the zombie cleanup, especially the zombies under the ocean would've been fun to watch on a movie screen.