Zombiepocalypse!

Brooks, Max. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. New York: Crown, 2006.

Those of you who know me know I love a good zombie survival tale. In fact, I even made a "How to Survive the Zombiepocalypse" annotated reading list. Recently my library school reading group read Monsters Horror for our group meeting and the only two of us who showed up both had read Monster Island by David Wellington (which is not going to be reviewed here, for a number of reasons.) But prior even to that reading group announcement I'd checked out every zombie novel in the library, one of which, a YA novel called "The Boy Who Couldn't Die" will be reviewed here later. How do I have all these crazy buckets of time to read an review? Well, I'm graduating from my MLS program and don't have to read 300 pages of articles a week or write any assignments for class. Free to review what I want!
So here's my lastest review of one of my favorite books in one of my favorite genres.

The zombiepocalypse is no laughing matter. But Mel Brooks' son Max brings all the humanity, sadness, horror, and yes, even humor as can be found. As promised it is a "transcribed" series of different experiences from different perspectives and places around the world. In addition to being a great story it shows as much thought as the "Zombie Survival Handbook" in how to battle such a menace should the this tragedy become reality. My favorite story was the French catacombs with all the spookiness around, followed quickly by the story of a Japanese Otaku (outsider) who finally got off the internet and found himself surrounded by the undead. All in all a fantastic read. The book also does a great job of taking one character, one story and then circling back around to that character as the book goes on. Basically the book takes us through 10-20 characters all over the world in their fight for survival when the outbreaks first start, when full on zombie war is waging and we're losing, the turning of the tides, and obviously we both begin and end after WWZ. This book is great if you are a member of an Undead Survival Society. Personally I'm in the Zombie Squad. But even if you aren't there are plenty of other elements in this fast paced and engaging read to get the lovers of war stories, horror, histories, anthropology, or well-written fiction involved.


Warning; This book contains scenes of graphic horror and violence. May keep you up at night.