World War Z by Max Brooks

This may be one of the few books that I can write a one word review of.

Review: Awesome!

It really is. I don’t usually read zombie books; in fact, I think I’ve only read one other full length zombie book ever. And, I don’t watch zombie movies. I’m actually a big chicken, and those sorts of things freak me out.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. For me, what sets it apart from other zombie stories I am familiar with is that this book focuses on the struggle of humanity instead of just being about fighting zombies and action, action, action.

This book begins with the break out of the disease and continues telling stories over 20 years after the initial incident.

The book is constructed more like a collection of short stories. The stories are from all over the world and are told from several varying points of view (religious persons, military men, people who survived, some who are ill).

The overarching element that holds all the shorter stories together is the sheer will to survive that everyone has to share. There are sad moments, times of celebration, action packed intense scenes, and rationalizations about behavior. I felt this book tried to cover a lot of perspectives and did a great job of it.

If you’ve seen the preview for the movie, or if you’ve been to the movie by now, you already know what the book is about in some ways. It’s about the world trying to survive a zombie epidemic. And you might be thinking this story is just like every other zombie story ever made. I assure you it’s not. I can’t evaluate the movie, but I can tell you right now the book is most definitely worth reading.

One of my favorite stories in the whole book is about a military man who is part of a K-9 unit that hunts down the zombies. I love this part because the dog he is teamed up with is part dachshund. I have two dachshunds myself and I find it very amusing that someone thinks they could be used to hunt down anything. Both my dogs are deathly afraid of our house cat, there is no way they are going to hunt zombies.

Read World War Z; you won’t be disappointed.