World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War in Around the World in 80 Books

Aug 26, 2009 Oana rated it liked it · review of another edition

I love the zombie genre and this book did not disappoint. In fact, having started reading it years ago and only picking it up again last week, I had to start it once more from the beginning. It's very exciting; answers a few questions I never thought to wonder about the zombie apocalypse; and was very international in scope, looking at the world reaction to a global pandemic. I also appreciated that Brooks included a number of female characters who were, mostly, strong people and soldiers.

The r ...more

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Mar 09, 2010 Sunflower rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-read-2010

This book purports to be an oral history of a World War against an enemy that can't be "shocked and awed". In this case zombies, but the zombies are a metaphor for whatever; the use of the phrase "patient zero" reminds us that it could be anything we haven't encountered before. Because of that, the methods that we (humans) have used previously are not going to work against this new enemy, and one of the interesting things about this book is the way that the victory is achieved in various countri ...more

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May 14, 2013 Stephanie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: listened-lit, books-to-movie

I know a lot of people were disappointed with this book; either they thought it would be like the movie, or the short brief snippets were to brief to connect with the characters or even care about them, like you would find in a typical novel.
But this is what "ORAL Histories" are like. It is not a comprehensive novel with the plot and characters laid out (the movie did that). But Oral Histories are not usually detailed or connected. They are basically interviews that focus in on one or two things ...more

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Aug 25, 2013 Rebekah rated it liked it

Shelves: genre-fantasy, genre-book-club, genre-science-fiction, genre-war, genre-science-fiction-dystopia, genre-horror, genre-science-fiction-fantasy, genre-apocalyptic-post-apocalyptic, genre-science-fiction-apocalyptic, genre-horror-zombies

This is not so much a zombie book or a horror book, but rather a commentary on human nature during trying times. Many of the problems addressed in the book are not caused by the zombies, but by our current military-industrial complex and ongoing political conflicts. So...the real monsters in this book turn out not to be the zombies...but...wait for it...the humans! (GASP!) (I know, this is hard-core literary analysis here, huh?)

The writing format is unique, it is written very realistically like ...more

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Dec 19, 2009 Jason rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The best zombie book ever written. How can I ever compete with this?

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Mar 01, 2013 Rachel N. rated it liked it

Not exactly what I was expecting. The book is really like a series of short stories instead of one unified narrative. It's presented as a series of interviews a UN investigator is doing into the Zombie War. The book covers the beginning of the zombie outbreak through to the end of the war though there are still zombies in certain areas. I liked the detail given to the whole war and believability the author gave to the story. I didn't like the constantly shifting between people. I wanted to know ...more

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Oct 27, 2011 Dana Arbelaez rated it liked it

I really liked the style of writing in this novel, and adding the fact that my husband just got me into watching "The Walking Dead" made this storyline truly believable and imaginable. It took me about ten total hours of reading time to get through the book, and it was one of those that I just couldn't put down because of the need to know what happens next. ...more

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