From the Bookshelf of Apocalypse Whenever…

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Max Brooks

Start date: December 1, 2012

Finish date: January 1, 2013

Discussion: AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

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AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

* What is a good book for AW discussion? (Nominations pool)
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* AW Book Club: what we've read
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What Members Thought

Dec 11, 2012 Krazykiwi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The epistolary format really doesn't work for some people, but for me, it totally did.

I like the story, and I like that it's not focussed on the slasher gore aspect - there's only so many ways you can describe someone holed up in a house, fighting their way out with a machete, and after the first few it's tired, so I really enjoyed putting a different spin on it.

I like the sentiment, there's some astute observation about the nature of modern society and it's similarities and differences around ...more

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Sep 03, 2008 Tracy rated it really liked it

this book was insanely captivating... even though i read the entire first 3/4 in half the time it took me to get through the last 1/4. i'm not sure why exactly, but from the other reviews i've read i'm not alone in this.

i'm not sure what i was expecting when i picked this up. for one thing, max brooks in the son of mel brooks, which doesn't necessarily indicate anything in particular, but sort of makes one expect whatever he puts out there to be funny. also, there's the fact that his other zombi this book was insanely captivating... even though i read the entire first 3/4 in half the time it took me to get through the last 1/4. i'm not sure why exactly, but from the other reviews i've read i'm not alone in this.

i'm not sure what i was expecting when i picked this up. for one thing, max brooks in the son of mel brooks, which doesn't necessarily indicate anything in particular, but sort of makes one expect whatever he puts out there to be funny. also, there's the fact that his other zombie book, the survival guide, used to be sold at urban outfitters alongside the jesus action figures and other hipster "ironic" merchandise. this book, however, was not a comedy (even though a man i met at breakfast in west virginia over thanksgiving, who saw me carrying my copy of world war z, apparently thought the book was hilarious. i sort of get the feeling he didn't really get it). parts of it were a little bit of course, but in the way that parts of dawn of the dead were hilarious. in fact, i would love (and in fact whole heartedly encourage, should any of the powers that be happen to read this review) if hbo or showtime decided to make a mini series out of this, sort of like band of brothers or masters of horror. brooks is just so descriptive and visual with his writing, which does sort of take away from the individualness of the speakers voices, but really paints a vivid, cinematic story. you can just tell he's watched and absorbed every single thing romero has put out there, plus probably every b zombie flick he could get his hands on.

the really scary thing is, in the midst of reading this book, i happened to come down with the flu. during the first night of my fever dreams, i dreamt about zombies. and somehow managed to figure out exactly where i would go and how i would survive. now, i've seen a lot of zombie movies in my life, but all of a sudden, i seem to have figured out exactly what i should do in the event of a surprise zombie apocalypse. so thank you max brooks, that's one thing i won't have to worry about. ...more

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Jan 11, 2009 Ashley FL rated it really liked it

I thought this was great. It is written as an "oral history" and even the author's biography are within that frame of reference.

A must-read for fans of post-apoca-lit! ...more

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Dec 25, 2010 Amy rated it it was ok

Shelves: post-apocalyptic, zombies, abandoned-perhaps-temporarily

With so much hype about this book, I was really surprised how boring it turned out to be. The book is written as a series of reporter interviews with survivors of the zombie apocalypse. Some of them were interesting and formed very specific pictures that will probably forever be with me. I might pick the book up again like I would a short story book. However, I didn't like feeling as if I was reading a book that was going nowhere. There was no cohesion or connection between the chapters. For me, ...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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Oct 13, 2012 Tom rated it really liked it

Shelves: hard-copy

Really liked this book but the lack of a central character and a central story line (other than the assembler/editor of these war stories) kept me from totally connecting with it. The book is written in the style of a post-war compiled set of memoirs. That lends a lot to the authenticity but keeps you jumping around from person to person.

Very fun (errr... maybe not "fun." Maybe "disturbing" is the more appropriate word) to see the author speculate on the horrible choices countries and communiti ...more

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Apr 15, 2008 Mike rated it really liked it

Shelves: enjoyed

Really enjoyable book. Basically written like an actual WWI or WWII book would be written. The author travels all over the world to different locations to interview a wide variety of people (military, students, etc) about their personal experiences during the "zombie war". The book tries to give a look back into history and show how humanity came back from the brink of annihilation.

...more

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