Book Review: World War Z
I went into this book blinder than I usually do. All I knew, going in, was that zombies were somehow involved. While that proved true, Max Brooks’s World War Z was not at all what I expected.
I picked it up because I’d heard good things from a friend, and knew the movie was upcoming, so I thought I’d give it a read – despite that I’m not really into zombie-genre anything. [I tried to watch (and like) The Walking Dead… I really tried.]
Don’t worry, this review won’t contain any spoilers. Though come to think of it, there aren’t really any “spoilers” to tell.
World War Z is written as a documentary-style account of humanity’s biggest-ever war: against zombies. It’s a collection of transcribed oral interviews from survivors all around the world, recounting their experiences during this dreadful time in our “history”. Certainly a cool concept, and as far as the zombie-genre goes, incredibly realistic.
As in, if we were to actually experience an outbreak of a new zombie race (species?), things would probably go down exactly as Max Brooks predicted. So, points for that. The realism in the storytelling and various characters’ tales was a definite plus.
Here’s what I didn’t like so much. Due to the nature of the book’s structure, there’s no real protagonist or character you could root for. I’m someone who needs to love a character to love a book, and this one just didn’t give me that. Even when I was growing interested in a certain character and their story, a few pages later it was all over and on to the next one.
Another problem (for me) was that many of the stories contained lots of technical mumbo-jumbo. Detailed information about weaponry, scuba equipment, political systems, military procedures, etc. etc. This kind of stuff certainly added to the realism, and was fascinating in small doses, but did tend to lose me if it wore on.
All in all, an interesting book, but if you’re like me and need a compelling protagonist, skip it. However, if you love the zombie genre, this one’s probably a must-read. I’d give it a 3/5!
What are you reading at the moment? Leave a comment! x
