World War Z Blog

Lately I have been reading World War Z, a zombie apocalypse novel by Max Brooks. The book is set after the 'zombie' apocalypse, where the unnamed narrator/main character is inspired to capture the stories of the people who had lived through zombie 'wars.'  The book is formatted using interviews and stories of the people who experienced war first-hand and lived to tell about it. But I was disappointed in how the peoples' stories felt unfinished, and not in-depth enough.

The stories take place all over the globe, from China, to South Africa, to the US, to Russia, all telling the accounts of survivors of the Zombie War. Some stories had intense action, others were very serious interviews more involved with getting the facts across and exposing the truth behind the war. But in all of them, the peoples' stories didn't feel fully told. Most of the time, I found myself craving to know what happened in the life of each person interviewed, but just as I was really wanting more, the story or interview would end, and the next would begin. 

For example, the main character interviews a woman in a hospital named Sharon, who tells her story about being a young girl hiding in a church with her family and others when the zombies attacked. He mentions how she was found years after, and has mental issues due to her experience.  I was really interested in how she was found and what caused her mental damage.  I was annoyed when her story was finished.

It could be that I am used to the way The Walking Dead book series and tv show describes the lives of the characters struggling to survive the zombie apocalypse every day. In that series, the characters' backstories, families, struggles, personal goals, and emotional states are fully fleshed out and explained. I feel that the stories in World War Z could have used that other series as an example, and gone a little bit deeper into the characters' lives, to make the book more exciting.

World War Z is a great book to start getting into the Zombie Craze. Its realism and details of war might turn an adult or kid who doesn't understand the fascination with zombies into a fan.