Max Brooks
“Lies are neither bad nor good. Like a fire they can either keep you warm or burn you to death, depending on how they’re used.”
If I haven’t said it before, now is as good as time as any to say I am terrified of zombies and or infection/outbreak based diseases that turn humans into humanoid monsters. I cannot pinpoint this fear to one experience, it would take years to therapy to fully understand this genuine fear.
Now, why did I read this? I wanted a good scare, and I read such good things about the book. World War Z is a cleverly written collection of hyper-realistic individual accounts following the outbreak of an infection plague aka zombies. Hands down, I will always recommend World War Z to any reader but with caution. World War Z is a sequel to Brooks earlier work The Zombie Survival Guide and follows the same laws established in that universe.
What made this novel so terrifying for me was how real it read. Everyone, as in the world, was trying to survive in a time of real uncertainty. I found most of the book to be disturbing because of the realism and the zombies and the outbreak as a whole.
Besides the accounts of loved ones turning into zombies and attacking their families, the unsettling parts were the lies. A placebo vaccine is created. Everyone flocked to get this vaccine…that did nothing. The feeling of hopelessness and panic created is awful. At times I found myself wondering what was worse, the zombies or the actions of people? Besides the scariness, I enjoyed how the world fought back and was able to reestablish. I appreciate the amount of research and time Brooks had to put into this book to develop a story that reads like tomorrow’s news. World War Z is a well-written infection/zombie story. It is a story of infection, struggle, and the grit of humanity.
The avid horror/zombie reader has probably already read this book, but for those of you who haven’t check it out. Kudos to those who read these for fun, I am still having nightmares.
“Most people would rather face the light of a real enemy than the darkness of their imagined fears.”
Are you a zombie fan? Are you a WWZ fan? Let me know! Happy reading~
The book cover picture is from Goodreads.com.
Lit Lemon Books 
Yup I’m terrified of zombies too! Good to know this is a sequel (I didn’t know that) but that you recommend it 🙂 This sounds really good though- I’ll have to bring up courage to read it! Great review!
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I had planned on reading Girl With All the Gifts, but I got to scared….I bought the book. It is resting nicely on my bookshelf until I get brave enough to dive in.
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I didn’t know it was a sequel either, and I still really enjoyed it. You don’t HAVE to read the Zombie Survival Guide first. 🙂
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I’m with you, I found the realism terribly disturbing. And yet, I loved this book anyway? lol
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Oh I love that last quote! And great review as well. I’ve read this book because I am a HUGE zombie fan (habe you read warm bodies? The zombies there are kind and it might help against your fears). I loved this book as well. I am a social scientists and anthropologist to be, so the report style of what happened describing a fantasy event really worked for me. Makes me think my kind of work is really cool 🤣 (it really is though 😁). I’ve read one of the comics and that one was really nasty. Waay to graphic in the eating humans scenes. Therefore I liked it a lot, but definetly not for everyone.
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I have a post at the end of the month you’re going go love. I have read Warm Bodies and I liked it. I try to face my fears but WWZ pushed me to much. I studied psychology, in a way it is a social science. Anthropology has always been interring to me, but I like the mind more. 🙂
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You just made me very curious :-). And I like psychology as well only for me groups of people hold more interest. There are a lot of similarities and overlaps though. One doesn’t really work without the other
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Thhank you for this
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