World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

I wanted to like this book, I really did. But it just wasn’t meant to be.

When I started reading this book, I was so impressed. On the surface, it looked like a zombie story. But, in reality, it was a story (or rather “stories”) of human nature, behavior, and psychology. It just felt great that I had found a book like that thinking it was going to be a straightforward creature feature. But I also realized something more than halfway through the book. Too much of anything is boring or, at least, difficult to enjoy.

Let me start off with what the book is all about. First of all, if you think the book is going to be similar to the movie, you are in for a surprise. There is absolutely no Brad Pitt in the book! (Spoiler Alert! 😛 )
The book is a sort of account of the Zombie War or “World War Z” in the form of interviews of the various survivors. These survivors are from different countries and different walks of life. These people narrate their experiences at different sides and different points of the “war,” being affected directly or indirectly by the zombies.

Now for what I thought. Like I said, too much of anything, no matter how great, is boring. That is exactly what I felt by the time I got to around 3/4 of the book. I started off really enjoying myself, really engrossed by the book. I was all set to give this book a 5 rating. I enjoyed the different interviews, each of which is a short story in itself. Each interview gave a glimpse of human nature how humans cope with an emergency, how they help each other, how they can hurt each other. The zombies are a great background to these stories. They are just threatening enough to give a sense of disaster but not to overpower the stories.

The problem, for me, was that the stories didn’t seem to move forward fast enough. They seemed to be stuck at one place, and made me feel stuck at the same point in the story as well. There are divisions, yes, in the book, but they didn’t really help keep me interested enough. I actually skipped to the end because I could not read another interview with a rehash of some previously told story.

I know there are people who loved the book, and maybe you will too. But this to me this book would be much better cut shorter. Just because I skipped some of the book, I believe I should mark this as “abandoned.”

My rating: Abandoned