When Zombies Attack, Be Prepared - Read World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks -Book Review

In World War Z: An Oral History of Zombie War, author Max Books does not let us take zombie attacks as lightly as when he wrote The Zombie Survival Guide. The Zombie Survival Guide was written somewhat tongue in cheek, on the premise of helping the unsuspecting public survive when zombies attack or, to put it another way, survive a zombie pandemic. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Wars takes us into the lives of the survivors of the global spread of a peculiar virus that results in the Zombie Pandemic - the proliferation of zombie attacks some time in the future, all but annihilating humans.

Add the recent news of flesh eating people and you begin to wonder if a Zombie Pandemic could be a plausible end to our society, especially when you examine the detailed storyline of the zombie attacks on the population in World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Wars. Chilling!

The story is a fictional telling of what happens to individuals, communities and governments when zombie attacks. The interviewer is a UN observer/reporter who travels the globe after the pandemic has begun to wane. He interviews those few humans who survived the cataclysmic events that appear to begin in China. The interviews are skillfully crafted, making the zombie pandemic and the emotions of the survivors very real. Because of the way Max Brooks has written World War Z, if it happens as he imagined, the spread of the virus and the resulting zombies would make the threat of a Bird Flu epidemic seem like a cold.

In the book, author Max Brooks' survivors horrifyingly portray the zombies as mindless masses of human flesh, in various states of decay, their only intent: to eat any and every living thing they can find. To the interviewees in Mr. Brooks' book, the zombies exhibit herd mentality, but show no collective or cooperative thinking. The zombie's only instinct is to eat. One even wonders why they eat. There is certainly no cell rejuvenation; they continue to deteriorate to the point that they are almost unrecognizable as ever having been human.

When zombies attack humans, zombies exhibit no fight or flight response to danger. If there is danger as percieved by the men and women who survived the pandemic, they report that the zombies show no recognition of it. Zombies exhibit no desire to preserve or perpetuate the zombies as a species. It's "every zombie for itself."

To the victims turned survivors of the global event, the zombies are a relentless, disgusting, gruesome mass of "walking," moaning flesh that only vaguely resembled the human being they once were.

Civilians turned activists, turned warriors and, finally, turned survivors find very little that actually destroys a zombie. However, in most cases, it is the government inaction of each country that is civilization's initial undoing, that causes the loss of so much life and the proliferation of so many zombies. Mr. Brooks demonstrates so well how the lack of imagination and innovation of a government here, the secretiveness of a government there, throw in the manipulation along with the world population's almost collective willingness to believe without question and you have the recipe for a successful zombie pandemic and ensuing zombie war - zombies the victors and humans the losers.

There have been zombie books and even zombie movies for years. I have not necessarily been fan, always finding them more comical than anything. However, Mr. Brooks successfully removes the comedy in World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War and leaves us wondering what would really happen if there was a zombie apocalypse. How fast would the systems disintegrate, how ineffectual conventional thinking would become when zombies attack? How well could the world survive the breakdown of every safeguard? There are no real zombie weapons. Why should there be? Until now, there have been no zombie attacks. The weapons must be invented, but only after the admission that the zombies do exist and that current weapons and warfare don't destroy them.

The survivors in World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War are incredibly real as we read their interviews and learn their story of survival. The hero interviewer could have been speaking to any one of us who may have the stamina, ingenuity, and most of all, the luck to survive. The survivors lose everything, but still continue. Their tales are chillingly real. You care about what has happened to most of them and wonder what would happen to you.

Not surprisingly, World War Z: An Oral History has been scripted for a movie, originally due out in 2012, coinciding with the Mayan date of what some believe will be the apocalypse. However, the release date has apparently been changed to summer 2013. The hero, the UN reporter is portrayed by Brad Pit. I look forward to a movie in which the zombies will be as chilling and ominous on the screen as they were in the book. Reports have all pointed to a very troubled set, with director and star at odds and numerous rewrites. I hope that the integrity of the book remains.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War made the scenario for the zombie pandemic - zombies vs. humans - seem credible and terrifying. When Zombies attack, humans die, then humans come back, adding to the zombie population, only to go on and attack other humans. Do zombies exist now? I don't think so, but read Max Brooks' book and you may begin to think that a zombie virus could spawn real life zombies and when zombies attack, the humans had better be ready!

After you have read this book review, I think it will be worth it if you read World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War...just in case.

A convincingly scary read.

copyright 2012: Cynthia Turner