Review: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I listened to this one as an audiobook and am very happy I did. The setup of the story is told in lots of little short survivor accounts. Without the repetition of the voices, I’m not sure I would have remembered who was who when they popped up again.

I should add a disclaimer that I am not usually a fan of zombie or war stories, but everyone told me that we absolutely had to grab up this audiobook. Meh. It was not my favorite read but it was clearly well thought out. There were some stories that were more engaging than others, but overall the voice actors did a really great job (and it was nice to hear some familiars popping up along the way). If you like reading about war, zombies, and post-apocalyptic survival – I don’t think this book could possibly disappoint you. It has thought of everything, including what would happen to people in space when the zombie apocalypse happens. I was pleasantly surprised by having all of my questions answered by the end of the book.

Now, the reason that this book left me a little unsettled had nothing to do with open storylines. They were all nicely buttoned up at the end of the book. The thing I felt was extremely lacking was a real theme of any sort. Sure, the thread that connects them all is zombies and surviving in this new world, but we just got individual glimpses of the survivor lives, no any sort of “moral” (for lack of a better word). I was kind of expecting a more definitive takeaway after all the time we spent with the characters, but none was there that I could see. Some countries preached that individualism was what saved a lot of people. Some countries preached that the close-knit and farm-to-table approaches were what sustained them. While interesting, I wish it had some sort of takeaway other than “wow that zombie war sucked!”


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