Book Review: World War Z

I must preface this by stating how much I had hoped to love this book. It was so hyped that I thought for sure it would become a favorite. After all, I love zombie books. I love intelligent zombie books, which was supposed to be what World War Z was.

But for me, it was an utter disaster.

I know I’m in the minority here. The first few times I put it down, dying of boredom, I actually did consider that maybe it was me. But then I realized no other book has ever made me think, “It’s not you, it’s me”.

Anyway, World War Z is the oral history of the zombie apocalypse, told by survivors. But they seemed to be the most boring survivors the interviewer could find. The stories were much too slow, particularly at the beginning of the book when there was only rumors of zombies and stories about the spreading “African rabies”,which certainly sounds like something that could quite easily enter our daily lexicon. I put the book down twice in frustration before the first 100 pages.

After that, it picked up slightly. There were moments of genuinely fascinating imagery, such as the sleeping hammocks, the blind man with the bear, the woman with the female Skywatcher who says “Mom”. But these fleeting moments of brilliance were not enough to hold my interest in the story.

I wanted a deep, immersive experience and this wasn’t one. Readers got to know a character for about five or ten pages, then he was gone. And most of that time was spent giving background on life before the zombies.

There was just too much extraneous stuff and not enough zombie attacks.

I finally gave up about 100 pages from the finish. I’m so disappointed – I was hoping this would blow my mind. I still have a shelf full of zombie books. Patient Zero is next.

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