Genre: Horror
By: Max Brooks
Release Date: September 12th 2006
For the most part, books and movies classified as "Horror" are, sadly, just not scary. Grotesque, yes. Sometimes even horrific. But not scary. I know that must certainly be due, in large part, to my own mentality. I was frightened of the as a kid, sure, but as I've gotten older (call it desensitization if you want), they just don't frighten me, despite my sincere enjoyment of them. That is not the case with World War Z.
Max Brooks (author of the wildly popular Zombie Survival Guide) has truly written a masterpiece of the horror genre. I know there are naysayers who will argue that the words "horror" and "masterpiece" don't even belong on the same page, let alone in the same sentence. I don't care. That is exactly what it is.
The books is told in a documentary style, presented as a series of interviews dictated to the page. The subjects are everyone from highly trained elite soldiers, to common citizenry, to a Japanese warrior monk. All the interviewees are survivors of the zombie apocalypse, or "World War Z" as it has come to be known. Each account tells of their individual encounters and how they came to join the fight. Each ties in perfectly to the next. The tableau that Brooks created actually terrified me.
Starting with accounts of the first reports of outbreaks from around the world, and how those reports were handled or ignored, the story advances and evolves quickly. It continues at the same relentless pace as the globally increasing "Zack" threat (the signifier used by the Army for zombies).
What makes this such a great piece of horror fiction is the undeniable fact that Brooks has done his homework. The world he has created is so thorough, the manifestations of his "breed" of zombies so complete, that you become totally immersed. An outbreak of this type and scale quickly moves from feeling like "fiction" to feeling entirely plausible and, more importantly, possible. I became so enthralled with the world he had created, I found my mind running in circles, trying to figure out what I would do in such a situation. This quickly spiraled into thoughts of, "What if my family were turned. What would I do?" It was that fact, that the book sent my imagination to a place completely out of my control, and made such preemptive thinking seem (at the time) entirely rational, that scared me the most. Once the realization hit, I found I was so shaken, I had to set the book down and I believe I said out loud, "I need to read this during daylight." The interesting thing is, rom conversations with friends who have also read this, I found that they had similar if not identical experiences!
This was staggering for me. That every single account had me on the edge of my seat, turning on lights, and listening for groans and shuffling feet around every corner. Despite what it might do to my reputation as a horror buff with a relatively "iron" will, I admit it freely; I was scared shitless.
It's not just the subject matter that caused this. It is far more Brooks' execution of the story. He has a natural ability of knowing exactly how much to explain, and how much to leave unknown. He knows just where and how to let your mind take over. Also, he seemed to have almost a sixth sense as to when to move to a new account, or perhaps to revisit an older one. So thoroughly convincing is the book, you wonder at times (just for a moment) if perhaps this actually happened and you just somehow missed it.
I could go on and on about what I liked about the book, but I won't. Likewise, I could spend time discussing individual sessions that I particularly liked. I won't risk spoiling even one line of it for those of you who will decide to read it. I could even spend time talking about what I DIDN'T like. The problem there is that the list is not only short, it is non-existent.
If you like horror, or if you want to give it a try, READ THIS BOOK! Hell, if you DON'T like horror, read the book. It is, simply put, amazing.
Now let's hope the movie is as good...
Concept: 5 out of 5
Execution: 5 out of 5
Fright Factor: An enthusiastic 5 out of 5!
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
3 comments:
After reading your review, I would LOVE to read this book. Can I borrow it?
Jeff Boyer has gone on and on about the Zombie Survival Guide to me in the past, and I've always meant to read it, but haven't.
Sounds like I need to read both...
YOu certainly can! You just have to wait till Eli is done. Hehe.
Allen has read this one and he loved it. I'm supposed to read it, but I'm not sure if he ever got it back from Anderson. I should look into that. Now that someone other than him is telling me to read it, I might actually get around to it.
Not that he has bad taste. But he reads Star Wars books and I'm so not into that.
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