(171)World War Z by Max Brooks

World War Z

An Oral History of the Zombie War

by Max Brooks

Publication Date: September 12, 2006

Pages: 432

Buy it here for only $7.99

My 13 year old Step Son is all about Zombies.  Anything & everything Zombies.  So when I was in Sams and saw the Mass Market paperback for dirt cheap I thought I would pick it up and read it to see if it was okay for him to read.  After reading it in just two short sittings, I will say that it is okay for a 13 year old to read

World War Z picks up 12 years after VA day.  America, really, the world, is starting to really put everything back together after the World War Z.  The story is about a reporter who has gathered all of these stories from all over the world to go into a US Government Commissioned report, like the Warren Report.  In the introduction, the author tells us that the Government does not use nearly enough of his material, so he wrote this book.  The book is just a series of interviews with people all over the world who tell their experiences during World War Z.  From doctors to military personnel to regular civilians we get a pretty comprehensive view of what happened during the War.  And I gotta tell you, it is a pretty gripping read.

Some of the military interviews got to be a bit long for me because of all of the technical gobbleygook, but I assure you, my 13 year old will just EAT it UP! There was one interview that had some foul language, but nothing too extreme.  I was so engrossed in the Zombie War that I stopped in the middle of the book and watched Zombies: A Living History on the History Channel. Which, I discovered within the first five minutes, features Max Brooks (author of this book and son of the genius, Mel Brooks) as an expert on all things Zombies.  The documentary was actually just as interesting as the book. AND will be a movie released in December of 2012 starring Brad Pitt.

So, if you are looking for something "scary" to read in between Trick-or-Treaters tonight, pick this one up.  It is not really scary, in the typical horror book kind of way, but in the "OMG what if that really happened" kind of way.  If you have read World War Z, I would love to hear your thoughts!