Every once in a while going off of someones recommendations I take the leap and dive into something trendy. This time, it was reading the book World War Z by Max Brooks… yes Mr. Brooks is the son of Mel Brooks famous for hits like Blazing Saddles.

The book itself is written as a multiple survivor’s account from the beginning of a war against “zombies” sometime in the near future. How the book reads through multiple people’s accounts was definitely new and neat to me as I haven’t read a book laid out this way before. As such, the book failed slightly in this aspect with multiple people’s stories using very uncommon words often, or any coffee shop happened to be a Starbucks. With that aside it was neat to get a look at the events in the story through multiple peoples eyes.

Even though the story line was quite solid in hitting all of the high points (or low points) of World War Z, it did seem to leave out any real details. For example, they describe the zombies weaknesses, yet don’t explain why or how they work like they do. Making the book seem more like the cover says “soon to be a feature film” reading like a movie script with more action than explanation. Along with that, there seemed to be a lot more name dropping of items like .22 caliber rifles rather than practical application.

Summary

If you like books about trendy things like zombies and the apocalypse, this book might be worth the few hours that it will take you to read it. Without any real gruesome details, I would say it is an acceptable read for anyone from their teens on up. Buying it for $10-$15? Maybe. Getting it from the library and reading the first chapter to see if you like it? Yep.