World War Z

In this book, World War Z by Max Brooks, the human race must fight back against the flesh eating zombies to regain their homelands. World War Z is an oral history from the survivors of the zombie apocalypse. The survivors talk about the fright of seeing zombies running after you trying to kill you and the impact it had on people’s mental and physical abilities. The survivors also talk about how they were able to band together to fight back from the edge of extinction.

Since the book World War Z is an oral history of the zombie apocalypse, it has great voice integrated into it. Throughout the whole book you get every angle of the story. You get stories from people living in China, USA, Great Britain and even Antarctica. This allows you to grasp an even deeper understanding of what people had to go through to survive. One of my favorite quotes that explains these hardships is “We lost a hell lot more than just people when we abandoned them to the dead.” This is a great quote because it showed that people have guilt for not trying to save others from the un-dead.  World War Z is one of the best examples of a book that use voice. If I had to make on critic of the book it would be that the interviewer was anonymous. You were never told who the interviewer was and what his job was. He could have been some random guy of the streets who wanted to know about the zombie apocalypse. World War Z would have been an even better book if you were able to know the identity of the interviewer because it would allow you to connect with another character in the book.

Another upside to reading World War Z is you were always on your toes. You never knew when a zombie was going to burst through the door and kill everyone.  I compared World War Z to a firework because you are always waiting for it to explode but you never know when it’s going to happen. One of the most intense parts of the books is when an aircraft pilot crashes her plane over a white zone, a zone where a significant amount of zombies are located at. While the rest of crew dies, she is able to escape. She has no food and a minimum amount of ammo for her gun. She has to survive in an area where there are millions of zombies until someone can rescue her. Without scenes like this, World War Z would be a very bland book.  If I was to critic one part of the story, it would be that they should use less weapon system names. In the book they used names like SAW and JSOW which got very confusing.

There are many overarching themes to World War Z but the most important is the idea of the human race banding together to fight off the zombie plague. During the course of the book, people begin to help each other and give each other resources. At the beginning of the book, it was every-man-for-themselves.  Another theme that was important to the book is to never give up under any circumstances. Even though the zombies were always around trying to kill you, you never give up. One of the best quotes to explain this is “She told me to be careful. I crouched; I jumped, and cracked my ankle on a submerged rock.” Even though she got injured, she never gave up and kept running.

This book was one of the best books I ever read. Since it was an oral history of the war, you got to see all of the angles of the war. You also got to connect with hundreds of different characters. Out of 10 stars I would give World War Z a 9 and a half stars. If you like books like The Zombie Survival Guide and TV shows like The Walking Dead you should read World War Z. Also if you like horror and suspense, World War Z would be a book for you.

Book 2 Trailer

Book Talk

Truth in Memoir

I think that a non-fiction book has to be somewhat true. The whole point of a non-fiction book is to be a true story but if you stretch the truth a little it wouldn’t hurt. The most that you should be able to lie in a non-fiction is 5% of the whole book. I think that 5% of a book is not significant and it won’t change the outcome. On the other hand, you shouldn’t be able to lie about big details like killing someone or marrying a fake person. Those details can change the book in a big way.

 I don’t think that half true books are good because you are changing half of what actually happened. If you are making a half true book then it shouldn’t be called a non-fiction book. I think that what Mortenson did was ok because he only change how many schools he built. On the other hand what Frey did is not acceptable. He changed his involvement in the death of two high schooler’s and his rehab from drugs. His book should have been a fiction story not a non-fiction.

I don’t agree with David Shields because as a reader I need a group of books that are similar in style. I hate when I sit down to read a book and realize it’s a historical fiction and I wanted to read a fantasy. Without those guild lines, people wouldn’t be able to find books that they have interests in easily. They would have to sit down and read the first ten pages which can take a long time. It would be very inconvenient to sit down and read a book just to find out you don’t like it.