Reviews tagging 'Death'

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

47 reviews

lexkazokas's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Death

gawdz0rz's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

decent book, well-written, interesting pov. 

i appreciated the (brief) mention of environmental impact of the war. i also learned some historical things while reading this. 

there were quite a few stereotypes of the characters that were not great, unfortunately. i also felt my brain and eyes glaze over every time there were details pertaining to military equipment or anything like that. 

i don’t remember the movie very well but from what i do remember, the book is not like the movie, which certainly isn’t a bad thing! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Child death, Cannibalism, Suicide, and Animal death

Minor: Classism, Homophobia, and Racism

whynotreadwithalex's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Gotta say, I love me a good zombie story! Picked up this audiobook because I absolutely love the movie and wanted to see how it all started. Although the book is COMPLETELY different from the film, it was enjoyable, adventurous, fast-paced, and, well, globally terrifying!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Antisemitism, Cannibalism, Body horror, Death of parent, Murder, Rape, Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug abuse, Death, Blood, Genocide, Child death, Alcohol, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Pandemic/Epidemic

karina5162's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Super compelling, please tell me more about countries other than America though. 
Also if you're going to read it, go for the audiobook, it is maybe one of the best-produced audiobooks I've ever listened to. Enough so that I read a zombie book. And I hate zombies. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Suicide

eliaa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Genocide, Gore, Murder, Abandonment, Body horror, and Grief

Minor: Antisemitism, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Violence

ursa_arlo's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Positives. World War Z is a brilliant piece of speculative fiction that realistically explores how a war on zombies (or any major world war for that matter) functions. The interviews with different individuals who survived the war feel extremely realistic, from their different approaches to the war rooted in their culture and personal experience, to the easy ways in which they talk about their expertise. It is fantastically written and showcases every angle and emotion you might find in a war like this without getting lost in the detail.

Dislikes. Many characters are introduced throughout the interviews and at the end, when they are revisited, this makes it harder to keep track whose story is being continued. Other than that, no notes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Child death, War, Body horror, Xenophobia, Self harm, Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, Grief, Violence, Gun violence, Gore, and Death

mjones14's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Really though I was going to like this more than I did. I think all in all the film is better than the book, but I presume this is because I don't read much nonfiction which this is in the style of. Beautiful world building though and impressive in its global scope

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, War, Gore, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, and Gun violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Mental illness, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Forced institutionalization, and Drug use

sydneyo_0's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

There is a movie based off of this book and if you've seen the movie first it's okay, you haven't been spoiled for anything. This book has an interesting, and I believe, realistic take on how the world would react to a Zombie Apocolypse. How each country would react, what nations were more likely to pull through mostly intact and why, and how Nations would interact with each other during a crisis. Not to mention touching upon politics

and how information gets passed along the chain of command, or just flat out ignored and tossed aside

. It's a series of interviews taking place years after the end of World War Z, with survivours from all around the world and all different walks of life. Some of the stories are horrifying and some make you wonder if you would have done the same thing to survive if you had been in their situation. 

This may end up becoming one of my new favourite novels. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Animal death and Cannibalism

oakdogs's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and War

Minor: Cannibalism

retswerb's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

It's nice to have an audiobook with such a wide variety of readers. Most of the readers are great, a few mediocre. 

I found a lot to like in the book, but the lack of characters to follow really made the read drag for me. Just when you get attached to a character the narrative switches to someone else and doesn't return. 

Various characters express casual racism / bias in their narratives. While it is written to fit with the characters, I found the overall result a bit distasteful as words written by a white man, put in the mouths of characters from a variety of places and cultures.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, and War