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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!
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!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Death, and Gore
Moderate: Child death, Cannibalism, Suicide, and Animal death
Minor: Classism, Homophobia, and Racism
corncake's review against another edition
I started reading this “zombie” novel for a book club, and I really tried to read it, I did, but could not finish this book. Although the interview layout is an interesting concept, I personally found it boring here.
The people who were being interviewed all had the same exact voice, so when a new chapter started with a brand new interviewee, it would be another boring male character (and so often a stereotype) presented as a horrible human being. After a while, that was very exhausting to keep reading.
What really halted my continuation of this reading was the Israel/Palestine chapter. I have tried to look at this section of the book from all angles, and even angrily wrote in this review before an edit that the chapter felt like Zionist propaganda before taking a breath and writing down my thoughts better. In the chapter a young Palestinian character (our stereotyped male interviewee for this section) wants the destruction and death of Jews from the zombie apocalypse because of everything that Israel has done, while the Israeli leaders are the ones who want peace with Palestine and to shelter everyone. This just felt uncomfortable reading as the genocide of thousands of Palestinian people has been happening for months IRL as I write this review. I understand this book was written before the major ethnic-cleansing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but the conflict between Israel and Palestine has been going on for a long time, and it just feels as if the author was not condemning Israel and portraying their leaders as the "good guys," because they would never want any harm to actually befall the Palestinians. It’s the young, influential Palestinian folks who misunderstand the conflict and don't believe peace is an option. Hmmmmmmm... So for me, this chapter did not age very well, and thus I decided to stop reading.
Personally, I do not recommend reading this book. There are way better novels to spend your free time with.
The people who were being interviewed all had the same exact voice, so when a new chapter started with a brand new interviewee, it would be another boring male character (and so often a stereotype) presented as a horrible human being. After a while, that was very exhausting to keep reading.
What really halted my continuation of this reading was the Israel/Palestine chapter. I have tried to look at this section of the book from all angles, and even angrily wrote in this review before an edit that the chapter felt like Zionist propaganda before taking a breath and writing down my thoughts better. In the chapter a young Palestinian character (our stereotyped male interviewee for this section) wants the destruction and death of Jews from the zombie apocalypse because of everything that Israel has done, while the Israeli leaders are the ones who want peace with Palestine and to shelter everyone. This just felt uncomfortable reading as the genocide of thousands of Palestinian people has been happening for months IRL as I write this review. I understand this book was written before the major ethnic-cleansing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but the conflict between Israel and Palestine has been going on for a long time, and it just feels as if the author was not condemning Israel and portraying their leaders as the "good guys," because they would never want any harm to actually befall the Palestinians. It’s the young, influential Palestinian folks who misunderstand the conflict and don't believe peace is an option. Hmmmmmmm... So for me, this chapter did not age very well, and thus I decided to stop reading.
Personally, I do not recommend reading this book. There are way better novels to spend your free time with.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism
karmachamillionaire's review
I gave it my best shot, but I’m giving up at 47%! This is heading towards 2/5 star territory for me. I’m not a fan of the pseudo government report style and I really don’t like that almost all of the characters have the same voice even though they are supposedly all from different places around the world. I think that the non-American characters are often built upon racist stereotypes. Dislike the Pro-Israel/Zionist messaging.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism
clarabooksit's review against another edition
The representation in this is super offensive. Nearly every character is a stereotype, they all spout offhand bigoted comments that often have no bearing on the narrative, and the racism and xenophobia go way beyond the in-story narrative elements that mirror real world responses to crises and pandemics. Not to mention the overt sexism and poorly written women. All this adds up to a big old “Nope” from me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Religious bigotry, War, Child death, Gun violence, Cannibalism, Classism, Ableism, Racism, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Sexism, Death, Body horror, Suicide, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Abandonment
Moderate: Grief, Fatphobia, and Medical trauma
bri__'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
The writing is exceptional and the post-war documentary format is different to any other book that I've read. The inconsistency of the characters (apart from the narrator), provided a more broad perspective of 'World War Z' and also helped to make the experiences of each character feel more individual and unique. The book itself is well thought-out and it is evident that Max Brooks has done his research. While some stories I found boring and confusing, there were others that I found thrilling and overall captivating. That is the beauty of this type of format with a variety of different stories, there are bound to be ones that are favoured over the others and that makes the experience all the more personal.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Drug use, Excrement, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Cursing, Death, Medical content, Murder, Self harm, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, War, Abandonment, Animal death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, and Gun violence
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Racial slurs, Ableism, Classism, Confinement, Pregnancy, Rape, and Sexual assault
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