World War Z

I am not a horror reader. When I was younger I read a few Stephen King books, but that was about it. So a book about the Zombie war isn't really my usual reading material. The reason I picked this book was not the Zombies, but is was the oral history format.

World War Z has as subtitle: An oral history of the Zombie War. And that's exactly what it is. The premise is that the writer had to write a report about the Zombie War, and wasn't allowed to use all his interview material, because this would make the report too personal. At the advise of his supervisor he wrote a book which is basically a collection of short (4/5 pages) interviews with people that survived World War Z. These people did all kinds of jobs and come from all over the world.

While reading the book you get a picture of the war against the Zombies. How discoveries were made, how attacks happened, how the crisis was (or wasn't managed). The book assumes you know what happened, you know the names for periods, but even when you don't, it is very easy to follow.

The book isn't horror in the gore sense. The horror lies in the experience of a war against an enemy that is unknown (and undead). The horror lies in the impending end of humanity, in the suffering, in the loss. This is described very well, and makes this an extremely good and memorable book.