131. "World War Z" by Max Brooks

I'm not that into zombies (unlike vampires), so I wasn't sure I'd like World War Z by Max Brooks, but it received enough positive press that I figured I'd check it out. I'm glad I did! It's an innovative, sometimes dystopian and sometimes triumphant chronicle of a 10-year zombie war and the people who survived. The characters are strong and compelling; Brooks captures their many voices well, sometimes in only a few pages. Despite the different narrative voices, the continuity is strong, and the story builds effectively.

In many ways, this is a war novel more than a "horror" novel, with much emphasis on battle strategies and weaponry. But the human element is always present (indeed, Brooks' narrator states in the preface that his intent is to convey the human side of the conflict), and the ways in which people survive and rebuild their lives in a post-apocalyptic world are compelling. The characters' stories also show how people become better or worse in a crisis, how some who felt cast off in pre-war society found purpose and became leaders in the war, how military leaders had to choose between their humanity and their loyalty to country and the toll they paid.

I was left with only one question: Where did the plague originate? That is, what's the back story of the zombie that bit the first person to be "infected" and ultimately triggered WWZ?