Max Brooks took a nice approach to the Zombie novel, he set the bar high after writing The Zombie Survival Guide, and it is good to know his creativity wouldn’t be peaked by his prior work.
The believability of World War Z is manifested through the means of the dialogue. It is well articulated with characters, places and events, providing an eerie sense of realism. It makes you not much as wonder but understand what the world would be like post zombie apocalypse. The book begins to feel less like a work of fiction but more as age-old notes to be used as reference for history students.
It is not surprising that Brooks’ book was turned into a movie. It is practically written as a screenplay. If all goes well it should put an end to the spewing of shitty zombie movies coming out of Hollywood.
I love zombies. I’m not necessarily sure why, perhaps the impending doom to mankind as we know it, halt to civilization, the scenarios that are manifested, or the ample opportunities for cheesy catch phrases. That being said, I felt a need to check out Monster Island.
It is terrifying to think of New York City (as any other city) being overrun by zombies. How they encountered the horde on Liberty Island in the beginning is incredibly vivid, and the entire “Give me…” thought was absolutely horrifying.
When I first read it, I thought Gary was one of the survivors. Well, I guess he did survive, but in a less glamorous way. In fact, it took me a few read-overs to understand that he was a zombie. Obviously, I have never experienced what it is like to be a zombie, but I felt that Wellington did an impeccable job describing it. His description provides an intriguing thought: What if you woke up after you died? What would you think about? What would you feel?
However, I don’t believe the scary part of zombies lie in their physical nature. They are dead bodies that just so happen to move, target practice. Their numbers are vast, and their attitude of constantly feasting upon the morsels of human flesh is kind of messed up, but their significance in symbolism is more chilling than any other undead characteristic.
We as humans are prone to violence, unfortunately against one another. Wars are fought between people have been happening since the beginning of civilized time. This makes me wonder, what if there is a war going on between some powerhouse countries when zombies attack? What if zombies attacked during World War II? Would all the parties involved drop everything and start fighting the zombies to protect mankind? Or would they continue to kill one another in order to obtain their objectives of war, and then kill the zombies that they just made by trying to obtain their objectives, in order to protect mankind? Probably the latter.
I also find it interesting that obtaining the cure for AIDS is the main goal, where the cure for zombies is pushed aside, then again, the cure for AIDS protects the living, the cure for zombies has already been in use, guns and bullets.
Wellington did a great job on providing a fresh concept for zombies. Being able to hinder brain damage by continuing to pump air into the lungs post mortem is one thing. But the addition of any living organism to the menu of the undead is a relatively foreign concept, as well as animal zombification. These ideas challenge most zombie characteristics that have been basically set in stone by other zombie entrepreneurs such as Max Brooks and George Romero. A bold move by Wellington, however he pulled it off quite well
