World War Z

I just finished reading World War Z by Max Brooks for the third time. He has also written The Zombie Survival Guide which if you are not a fan of the living dead, I do not recommend. But if you are like me, then it is another must read! I love World War Z it is one of my favorite books of all time. It is always hard to decide on a favorite book, because of all the different types out there. But this is one of the top books, it is so detailed and in depth it makes you feel as if you are truly there! You can relate to the characters. It seems so realistic, as if “Yes this really happened!” and “This is how we would all react, and survive….”
I have a very special obsession with Zombies. Something about the idea of the dead rising up and attacking the living just gives me a fearful adrenalin rush. Although I know that zombies don't exist, part of me is truly waiting for the day that some crazed scientist does end up creating zombies trying to figure out how to evade death. I guess that is why I have re-read The Zombie Survival Guide over and over again. It helps me prepare, along with other things. I think about what would happen (one of the reasons I didn't take a first floor apartment...that and peeping toms and crazy rapist men)!
So World War Z is not just one story, it is a bunch of stories. It takes place a few years after the great zombie war; Max Brooks goes around the world and interviews people on their experiences with zombies. He tells their stories through their eyes. One of my favorite sub-story is the tale of what happens at Yonkers. So I felt I should give everyone a little...long quote. I have been trying to get my best friend to read this book for a while, so I sent her this to help encourage her….and it did :o)

“Funny thing about Zac, you always expected them to be dressed in their Sunday bests, that‘s how the media portrayed them, right, especially in the beginning, G’s in business suits and dresses.”
“The fire was dying and Zac was still coming. The Fear everyone was feeling. The little voice in the back of your head that keeps squeaking oh shit, oh shit. We were the last line of defense the afterthought when it came to fire power, we were suppose to pick off the random lucky G who managed to slip by the bitch slap of our heaver stuff. Maybe 1 in 3 of us were expected to fire our weapon, 1 in every 10 expected to score a kill. They came by the thousands, spilling out over the freeway guard rails, down the side streets around the houses, threw them, so many their moans so loud they echoed right through our hoods. We flipped our safes off, cited our targets, the order came to fire. I was a saw gunner, a light machine gun that your suppose to fire is short, controlled bursts about as long as it take to say DIE MOTHER FUCKER DIE. The initial burst was too low. I hit one in the cheat I watched him fly backwards and hit the asphalt and get right back up as if nothing had happened. Dude when they get back up… I did my best to control my fire and my sphincter. Just go for the head, just keep it together, all the time my saw is chattering Die Motherfucker Die. We could of stopped them, we should of, one guy with a rifle that is all you need right, professional soldiers, trained marksmen, how could they get through? They still ask that. Critics and armchair patens who weren’t there. You think it’s that simple, you think after being trained to aim at the center mass your whole military career you can suddenly make an expert headshot every time? You think in that strait jacket and suffocation hood it’s that easy to recharge a clip or clear a weapon jam? You think after watching all the modern wonders of warfare fall flat out of their high tech hyper ass, after already living through 3 months of the great panic, and watching everything you knew as reality being eaten alive by an enemy that wasn’t even suppose to exist that you’re going to keep a cool fucking head and a steady fucking trigger finger.” Wanio stabs that finger at me. “What we did we still managed to do our job and make Zac pay for every fucking inch, maybe if we had more men, more ammo, maybe if we’d just been allowed to focus on our job” his finger curls back into his fist. “Land warrior, high tech, high priced, high profile, netro-fucking-centic land warrior. To see what was in front of our face was bad enough, but spybird uplinks where showing how truly large the horde really was, we might be facing thousands but behind them, were millions, remember we were taking on the bulk of New York City’s infestation. This was only the head of one really long undead snake stretching all the way back to Times fucking Square. We didn’t need to see that, I didn’t need to know that. That little scared voice wasn’t so little any more. Oh SHIT OH SHIT, it wasn’t in my head anymore, it was in my ear piece, every time some jerk off couldn’t control his mouth, Land warrior made sure the rest of us heard it. “There’s too many, we gadda get the fuck out of here” someone from another platoon, I didn’t know his name, started hollering, “I hit him in the head and he didn’t die they don’t die when you shot them in the head” I’m sure he must of missed the brain, it happens, a round just grazing the inside of the skull, maybe if he’d been calm and used his own brain he would’ve realized that. Panics even more infections then the G germ and the wonders of Land Warrior allowed that germ to become airborne. “What they don’t die, Who said that, You shot him in the head holy crap, their indestructible” All over the net you could hear this, browning shorts across the impo-super highway. “Everyone pipe down Hold the line say off the net,” It was an older guy you could tell, but suddenly he was drowned out in this scream, and suddenly my eyepieces, and I’m sure everyone else’s, was filled with the site of blood spurting into a mouth of broken teeth. The site was from a dude in a house behind the line. The owners must’ve left a few reanimated family members locked up when they bugged out. Maybe the shock from the explosion weakened the doors, or something, cuz they came bursting out right into this poor bastard. His gun camera recorded the whole thing; fell right at the perfect angel. There were 5 of them, a man, a woman 3 kids. They had him pinned on his back, the man was on his chest, the kids had him by the arms, trying to bite through his suit, the woman tore his mask off, you could see the terror in his face. Ill never forget his shriek as she bit off his chin and lower lip. “Their behind us” someone shouted “their breaking out of the houses, the lines broken, their everywhere” Suddenly the image went dark, cut off from an external source and a voice, the older voice was back again “stay off the net” he ordered, trying real hard to control his voice and then the link went dead. I’m sure it must have taken more than a few seconds, it had to, even if they’d been hovering right above our heads but it seemed as if as soon as the communications went out that the sky was suddenly screaming with JaySaws, I didn’t see them release their ordainments, I was at the bottom of my hole cursing the army and god and my own hands for not digging deeper. That ground shock the sky went dark, debri was everywhere, earth and ash and burning whatever went flying above my head, I felt this weight slam between my shoulder blades soft and heavy, I rolled over, it was a head and torso all charred black and still smoking and STILL trying to bite me. I kicked it away and scrambled out of my hole”

How can you NOT love that quote, how can you not want to go get this book right now. Heck if you love zombies, this is about as good as you are going to get. Every single zombie book I read now, I compare to this one and none of them every even come close. This is the best zombie book every written and it has the ability to become the best zombie movie ever made. Today I found out that they are going to be turning this book into a movie. Part of me is very excited and CAN'T wait to go see it. But the other part of me is worried. We all know what they do to books, they destroy them and the movies are never as good as the books, but what if this one is. What if it isn't. I make my boyfriend watch all kinds of stupid horror zombie movies, and he knows I am always thinking about them…he jokes, but I don’t (I just tell him.."you wait until the freaking crazy scientist bring some poor bastard back to life and he start biting and infecting people, you wont call me crazy then, you will be asking me What the F^CK do I do!!!). I am fascinated by them, a different fascination then I have with Vamps, but still, it is there. If anyone can recommend a zombie book even ½ as good as this one….please do….I gadda know, is there one??