Apocalypse
Apocalypse
World War Z
Max Brooks
Cole Metallides
Have you ever wondered what the world would look like during a Zombie apocalypse and how the world would react to it? The story is told through countless perspectives of people from all over the world. Their experiences compare and contrast in a variety of ways but one theme is consistent throughout all of them which is fear. The fear of being eaten alive.
The novel begins with the narrator explaining how his mission was to interview people from across the world and and write a report of their experiences so future generations would be able to study the apocalypse and it wouldn’t be forgotten. The narrator travels to China to interview a doctor. The doctor had no trouble treating all of those in need until he got to a few of the children that many of the villagers had warned him about. One of them, a young girl, had a high fever with a what looked like a human bite mark on her forearm. He then meets the boy that seemed to be the cause of the bite marks on the villagers. He was strapped down as to not be able to bite or injure anyone else. Two of the strongest villagers had to help the doctor examine this boy as he would thrash out violently at the doctor. He couldn’t find a pulse or heartbeat anywhere on the kid. The blood sample taken from the boy was all brown as if he wasn’t even human. This instance occurred during the first outbreaks of the disease. The narrator goes on to interview many other people. Some of the people interviewed were human smugglers. They smuggled people across borders in hopes of finding a cure which only spread the disease faster. Many of the interviewed were soldiers who fought the “living dead”. While being interviewed one of the soldiers explains what he saw during his deployment, “They’d been torn apart. Their limbs, their bones, shredded and gnawed… some still clutching their weapons.. another unarmed man who’d been hit over a hundred times. Several rounds had taken the top of his head off. The finger was still stuck between his teeth”(20). These infected men and women were very hard to stop. Many of them with hundreds of bullet holes in them kept on going, biting off fingers, ripping apart people and spreading the disease even further. A CIA agent while being questioned by the narrator explains how China, the place where the disease spread from, didn’t do much to help cure the disease and if they were researching it they kept it a secret. Many people had no clue what was going on and one of the common themes seen throughout the book is fear. They feared what would happen next. They feared they would be next.
What I liked most about the portion of the book I have read is that the stories told by the interviewed people only gets better and more action packed. Many of their told experiences are very entertaining to read about and some of the stories told are creepy and a little graphic. One of the quotes that stands out to me in this book is in the beginning of the novel when the narrator interviewed a Chinese doctor. The doctor explains, “one of my ‘orderlies,’ the one responsible for his arms, gave up trying to hold them and thought it might be safer if he just braced them against the floor with his knees. The boy jerked and I heard his left arm snap. Jagged ends of both the radius and ulna bones stabbed through his gray flesh...The boy began to twist in my direction, his arm ripped completely free. Flesh and muscle tore from one another”(7-8). As you can see the novel is definitely graphic. The author does a nice job explaining in detail every scene. Before writing each section the author explains who the new character is, “Jurgen Warmbrunn has a passion for Ethiopian food, which is our reason for meeting at a Falasha restaurant. With his bright pink skin, and white, unruly eyebrows that match his ‘Einstein’ hair, he might be mistaken for a crazed scientist”(32). Brooks explains who the character is and what he looks like. He also includes some of their personal interests, so it is easier to understand and connect with the characters. Sometimes the novel jumps from perspective to perspective so it can be confusing at times but that doesn’t occur much. The book is also very easy to comprehend. None of the language in the book is too hard to follow and there are notes at the bottom of some pages which define some of the phrases or words used that may be foreign to some readers. These definitions have been very helpful and is one of the main reasons why I have enjoyed this book. The author made sure readers didn’t get lost and could understand what they were reading.
If you enjoy action novels and want to see what it may be like if a Zombie apocalypse occurred I would recommend this novel. If you don’t like reading through multiple perspectives this book will not be for you at all. There are many characters throughout the book and it may get a little confusing of who is speaking or what they are talking about at times. Overall I have really liked this novel and if you have the time I would recommend picking up this novel and seeing if you enjoy it.
Have you ever wondered what the world would look like during a Zombie apocalypse and how the world would react to it? The story is told through countless perspectives of people from all over the world. Their experiences compare and contrast in a variety of ways but one theme is consistent throughout all of them which is fear. The fear of being eaten alive.
The novel begins with the narrator explaining how his mission was to interview people from across the world and and write a report of their experiences so future generations would be able to study the apocalypse and it wouldn’t be forgotten. The narrator travels to China to interview a doctor. The doctor had no trouble treating all of those in need until he got to a few of the children that many of the villagers had warned him about. One of them, a young girl, had a high fever with a what looked like a human bite mark on her forearm. He then meets the boy that seemed to be the cause of the bite marks on the villagers. He was strapped down as to not be able to bite or injure anyone else. Two of the strongest villagers had to help the doctor examine this boy as he would thrash out violently at the doctor. He couldn’t find a pulse or heartbeat anywhere on the kid. The blood sample taken from the boy was all brown as if he wasn’t even human. This instance occurred during the first outbreaks of the disease. The narrator goes on to interview many other people. Some of the people interviewed were human smugglers. They smuggled people across borders in hopes of finding a cure which only spread the disease faster. Many of the interviewed were soldiers who fought the “living dead”. While being interviewed one of the soldiers explains what he saw during his deployment, “They’d been torn apart. Their limbs, their bones, shredded and gnawed… some still clutching their weapons.. another unarmed man who’d been hit over a hundred times. Several rounds had taken the top of his head off. The finger was still stuck between his teeth”(20). These infected men and women were very hard to stop. Many of them with hundreds of bullet holes in them kept on going, biting off fingers, ripping apart people and spreading the disease even further. A CIA agent while being questioned by the narrator explains how China, the place where the disease spread from, didn’t do much to help cure the disease and if they were researching it they kept it a secret. Many people had no clue what was going on and one of the common themes seen throughout the book is fear. They feared what would happen next. They feared they would be next.
What I liked most about the portion of the book I have read is that the stories told by the interviewed people only gets better and more action packed. Many of their told experiences are very entertaining to read about and some of the stories told are creepy and a little graphic. One of the quotes that stands out to me in this book is in the beginning of the novel when the narrator interviewed a Chinese doctor. The doctor explains, “one of my ‘orderlies,’ the one responsible for his arms, gave up trying to hold them and thought it might be safer if he just braced them against the floor with his knees. The boy jerked and I heard his left arm snap. Jagged ends of both the radius and ulna bones stabbed through his gray flesh...The boy began to twist in my direction, his arm ripped completely free. Flesh and muscle tore from one another”(7-8). As you can see the novel is definitely graphic. The author does a nice job explaining in detail every scene. Before writing each section the author explains who the new character is, “Jurgen Warmbrunn has a passion for Ethiopian food, which is our reason for meeting at a Falasha restaurant. With his bright pink skin, and white, unruly eyebrows that match his ‘Einstein’ hair, he might be mistaken for a crazed scientist”(32). Brooks explains who the character is and what he looks like. He also includes some of their personal interests, so it is easier to understand and connect with the characters. Sometimes the novel jumps from perspective to perspective so it can be confusing at times but that doesn’t occur much. The book is also very easy to comprehend. None of the language in the book is too hard to follow and there are notes at the bottom of some pages which define some of the phrases or words used that may be foreign to some readers. These definitions have been very helpful and is one of the main reasons why I have enjoyed this book. The author made sure readers didn’t get lost and could understand what they were reading.
If you enjoy action novels and want to see what it may be like if a Zombie apocalypse occurred I would recommend this novel. If you don’t like reading through multiple perspectives this book will not be for you at all. There are many characters throughout the book and it may get a little confusing of who is speaking or what they are talking about at times. Overall I have really liked this novel and if you have the time I would recommend picking up this novel and seeing if you enjoy it.
Comments
Post a Comment