Zombified

For the past few months, I've been working through a freelance journalism diploma with the London School of Journalism. I managed to forget all about it for a while, but I've returned to it now with renewed vigour. Just as well there's no time limit on these things.

Part of the assignment I just completed was to write a review, which turned out to be something I really enjoyed and my tutor greatly approved of. I'm considering taking a few steps down that road to see where it leads, so I thought I'd see if you lot liked it too.

It's about a book Tim recommended at the end of last year and reviewed so well himself that I hopped on Amazon within minutes. So here's my take...

There are no stories left to tell about zombies. The familiar yarn of mindless monsters craving live flesh has been told forwards, backwards and sideways until their mouths drip with clichés rather than raw flesh. But this is precisely why Max Brooks has chosen to spin his novel, World War Z, around them.

More of a sociological study than a horror tale, the book describes a zombie infestation that spreads quickly across the globe. Each chapter is a unique interview with a survivor, whether a soldier, medic, holy man, researcher, colonist or simply observer. From the outbreak of the ‘disease’ to the battle to win back the continents, every wrong decision, horrifying choice and bloodcurdling incident is described by the people who experienced them. There is no single voice to thread the stories together, for this is the story of humanity.

What shocks and terrifies about World War Z is not its featured creatures. The novel showcases with bleak honesty that, as a species, we are perhaps not as worthwhile as we like to think. Very few individuals perform the sort of heroic stunts one has come to expect from this genre. People follow orders blindly, make selfish choices, take action through greed and harm others for the sake of survival. In short, they act on the primeval impulses that still control us as a species, though we hide them behind laws, morals and niceties. They think of number one.

Why zombies? Perhaps because, when you take a close look, they don’t present such a contrast to humanity as we might like. Instinctive self-preservation drives these fantastical beings to hurt and destroy, constantly taking from the world and other people, heedless of the consequences. All of which sounds rather familiar.