I know what some of you are thinking: "Eww... zombies. Not my thing." 
 Read it anyway. I promise you don't have to find the ghoulish, quasi-mythical, flesh-eating hordes at all appealing to still appreciate this book. 
 This book is exactly what it says it is--however unorthodox that may be. It is a nonfiction-style account of an epic fictional event. It doesn't get much more fictional than a zombie apocalypse, but the author's choice in chronicling from the stories of surviving witnesses brings the narrative to life with an eerie air of authenticity. Replace the word "zombie" with anything that could cause a biological pandemic, and you've got a chillingly plausible scenario played out over dozens of countries and cultures. Because of that, I don't merely recommend this book for "zombie lovers." The deeply involved psychology (not to mention sociology) is what haunted me for days. Ultimately, the plot wasn't so much about the undead as it was about the lengths to which humanity (and the human psyche) will go to in order to survive. 
 "The monsters that rose from the dead, they are nothing compared to the ones we carry in our hearts." 
 Inevitably when I talk to others who've read this book, the following question always comes up: "Which story was your favorite?" As with any type of narrative collection, there is unavoidable variability in the type, quality, and likeability of each distinct telling. As it all stems from the same author, I'm basing my rating on the compilation as a whole. But a few of them did leave a significantly more memorable impression. The most emotionally potent--at least for this reader--would have to be the early on story involving Israel's response to the encroaching threat. Not only because the intensely heightened self-preservation of the Israelis made logical sense, but because of how impactful Brooks was in summing up the politics through the eyes of a once impassioned-yet-ignorant 17-year-old wannabe Jihadist. 
 The South-African chapter also stood out for its fascinating twist. And the chapter covering the remarkable success of Cuba--due largely to its formerly detrimental isolation--was intriguingly pragmatic. 
 Some readers have complained that the whole premise of the narrator traveling around collecting bits of oral history in some way hampers the anticipation--as we know from the get-go that the end of the world was technically prevented. I largely disagree with this assessment. It might certainly be true of most other fiction genres, but World War Z is a phenomenon unto itself. Though readers have the comfort of knowing the individuals giving their account have survived their harrowing ordeal, we have no such assurances about anyone else in their personal story--be they friends, family, or military cohorts. And in the instances where this doesn't necessarily apply, the tale is typically engaging enough that one needn't take much notice. 
 The number of thought-provoking scenarios and punchy takeaway quotes only bolster the already strong prose. Max Brooks even manages to pull off this masterpiece without any real hint of a political bias or agenda (outside of the general impression he apparently believes the United States military is abysmally stupid in terms of strategizing). On more than one occasion he managed to emotionally stun me as few authors have. For all of that, I salute him. 
 "Freedom isn't just something you have for the sake of having, you have to want something else first and then want the freedom to fight for it."