World War Z

published in 2006
by Max Brooks

Brooks constructs this books on accounts. These accounts all string together and are organized based on the time of the outbreak. He starts with what he knows to be the first account of the outbreak of the undead. These are all postwar accounts, meaning the living survived in the end. The people Brooks uses are all survivors who all have a different perspective of the outbreak. The first was a doctor, who saw the outbreak for the first time. Another account was from a family traveling north to use the cold as a shield from the undead. Survivors all had different accounts because they camefrom different backgrounds. They all, however, have pretty much the same mindset that allowed them to survive. One account comes from a guy who spent his life next to his computer. His purpose was to just learn about the outbreak. When the computers failed, he got out and used what he learned from cyberspace to survive. These things were just facts, like zombies move slowly and can be outrun in open spaces. A pilot was blown out her plane caused by a malfunction of some sort. She had to use her training to get out the zombie infested area, to an area where she could be picked up by a chopper. When peoples' lives are at stake, a survival mechanism kicks in that helps some people survive. Brooks does't give accounts from people who haven't survived because, well, they didn't survive and he wants to keep this account as realistic as possible.