Maybe the best thing about the zombie's return to popularity is that, by nature, you can't "spin" them into being sensitive, tortured souls: They're dead, they crave human flesh, end of story. Using the maxim "Don't fix what ain't broken," Max Brooks doesn't try to explain why the dead have arisen — he simply chronicles the story of the living as we "logically" deal with a worldwide infestation of what the US Military calls "Zack." There's humor here, to be sure; Max Brooks expands the small-scale premise of
Shaun of the Dead across several cultures and countries (and even into space!). But make no mistake — this is a horror book. If you liked
28 Days Later (which is
not a zombie film) and George Romero's
Dead trilogy, you'll eat this book up like a zombie eats a slow runner.