Preliminary Horrors

Having a warm fondness for all things putrid, dead and mobile, I was more than happy to rescue this book off the bargain shelf at the store. While a compilation of interviews--even based on something like a massive zombie world war--may not be the most inherently exciting topic, I was still curious to see how a book written at such a new angle would play out. The novel started out interesting enough, but it didn't take long for me to realize that every fictional interviewee in this book may as well have been the exact same person. Naturally, I understand the desire an author may have for writing something in an intelligent and readable way, but Brooks lent almost zero variation to his characters' voices. Not only that, but the detailed accounts quickly grew stagnant and redundant. Toward the middle of the novel I found myself skimming through it faster and faster with less and less interest, if only to prove to myself that I could actually make it to the end. I made it most of the way, but it felt like a chore. To sum up, reading this novel wound up to be about as exciting as reading a government procedures manual.