Don’t forget the at first informal and later formal split Left SRs and the Right SRs: the left aligned closer to the Bolsheviks within the Petrograd Soviet following the February Revolution and were mostly anti-PG while the right aligned towards the PG along with the Mensheviks. Lordy are there a lot of factions.

I’ve seen Bone Tomahawk thrown out there but let’s give some love to the father: The Proposition. It’s so gritty and raw you can feel the sweat dripping off the characters, and the plot is just downright dark. It’s got some disturbing sequences and so I would absolutely put it in the realm of horror, but it’s a wonderful dark western too. Guy Pearce is amazing. It’s available in high quality in full on YouTube - definitely check it out.

I respectfully disagree. I’m not sure how far you got into the book, or if you finished the book, but the book is not just a scattered bunch of random POVs up until the end. They all track key developments in “World War Z” with the beginning obviously starting with the first instances of outbreaks in China, then progressing through rumor and rural spread, then eventually the Great Panic, and then the brink, then humanity fighting back, until the end when it seems the apocalypse has been largely halted and reversed. The POVs, especially as you reach the middle and end, often tell a personal story that ties directly into the larger sequence of events in the story. It builds, and I really did feel a strong sense of urgency as the story went from rumors of outbreaks to shit actually hitting the fan. And then the sense of triumph and strength as the countries began to really learn from events and adapt. I mean just compare the POV from the Battle of Yonkers to the later reclamations and new tactics used by the American troops at these end of the book.

At least when I read it I certainly felt like there was a broader narrative being advanced behind every single POV and that there absolutely was motion and urgency. But to each their own I guess.

I love the book, but I see what you mean about horror. I definitely agree with what someone else said: it’s way more sci-fi than horror. Although I got to admit, some of the scenes are pretty chilling like the one of the feral girl in the church in Kansas. I think it is a great take on the zombie story from a unique perspective, and the interview format actually allows the author to go into both the broad ramifications of the zombie war and all of the little personal experiences without making it feel like some alternate history textbook. I honestly liked that we never stayed with one or two characters for too long, because that’s the main drag of a zombie story in my opinion: the opener is always horrifying but as they survive the story tends to become less and less suspenseful. Just look at the Walking Dead. In this story, the tension was kept up because you got to see all these unique little individual stories that still kept pace with unfurling world events as humanity scrambled to stave off the undead and then formulate a plan of action to return.

Honestly, this is one of the few books where I would recommend you give it a second round later on with the audiobook version. The audiobook uses different voice actors for each interview and it makes it a lot more horror-like. Like a collection of campfire stories. They got a lot of well known people in the audiobook version like Martin Scorsese voices the guy who sold the placebo antiviral medicine. Might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the format lends itself really well to audiobook style. Almost like listening to the tape recorder of the interviewer throughout his study.