World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Phenomenal.

By far the best zombie book I've ever read, and one of the best zombie pieces I've experienced in any media. I'm a little surprised at how much I enjoyed it; I'd read and enjoyed the Zombie Survival Guide by the same author, and thought that I wouldn't enjoy this, because maintaining the tone and style of that book would be too difficult to do. Luckily, Brooks didn't even attempt to do that.

WWZ is post-apocalyptic; it takes place after humanity has successfully fended off the zombie menace, and have started to rebuild society. Our main POV character tours the world interviewing people and their tales of survival; the transcripts of those interviews make up the bulk of the book.

Because it's a book about survivors, the horror and suspense don't come from wondering who's going to die, or how; instead, it comes from hearing what depths people would be willing to sink to in order to survive, which in turn forces the reader to ask themselves what they would be willing to do under similar circumstances. Of course, the zombie setting means that while we as readers can connect with the characters and their emotional situation, but we're still allowed to distance ourselves from it a litle bit and prevents the novel from getting too dreary or depressing.