10 Best Zombie Books to Read This Year

You Love Zombies a lot, and you are a big fan of The Walking dead both the show and the comic book series. But you won’t be a true Zombie Fan if you haven’t read these Zombie Books yet.

There are tons of zombie Apocalypse books out there and all of them bring unique concepts and ideas to the genre. The zombie genre has exploded since 1950 when the classic I AM legend was introduced by Richard Matheson.

10 Best Zombie Books To Read in 2020

So the books, movies, TV shows, video games and you name them, everything has a zombie theme. This is due to the fact that everyone loves horror. Reading a horror book or a horror movie without Zombies won’t be complete. Right?

Since we are all obsessed with Zombie stuff, you would love our absolute favorite zombie books and series below.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

The World War Z is an oral history of a Zombie war. It is an American fiction horror novel by Max Brooks.

It is #1 Bestseller on New York Times, USA Today and Wall street journal. Max Brooks has written the book in such a realistic write up that it seems the zombie apocalypse is going on.

You might have seen the movie of World War Z several times but reading the book is even more enjoyable. Having sold over 2 million copies, it is indeed a worth reading zombie book if you haven’t done already.

Even the critics have been praising this book as “An absolute must-have Zombie Book“. He has gone in precise detail and authenticity. It seems as if it was for real.

World War Z brings the finest and incredible story in history of human civilization. The book starts with rumors from China about a pandemic.

The cases starts to multiply and the condition starts to worsen. A mindless man eating horrifically humanity induces a sense of reality to the book.

World War Z is based on extensive interviews with pandemic survivors in the 10 years fight against horde. Read this book now that has let zombie genre into mainstream media by launching a blockbuster film and a zombie video game.

“The Girl With All the Gifts” by M.R. Carey

A lot of people have not heard about this Zombie book. Only a few of you might have seen the movie “The Girl with all the gifts”. If you have seen the movie before you would likely not read the book. But the truth is that the book is really powerful and nothing like the movie.

So if you haven’t read the book just because the movie was not that special. I would suggest you to give it a chance and believe me M.R. Carey won’t disappoint you.

The Girl with all the gifts sis a uniquely heartfelt zombie book that you won’t resist to stop. The story is about a girl “Melanie” who is a special girl and goes to special children school.

An outbreak comes and people all over the world get infected by a fungus that takes over people brain and turning them in to zombies. Melanie and her friends are also affected but in a different way.

While they have appetite for human flesh, they still think, love and not that deadly.

She jokes she won’t bite, but people don’t take her serious. It is a groundbreaking thrill zombie book which would keep you glued till end.

Cell : A Novel by Stephen King

As all book lovers know, No horror story is complete without Stephen King. So here we have a zombie based novel – Cell.

I won’t say it was the best read i had of Stephen king. He had some of the best novels i have ever read but this was quite a disappointment from such a renowned and excellent horror book writer.  

He is well known as the King of Horror and Suspense. The story was okay and it was one of the fastest developing zombie stories we have ever read.

The story does starts with pretty much good excitement but the plot twist was just an average one.

Not that its a terrible zombie book, its well written, but we just expected a little more in the story.

The story of Cell is around a zombie virus named the Pulse which is able to spread via cellphone. So a mobile can turn you into a hungry, angry freak zombie.

So the premise of the story of the novel is that mobile phones become the harbinger of technology warfare, messing up with their brains and leaving them with aggression and desire for destruction.

The book is still worth a read but believe me, the movie is terrible.

Read More  Stephen King Books on Horror

The Girl with All the Gifts By M.R. Carey

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Melanie along with other kids has been raised in the military compound for as long as she remembers. Her life is confined to the lone cell or the wheelchair which she is strapped to when she is allowed to go for her class. These kids got infected with a virus when they were in the wombs of their mothers.

Though Melanie is among them but she has a rare case. Her world changes drastically when the compound is attacked by a wave of zombies. Suddenly her monotonous life comes to a halt when she realizes she has a role to play in the Zombie apocalypse.

Things began to get more horrific when you get to know the Zombie are the normal people infected by another virus. A reader keeps on guessing what really Melanie’s gifts are?

This spine-chilling book is a blend of hope, hopelessness, horror and constant thrill which slowly reveals the plot and keeps the reader on a roller coaster ride.

Warm Bodies Novel by Issac Marion

Amidst of a ruined civilization, R is happily living a normal life, he passes his time in collecting souvenirs, listening to music, enjoying escalator rides and occasionally feasting on warm bodies.

The only problem is that this is a normal Zombie-life, R has no life, no pulse and what he thought until now was that he has no feelings like all his mates.

Julie who was a prisoner by R, is totally opposite, she is lively, vibrant, full of positive energy.

R’s feelings are about to change, though she appeals to him as a delicious meal, R decides to save Julie from his other mates. Finally, they developed a bond of love.

What’s in store for them when they defy the grave rules and cause a ripple in their worlds. A heart wrenching, mind-boggling novel which takes you to a journey of hope, love, evil and fights to live again. Will the world let a Zombie and a human live happily ever after?

This is not a Test by Courtney Summers

What will happen when you among a few more people are the last humans on Earth, taking refuge in a High School.

Would this shelter be enough to save you from the dead monsters pounding on the door outside?

All it takes is one little bite to transform you into the scariest dead version of yourself. This is the story of those 6 students who found themselves in this scary situation.

In this psychological thriller, among them is Sloane Price, a girl shattered by the cruelty of the world, who has nothing to lose and all is set to take the path to suicide.

As the events take dangerous sprite, the other 5 students make verdicts of life and death.

This is another least known book on zombie, which you might love reading. Do let us know what you think of them and if we have missed any of your favorite zombie books. We would love to add them here.

The Extinction Cycle By Reed Beckham

This book features Major Sergeant Reed Beckham who has survived a considerable amount of terrible missions as the pioneer of his Delta Force Team.

Suddenly the team finds itself in a catastrophe that unfurls when they find that tainted zombies have begun to spread across urban communities, threatening human existence.

This hellfire breaks when the group is sent in to examine a super-mystery research office that is turned dark.

Filled with nonstop action and horror, the book keeps you glued to it to find who survives, the world, or the evil dead?

The author has brilliantly woven incredible and interesting characters in the plot, the series indulges the reader with intriguing scenes, dialogues and zombie action.

It’s a fusion of science, nature and fiction which will take your reading buds to another level.

Another good read is Extinction Horizon (The Extinction Cycle Book 1) by Nicholas Sansbury Smith.

Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Alice’s life took a minute to turn upside down. From wonderful to disastrous, innocent to wrecked. All her loved ones were gone in the blink of an eye.

It was about time for her to accept that Zombies are real. They exist. They can sway away happiness, dreams, goals, life in a matter of seconds and all you could do is to wait and watch your world-shattering into pieces.

How could she start a new life when she was being followed by her father’s demons?

Alice was all set to avenge her family, but she has to become friends with the bad guys to learn the art of surviving. All her focus is to send the Zombies back to graves for good. 

As the story unfolds, there arises a chance of her associate’s deepest secrets to be exposed.

What will happen when Alice comes to know that his secrets are more horrific and deadly than the walking dead. All her focus is to send the Zombies back to graves for good. This book opens a new set of rules for the undead to follow, with the right amount of love, hatred, thrill and horror.

Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon

Renee’ couldn’t be happier, at sweet 16 she was considered the most beautiful girl in school, had the cutest boyfriend, went for vacations and had all she wished for always.

Her happiness turns into grief when she finds her parents murdered in the middle of a forest. She is sent away to a Gothic boarding academy afterwards by her grandfather.

Soon Renee realizes there is something mystical about the academy. Nothing is as normal as they are pretending it to be.

Students start disappearing, strange groups are patrolling the corridors at night, horrific expressions of students, secret conversations between the faculty, all of this is making Renee curious.

Little did she knew that unintentionally she would unfold the deadliest secrets of the place which will put a big question mark to her very own existence. This book gives new meanings to life, death, love and the evil truth.

Best Zombie Apocalypse Books – Verdict

We have tried to cover all the zombie books that are worth a read. Some of them are popular ones like The Walking Dead and Word War Z and some of the most recent ones like Patient zero by Jonathan Maberry.

Some of the honorary mentions which we would love to include are

  • As The World Dies [Zombie Book Trilogy]
  • After Time (Zombie Book Series)
  • The End Games by Michael Martin
  • ‘The Forest of Hands and Teeth’ by Carrie Ryan
  • BREATHERS: A ZOMBIE’S LAMENT BY S.G. BROWNE
  • ‘Monster Island’: A Zombie Novel by David Wellington

Another favorite writer of mine is Mira Grant who has some of the best selling zombie novels including Feed, Deadline, Blackout, The Rising, Countdown, and a lot more.

These were our favorite post-apocalypse and horror books on zombies. And if you want us to include comic books and graphic novels about zombies, let us know in the comments below.

Did we miss any good Zombie book?

Let us know and we would love to add your suggestion to the list of these best zombie books. ?