“You take happiness wherever you can get it. And don’t ever be sorry for it.”
When it comes to the most successful zombie franchises of all time, few names come close to matching The Walking Dead. Whether it be the original comic book series by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard, the uber-successful AMC adaptation or an array of spin-off series, video games and webisodes, The Walking Dead has left a huge imprint on horror, zombies and the post-apocalyptic genre. Which is why we here at What We Reading thought we would pay homage to all things Walker with the best books like The Walking Dead for fans to sink their teeth into. Check out all these great reads that explore ravaged worlds, and the fine line between hope, resilience and the darker sides of human nature.
World War Z: An Oral History Of The Zombie War (World War Z) – Max Brooks
No list of books like The Walking Dead would be complete without World War Z. Max Brooks’ global bestseller takes readers on an oral history tour through the outbreak and chaos of a zombie apocalypse. Presented through interviews with survivors from countries across the world, Brooks records the individuals who came face-to-face with the undead, and the various responses humanity attempted to pursue in their efforts against the virus.
What makes World War Z such an iconic zombie book and one of the best reads for fans of The Walking Dead is its authenticity and believability. Readers are given a fascinating and detailed impression of what humanity’s response to such a terrifying threat may be like in the real world.
The Girl With All The Gifts (The Girl With All The Gifts #1) – M.R. Carey
Melanie knows she is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell refers to her as ‘our little genius’. Every morning, she waits in her cell to be collected for class. Two men strap her to a chair whilst Seargent Parks keeps his gun pointed at her. Even though she tells them she won’t bite, she knows they don’t like her very much.
But Melanie loves her time at school. She loves learning about sums and spelling and discovering new things about the world outside her and the other children’s cells. She often tells her favourite teacher, Miss Justineau, about all the things she will do when she gets older, but doesn’t understand why she always looks so sad in response to hearing them. Haunting, heartbreaking and utterly gripping, M.R. Carey’s The Girl with All the Gifts is the perfect book for any Walking Dead fan looking for an alternative take on the zombie trope.
The Reapers Are The Angels (Reapers #1) – Alden Bell
In Alden Bell’s Reapers series, zombies have infested a doomed America. For twenty-five years, civilisation has been forced to retreat to meagre enclaves, guarded against a deadly plague outside. A young woman named Temple wanders the ravaged landscape, keeping to herself and keeping her demons inside.
Temple doesn’t remember a time before the zombies. But, she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she used to care for before tragedy struck and she found herself on the path to redemption. Moving between the isolated scraps that remain of society and the brutal lands that lie beyond, Temple must choose where she is going to make a home and find the salvation she has been searching for.
The Passage (The Passage #1) – Justin Cronin
For fans looking for dystopian books like The Walking Dead that are less on zombies, and more on vampires, Justin Cronin’s The Passage should definitely be on your TBR list! The book begins with a security breach at a secret US government facility, unleashing the devastating result of a monstrous experiment on the nation in the span of a single evening. When the sun rises the following day, the few survivors prepare for the long fight ahead in a future ruled by fear, darkness and death.
FBI agent Brad Wolgast, a good man haunted by his past, is determined to protect six-year-old Amy Harper Bellafonte, a refugee from the experiment that triggered the apocalypse, no matter the cost. Even if their journey takes them miles and decades, Wolgast vows to guide her to the place where she can finish what should have never started.
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Rot & Ruin (Rot & Ruin #1) – Jonathan Maberry
One of the best YA zombie books similar to The Walking Dead, Jonathan Maberry introduces readers to a post-apocalyptic America where every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen. Benny Imura doesn’t want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother, Tom, but he knows he has no say in the matter.
He’s expecting a vocation that will see him mindlessly whacking the undead for cash. Instead, what he finds is a job that will teach him what it means to be human. As he ventures into the wastelands beyond the perimeters of his town, he discovers the truth behind the outbreak and the importance of empathy even in times of chaos.
Zone One – Colson Whitehead
Nominated for Best Horror in the Goodreads Choice Awards, Colson Whitehead takes readers into a post-apocalyptic world where a pandemic has ravaged the planet, sorting humanity into the uninfected and the living dead. Now the plague is receding, civilisation is struggling to rebuild and the provisional government in Buffalo has ordered the resettlement of Manhatten.
Civilian volunteer teams receive the task of clearing out ‘zone one’ of the innocuous variety of infected, those who remain transfixed on the rituals and routines of their former lives. Mark Spitz is one of those volunteers. One of the best books like The Walking Dead for fans looking for a read that subverts most of the zombie formula, Zone One depicts the struggles of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder and find a return to normality.
The Dog Stars – Peter Heller
Another book similar to The Walking Dead nominated in the Goodreads Choice Awards, Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars follows Hig, a man who somehow survived the flu pandemic that killed everyone he knew. Now, he lives in an abandoned airport with his dog, Jasper.
But when a radio transmission bursts through the radio of his 1956 Cessna, a spark of hope that there may be something better than their tightly controlled perimeter ignites inside of him. Risking everything, he follows the signal. At the end of his trail, he finds something that is both far better and far worse than anything he could have imagined.
Allison Hewitt Is Trapped (Zombie #1) – Madeleine Roux
Madeleine Roux’s 2011 zombie story, “Allison Hewitt Is Trapped,” introduces readers to Allison Hewitt and her five colleagues at the Brooks and Peabody Bookstore, delivering another young-adult post-apocalyptic tale for fans of The Walking Dead. They are all inside the store when the zombie apocalypse breaks out, but Allison can connect a faint internet signal and begin blogging her experiences to the world.
The longer time goes on, however, the more dire the situation becomes. What begins as a call for help quickly becomes a series of accounts about the harrowing situations Allison and her companions find themselves in. Through Allison’s blog posts and the comments left by its readers, Roux takes all the tropes of a typical zombie movie and gives them an interesting and original twist.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
