History Literature / TheZombieSurvivalGuide

* InsanityDefence: A lawyer attempts this on behalf of Simon, a Black South African accused of murder, stating that Simon's belief in a disease that causes corpses to rise and attack the living qualifies him as insane. [[DeliberateValuesDissonance The court rules that the insanity defence only applies to White South Africans]] and sentences Simon to death.

* InsanityDefence: A lawyer attempts this on behalf of a Black South African accused of murder, stating that the defendant's belief in a disease that causes corpses to rise and attack the living qualifies him as insane. [[De;iberateValuesDissonance The court rules that the insanity defence only applies to White South Africans]] and sentences him to death.

* UniversalPoison EnemyToAllLivingThings: Zombie flesh, to the point that [[ArtisticLicenseBiology the smell of a zombie can be used as a repellent against every animal from every ecosystem, everywhere]].

* TakeThat: The intro mentions zombie movies, and suggests that you ignore them, because they're filled with big guns, big men, and unrealistic action sequences... like the Film/ResidentEvil film series.

''The Zombie Survival Guide'' is a book written by Max Brooks.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: In one Recorded Attacks story (1905, East Africa) the man acting as a defense counsel for a Simon, NativeGuide doesn't believe Simon's claims that the man he killed was a zombie (making it a case of self-defense which would keep the man form being hanged). The lawyer instead argues that Simon shouldn't be hanged due to his [[InsanityDefense obvious insanity]]. [[ShootTheShaggyDog Simon is hanged anyway]] [[DeliberateValuesDissonance as the insanity defense was only permitted to white defendants at the time]].

* AmbiguousSyntax: The Los Angeles recorded attack talks about the deaths of the original gang members involved in the incident, which can leave some ambiguity as to whether it just means the gang who was hold up in a building besieged by zombies, or hat gang and their former rivals who showed up to fight them but ended up fighting alongside them.

* NinetyPercentOfYourBrain: Cited by the author (who actually states it as 5% of the brain being utilized by humans) as a possible means by which a zombie may have access to senses not normally available to the living. As the book is presenting only hypothetical speculation rather than attributing any actual zombie abilities to this, it ''could'' be a case of an InUniverse error by the author.

** In one recorded attack (East Africa, 1905) one is the SoleSurvivor of an expedition attacked by a zombie and is accused of murder and executed.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: In one Recorded Attacks story (1905, East Africa) the man acting as a defense counsel for a Simon, NativeGuide doesn't believe Simon's claims that the men he killed were zombies (making it a case of self-defense which would keep the man form being hanged). The lawyer instead argues that Simon shouldn't be hanged due to his [[InsanityDefense obvious insanity]]. [[ShootTheShaggyDog Simon is hanged anyway]] [[DeliberateValuesDissonance as the insanity defense was only permitted to white defendants at the time]].

* HoldTheLine: Regina Clark of Jarvie British Columbia did this against a mob of twenty-one zombies who interrupted the surviving townspeople escape attempt [[spoiler: and managed to kill all of them without dying herself]].

* SuprprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Being a book about what to do and what not to due during a zombie outbreak, the guide points out how "obvious" ideas and tactics won't work and will likely get you killed. With BoringButPractical being the better bet.

* TheVirus: Solanum.

** The Cossacks who ate the zombie they dug up, ''even after it had bitten one of them.'' [[spoiler: Of course they die from eating the poisoned flesh.]]

* RightForTheWrongReasons: In one Recorded Attacks story (1905, East Africa) the man acting as a defense counsel for a Simon, NativeGuide doesn't believe Simon's claims that the men he killed where zombies (making it a case of self-defense which would keep the man form being hanged). The lawyer instead argues that Simon shouldn't be hanged due to his [[InsanityDefense obvious insanity]]. [[ShootTheShaggyDog Simon is hanged anyway]] [[DeliberateValuesDissonance as the insanity defense was only permitted to white defendants at the time]].

* TheSiege: Quite a few small towns in the recorded attacks section. Especially Fort Louis Philippe, a French out post in North Africa.

** Shotguns as manufactured have a choke point or venturi at a certain point in the barrel, which limits the spread. If this removed by boring it out or shortening the barrel, you will have a ider spread as a result.

** Brooks mentions a completely fictional (but cool-sounding) WWII-era Japanese chemical warfare unit called BLACK DRAGON, who tested the zombie virus on Japanese dissidents. This is frustrating for a few reasons: 1, there probably weren't enough Japanese openly opposed to the war for this group to get any more than a handful of potential test subjects, and 2, the fairly well known Unit-731 actually existed, and actually ''did'' conduct biological warfare experiments on prisoners of war and enemy civilians (mostly Chinese) during the war. These zombies are later deployed against Mao's forces near the end of the war, a strategy which makes no sense when one remembers Mao fought one battle against Japan during the war, got his ass kicked, and proceeded to hide in the Soviet Union for the remainder of the fighting, letting America and Nationalist China handle most of the heavy lifting. This would be roughly the equivalent of Hitler dropping his one atomic bomb on Allied Brazil.

* {{Deconstruction}}: The novel essentially tells the WhatIf story of a real-life ZombieApocalypse, and how it would end because of copious RealityEnsues. For starters, zombies would just naturally decompose over time and be completely gone by the winter time, and extremely humid areas such as near lakes would be fine due to zombies rotting in a few days at most, taking a wrench to the idea that an apocalypse stays an apocalypse forever.

* FriendlySniper / ColdSniper: It's unclear which Ashi Nakamura was, but it was his discovery of the efficiency of headshots which saved the survivors of his platoon when they came under attack during WWII.

* RealityEnsues: Being a book about what to do and what not to due during a zombie outbreak, the guide points out how "obvious" ideas and tactics won't work and will likely get you killed. With BoringButPractical being the better bet.
** The police station is naturally going to be swarmed with scared people, and thus an easy target for the undead, while the gun store is naturally going to be overrun with people looking for weapons.
** As stated in AwesomeButImpractical, weapons like chainsaws and machine guns, while usually lauded as the ultimate anti-zombie weapons would be horribly inefficient. As opposed to lighter and silent weapons, capable of destroying the zombie's brain without attracting more or hindering mobility.
** All of the major roads will be an absolute nightmare as everyone tries to escape the outbreak. Worst of all it would only take one person blocking the road by abandoning their vehicle to screw over everyone behind them.

* UniversalPoison[=/=]EnemyToAllLivingThings: Zombie flesh and the Solanum virus respectively, to the point that [[ArtisticLicenseBiology the smell of a zombie can be used as a repellent against every animal from every ecosystem, everywhere]].

* GovernmentConspiracy: No matter how much evidence you have, the government will make no one believe you. The author [[LampshadeHanging points out]] a particularly impressive cover-up, namely of the 1994 incident at the San Pedro port, which entailed shutting up dockyard management, the local police department, a private security company, and the entire crew of a freighter and its shipping company. No leaks except the one person who took photos (easily discredited due to the above), and all this at one of the busiest ports in the United States.

* FireKeepsItDead: The guide recommends burning corpses during a zombie attack to make sure they don't resurrect, as well as diminishing the health hazard posed by decomposing flesh. Fire is the only way to safely dispose of a Solanium-infected corpse. All traces of the infection will be wiped out once the fire brings them down. That being said, it also warns that [[InfernalRetaliation setting fire to the zombie while it's still moving will basically make a giant, flaming torch that is still capable of biting and infecting while gaining the charming ability to set fire to everything it touches.]]

*** Also [[CoolBike motorcycles]]. Brooks got it right: heavy cruiser / touring bikes are much more manoeuvrable and far easier to maintain than any car, have reasonable performance on countryside dirt roads or damaged urban roads, can carry a few hundreds of pounds of supplies and a few hundreds more if they have a sidecar. They can be pushed to the nearest safe place to be repaired if damaged.

** Brooks mentions a completely fictional (but cool-sounding) WWII-era Japanese chemical warfare unit called BLACK DRAGON, who test the zombie virus on Japanese dissidents. This is frustrating for a few reasons: 1, there probably weren't enough Japanese openly opposed to the war for this group to get any more than a handful of potential test subjects, and 2, the fairly well known Unit-731 actually existed, and actually ''did'' conduct biological warfare experiments on prisoners of war and enemy civilians (mostly Chinese) during the war. These zombies are later deployed against Mao's forces near the end of the war, a strategy which makes no sense when one remembers Mao fought one battle against Japan during the war, got his ass kicked, and proceeded to hide in the Soviet Union for the remainder of the fighting, letting America and Nationalist China handle most of the heavy lifting. This would be roughly the equivalent of Hitler dropping his one atomic bomb on Allied Brazil.

* FriendlySniper /ColdSniper: It's unclear which Ashi Nakamura was, but i t was his discovery of the efficiency of headshots which saved the survivors of his platoon when they came under attack during WWII.

** The slave ship scenario wouldn't actually work, as Solarum takes so long to incubate that the majority of the slaves would have died of thirst long before it reached them.

* NotWhatItLooksLike: Multiple Recorded Attacks end with authorities mistaking the aftermath of a suppressed zombie outbreak for a regular old massacre and punishing the people who put the outbreak down.

* NoBikesInTheApocalypse: Averted. The guide considers bicycles the ideal vehicle for a zombie apocalypse, since they're quick, versatile, easy to use and maintain, and almost noiseless.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: The author advises against taking too many risks to save other survivors for this reason. Recorded Attacks (1852, Chapas Mexico) also also has a mention of three American treasure hunters rescuing a man from what they thought was a ritual sacrifice only to end up bitten by the man (who turned out to be a zombie).
* NoHonorAmongThieves: It's asserted several times that bandit groups will inevitably die out from in-fighting.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: A common theme in the more modern Recorded Attacks is authorities mistaking the aftermath of a suppressed zombie outbreak for a regular old massacre and punishing the people who put the outbreak down.

** In one of the "Recorded Outbreaks", one of the Cossacks abstains from [[spoiler: eating the flesh the zombie woman that was dug up from the graveyard]], as he was a superstitious man who considered it cursed. FromACertainPointOfView, [[TheCloudCuckoolanderWasRight he was totally right]] [[spoiler: [[KarmicDeath as the other Cossacks would all end up dying from the toxic zombie flesh]].]]

** By the 1970s, one-on-one cage fights with zombies are an extreme sport in New Orleans, called "Devil Dance."