Walking Dead Compendium 2

Walking Dead Compendium Volume 2 by Robert Kirkman, 1068 pages

Zombies, cannibalism, and violence. This second part of the Walking Dead series has everything you would expect from in a post-apocalyptic world were food is running out. This book also focuses on the theme of what it means to be human, and humanity as a whole. We keep seeing glimpses of society trying to reemerge in the book, only to be quashed by some type of fighting, much like Steve said, not always with zombies. It is nice that the main character deaths have subsided a bit, it was hard to remember the back story as new characters died off as often as old. It was also hard to root for or care what happens to the characters in the book, as it was likely they would be dead soon.

This might have been part of Kirkman’s plan though. This disassociation with the characters slowly hardens the reader to their eventual death, much like being there would. With death likely around every corner you don’t want to get close to anyone as losing them will make it hurt so much more. Here we don’t get close or root for the characters because we know they will likely die.

This volume seems to end on a cliff hanger moment which makes it likely there will be a volume 3 with more characters that we can impassively watch die.