[Review] Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Title: Warm Bodies
Author: Isaac Marion
Genre: Fiction-Horror
Series: N/A

Hardcover, 239 Pages

Publication: April 26, 2011

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Source: personal bookshelf

|SUMMARY|
R is a young man with an existential crisis--he is a zombie. He shuffles through an America destroyed by war, social collapse, and the mindless hunger of his undead comrades, but he craves something more than blood and brains. He can speak just a few grunted syllables, but his inner life is deep, full of wonder and longing. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse. Just dreams. 

After experiencing a teenage boy's memories while consuming his brain, R makes an unexpected choice that begins a tense, awkward, and strangely sweet relationship with the victim's human girlfriend. Julie is a burst of vibrant color in the otherwise dreary and gray landscape that R lives in. His decision to protect her will transform not only R, but his fellow Dead, and perhaps their whole lifeless world.

I don’t read many zombie novels because I haven’t seen anything that piqued my interest but when I heard that they made a movie of Warm Bodies I decided to check the book out.  This was different from what I normally read, and I’m sure most zombie books out in the market today aren’t like this either. Warm Bodies is narrated by R a zombie talking about his daily life and see what it is like being a zombie/his interaction with others. On one of the zombie’s hunting trip, the group stumbles upon a group of young humans. R attacks a guy and by eating his brain it gives him a burst of energy/the guy’s memories. R becomes somewhat intrigued by the dead guy’s girlfriend and brings her back to the zombie camp, and from there begins this weird relationship between the two.

The first half of the book was extremely slow, and although there are only about 240 pages (very short book) I almost gave up. The story didn’t pick up until R is at the sports arena where Julie and the other humans live. At the start of R and Julie’s relationship I thought it was kind of weird and wonder how can it possible work, but as the story went on I started to find R’s crush on Julie endearing. The ending was somewhat predictable but obviously unconventional LOL. I also thought the whole spin on the zombie Romero and Juliet love concept was nicely done, and it actually took me awhile to figure it out! I’m so slow. While this book didn’t really reach my expectation, overall it was still pretty good. I recommend this book to anyone who haven’t read a zombie novel, it’s fairly short and light read.