Book Review: Warm Bodies
Media Type: Book
Title: Warm Bodies
Author: Isaac Marion
Publisher: Vintage
Pages: Hardcover; 256
Release Date: April 26, 2011
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Intended Reading Group:
Young Adult
Content Screening:
Mild zombie gore; mild violence
HDB Rating:
5 Keys to My Heart
A zombie who yearns for a better life ends up falling in love—with a human—in this astonishingly original debut novel.
R is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he has dreams. He doesn’t enjoy killing people; he enjoys riding escalators and listening to Frank Sinatra. He is a little different from his fellow Dead.
Not just another zombie novel, Warm Bodies is funny, scary, and deeply moving.
Opening with the best kind of dry humor, this book instantly grabbed me and made want to read more. R is our zombie narrator, and we follow him as he explains what the world is now. Filled with shambling and lost zombies, R and his friends each have no memory of who they were or what really happened to them in the first place. All that has been lost in the recesses of their mind when they turned. Or has it?
We are introduced to R at the beginning, and he remains our zombie narrator the rest of the story. My favorite part about R was how different he was from the others, even in the very beginning. There was a overall humanity to him that was easy to relate to, and yes I really did find myself falling in love with a zombie. Rotting flesh and all. What Isaac Marion does is create this character that is such a part of us that, despite his undead state, you find things to relate to in him. R likes the simple joy of riding escalators, of listening to Frankie Blue Eyes, and even of just sitting in the sunshine. Even though he has no pulse, he is so endearing!
This book completely surprised me. Yes, it does contain all the typical zombie items. Eating of brains, shambling, and of course the occasional rotting flesh. However it so much more than that. At the heart of Warm Bodies is a love story of the most sincere kind. In fact I’d equate it to a bit of an old school fairy tale. It isn’t always pretty, it isn’t always happy, but in the end everything turns out the way it is meant to. Definitely unique, this book has successfully meshed the romance and zombie elements together in a perfect way! I cannot begin to explain how impressed I was.
Final verdict? I devoured this book with a fervor from beginning to end. A perfect mix of bittersweet romance and zombie lore, Warm Bodies is a book that is unlike any other I have ever read! R helps us to explore our own mortality and humanity, while leading us through one heck of a story line. Thank you Isaac Marion. I was able to see my beloved zombies in a whole new light and I couldn’t ask for more!
