Warm Bodies
(Warm Bodies, #1)
By: Isaac Marion
Publisher: Atria
Published: April 26, 2010
Genre: Young Adult
Rating:
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.
Scary, funny, and surprisingly poignant, Warm Bodies is about being alive, being dead and the blurry line in between.
I think I had too high of expectations for this book. I liked how the zombies were depicted in the story. They moaned, groaned, rotted and even did meaningless things for entertainment, like riding up and down escalators all day long. The author even takes you on their hunting trips into town when they devour cowering humans. That was probably the one thing I liked about this book, how true it was to the zombies that we’ve grown up watching in movies. Even when R eats Perry’s brain (a delicacy) he gets Perry’s memories with every bite. Which is why when he see’s Julie (Perry’s girlfriend) he spares her life and takes her back to his place. And this is where I had major problems.
Julie at first is scared of R and she should be considering him and his group of zombies just killed her boyfriend and friends. However, after a few times of him sticking up for her, she is kissing him, sleeping in bed with him and falling in love with him. The zombie ate your boyfriend and you are okay with it and want to shack up with the decomposing body who is still munching on your boyfriend’s brain every night? For some reason that for me was too far fetched and really ruined the story for me. As well as the fact that the zombies get married, have relationships and adopt lil’ zombie kids as their own. They even have a zombie school to teach the kids how to hunt and be zombies. Really? For some reason if your bumbling around in your zombie life attacking humans like a feral animal, shuffling around in circles, and riding up and down escalators for hours, I don’t understand how you have the mental capacity to get married and care for a zombie baby. Let alone be an instructor to teach other zombies how to hunt or better yet, have the willpower to not eat all that yummy fresh flesh you just chased down for 4 blocks and instead bring in home for the too crippled and too young zombies back at base.
I don’t know, like I said, some parts of the book were pretty good but a lot of it was hard to swallow. And this is coming from a girl who likes dragon shifter books.
Julie and R are driving in a car and they pass R’s wife holding hands with another zombie.
Julie- “Is that like… your wife?”
I don’t respond
“Is that your wife?”
I nod
“Who’s that… guy she’s with?”
I shrug
“Is she cheating on you or something?”
I shrug
“This doesn’t bother you?”
I shrug
“Stop shrugging, you asshole! I know you can talk; say something.”
I liked the movie, very funny-cute, but I feel as if it would disappoint me to read the book now. So I probably won’t. >.< even if it sounds like there's SO much more going on in the book. (married zombies, schools and a BABIES? Did NOT see that coming).