Warm Bodies Review

Title: Warm Bodies

Author:  Isaac Marion

Release date: 2010

Publisher: Vintage Books

‘R’ is a zombie. He has no name, no memories and no pulse, but he has dreams. He is a little different from his fellow Dead.

Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Her name is Julie and she is the opposite of everything he knows – warm and bright and very much alive, she is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape. For reasons he can’t understand, R chooses to save Julie instead of eating her, and a tense yet strangely tender relationship begins.

This has never happened before. It breaks the rules and defies logic, but R is no longer content with life in the grave. He wants to breathe again, he wants to live, and Julie wants to help him. But their grim, rotting world won’t be changed without a fight...

I thought this would be something interesting to read and review. The film ‘Warm Bodies’ has unfortunately finished showing at the cinema (I did really want to go and see it but I didn’t get chance to go) but the new series on BBC three, ‘In the Flesh’ is continuing the new trend of zombies with feelings. (Check it out at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00szzcm - I think it's brilliant!)

I really enjoyed this novel. It had a really passionate feel to it and was also written in a mature and sophisticated style. Despite R’s lack of ability to voice his thoughts to Julie and M, the first person narrative is written coherently and beautifully.

I really enjoyed the complexity of R's feelings. Originally, the reason he doesn't eat Julie is because he has eaten the brain of Julie's partner, Perry. The residual memories which he absorbs create his initial emotional attachment to Julie. I thought this was truly captivating, as R then goes on to form his own feelings for Julie which have built on Perry’s. This reminded me a little of 'The Host' by Stephanie Meyer (also due out as a film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNeCnKKHGE4) and the idea of residual memories existing which the new host takes on.  'Warm Bodies' is a really captivating and beautiful story set in the future and it really captured my imagination.

The approach is very different to many zombie stories in that they perform unusual rituals, such as getting married as they attempt to cling to human experience. The Boneys were an interesting addition to the tale in that they provided some form of explanation as to how people had begun to rise from the dead but little other justification was given, the characters had to try and survive living in the present rather than reviewing the past. However, while R has no memories, Perry and Julie are reliving theirs and this provided a welcoming contrast between the humans and the dead. What was revealing towards the end of the novel was how irrelevant memories become, Julie asks ‘You don’t want to get your old life back?’ to which R replies, ‘No [...] I want this one’.

Overall, a thoroughly brilliant read. It offered humour, danger, fantasy and love, encompassing several genres within one story. I can't wait until I (finally) get to see the film which has a lot to live up to.

 

5/5 A heart-warming, unconventional zombie story.

 

Can I just make a point that the prequel is only available as an e-book! I am horrified! What about those of us who like to thumb through a well read paperback ?!?!?!?!