Title:
Warm Bodies
Author: Isaac Marion
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 ?!?!?!?!
