Review: Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Name of book: Warm Bodies
Author: Isaac Marion
Publication: October 28th 2010 by Vintage
Genre: YA Paranormal, Dystopian
Source: Owned

'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...

-- My Rating --

4/5 Oscars: Really liked it

-- My Thoughts --

     When the movie of this book came into cinemas, me and my best friend decided to read it together. This is the first time we have done something like this and we cannot stop talking the way R does. It's addictive and fun! This book was a pleasant surprise!
     R is different. He is not like his fellow dead. He listens to Sinatra, he loves escalators, and he still savours the humanity left in him. But, when he meets Julie, everything changes. Julie is a living girl, in a cruel world overrun by zombies. A world where the humans have turned into creatures as feeling-less as the zombies. But when she meets R, she realizes that not all are feeling-less. That there is a spark of hope left in this world.

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The rusty cogs of cogency still spin, just geared down and down till the outer motion is barely visible. We grunt and groan, we shrug and nod, and sometimes a few words slip out. It’s not that different from before. 

But it does make me sad that we’ve forgotten our names. Out of everything, this seems to me the most tragic. I miss my own and I mourn for everyone else’s, because I’d like to love them, but I don’t know who they are.

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     Absolutely enchanting. How come I didn't hear of this book for 3 years before it was made into a movie? Well, I have to say, that this is one of the advantages of movies. I could not like this book enough. The first thing that captured me is R. R is adorable, unique, captivating, so feeling-full and human. Even if practically, he should not be any of these. I fell in love with him, even before he met Julie.
     The other side characters were just as unique. I liked Julie, but not as much as R, maybe because we never got around to be inside her head. The other characters who stood out were M and Nora. They were both uniquely-crafted. The world building is not exactly over the top, but it's there, and it was enough. Since, in this book particularly, you care about WHAT happens to the characters more than you care about WHERE it happens.
     The thing that I LOVED the most about this book was the way the zombies spoke. It was so different, with one syllable at a time. It was amazing. Love..... Book..... You..... NEED..... Try...... This.... Won't.... Regret.... At... All.... Just like that. You need to read this BEFORE watching the movie!

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I AM YOUNG. I am a teenage boy aflame with health, strong and virile and pounding with energy. But I get older. Every second ages me. My cells spread themselves thinner, stiffening, cooling, darkening. I am fifteen, but each death around me adds a decade. Each atrocity, each tragedy, each small moment of sadness. Soon I will be ancient.

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But a decision has been made today. We will not be robbed. We will cling tight to what we have, no matter how hard the curse pulls. We will fight it.

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We kept pouring until we were the biggest and strongest, elected the greatest generals and found the most weapons, thinking all this maximalism would somehow generate happiness. But nothing so obvious could ever work.

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