Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion – Book Review (Reread)

Book Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Series: Warm Bodies (Book 1)

Genre: Young Adult Dystopian

Spice: Mild

Summary:

R is a zombie. He lives in an airport with a bunch of other zombies. He has a zombie wife, and two adopted zombie children. He likes music and fast cars. And he occasionally eats brains. So, one day when he’s out looking for living to feed off, he eats a young man named Perry’s brains, and experiences a memory of Perry with his girlfriend, Julie. When R comes back to himself, Julie is in danger of being attacked by his fellow zombies, and he decides to save her instead of eating her.

Taking her back to his home – a run down 747 at the airport – R continues to experience Perry’s memories while he feels Julie’s vitality changing him in a way he hasn’t changed since becoming a zombie. Having to hide from both the zombies and living while they become odd friends, R and Julie will spark something that may change their world forever.

Reaction:

I thought Warm Bodies presented an interesting message in a mildly entertaining package, but it didn’t really hit on the elements I look for in my fantasy/science fiction novels like built out settings or inventive magic/science systems.

The most interesting thing about Warm Bodies is the question it proposes: what does it mean to be living? From the start of the book, R ruminates over the fact that he feels there is an external force almost compelling him to live the life of a zombie, which apart from eating the living isn’t that much different from today’s daily life. Just the hope R gets from interacting with Julie inspires him to break from zombie society’s expectations and triggers a change in him. That and other themes in this book are really thought provoking and I found myself analyzing its’ critique of our modern society, as most good dystopian novels do.

Another good point is the tone and humor of the writing. R is a very verbose zombie (at least in his internal narration), but has a very dry, sarcastic sense of humor. Especially at the beginning of the book, this really helps introduce the zombies and their airport home in a way that invites the reader in on the joke that the zombie culture imitates that of the living. I also really enjoy R’s “conversations” with Perry. The way the two personalities seem to poke at each other while melding together allows the reader to acknowledge that R and Perry are two sides of the same coin.

Despite the great themes and narrator voice, I missed some things in this book as a fantasy reader. For one, the setting was pretty pedestrian for a zombie apocalypse; I didn’t really have to learn about a unique society or way of life because both the living and zombies were imitating current life in different ways. There really wasn’t a clearly defined scientific or paranormal explanation for the zombies, which would have interested the part of me that loves complicated monsters and magic systems. While R is an interesting character, I felt like Julie was a caricature of a headstrong rebellious teenager. And the love story is either instant love or influenced by the consumption of Julie’s boyfriend’s brains. So, it’s either vanilla love story where the boy falls in love before he even knows the girl, or a pretty messed up reason for affection from Julie’s point of view, and I couldn’t buy into that.

While I recommend this book for those that are interested in a dystopian zombie story with an entertaining narrator and interesting social commentary, I don’t know how much it will appeal to those that crave epic fantasy or science fiction with detailed world building.

What I enjoyed:

·       Some of my favorite, most memorable moments from this book occur at the airport near the beginning of the novel because they are perfect situational humor with R’s dry humor to back it up. R and Julie passing his wife in the red Mercedes is hilarious.

·       R and Perry’s conversations in R’s head. That dry humor between both as they ponder the meaning of life and death is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

What I didn't enjoy:

·       The entire section of the novel that occurs in the living stronghold. It’s like all the humor and irony from the first half of the novel was just gone, and it really failed to hold my interest at times.