Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion, I didn't know this book existed until after the film came out in 2012. Which I went to see for my birthday. So as a result I was always thinking back to the film while reading it. The film
( which I will write about in a few days) was a comic zombie romance film. This book takes a different approach.
Now this is a book I never would have picked up with out the film being made, for one simple reason...It's about Zombies. Zombies are one thing I find truly terrifying, I have only ever read one other book about Zombies, World War Z, and I found that difficult to get through as it freaked me out a bit. Even comedies about them such as Shaun Of The Dead are fairly frightening for me. But I liked how the film told this story and I felt I needed to make myself read it.
So the book is set in America after an outbreak of a virus that has turned a large amount of the population into these Zombie like infected people who fed on the living to stop their bodies breaking down and decomposing.
There are two main differences between a regular Zombie story and this,
One: It is set in a world where it has been a few years since this Zombie break out and the humans and Zombies have established lives, so there is no waking up and realising half the world is dead, and trying to get to safety which is a story we have all read before.
Two: This book is written from the Zombies point of view.
Our protagonist R is a young man with thoughts feelings and dreams the only problem is that he's a zombie. He can't remember his old life before he became infected. He doesn't know how old he is or what he use to do he can only guess on his past based on this shirt a tie but he has no hard facts, all he know is his name began with R. He lives in an airport where many zombies have gathered and he follows a mundane life. He gets a zombie wife and some children, which are just children who are also infected and wander about the airport, and he hangs out with his best friend, who can often be found in the toilets attempting to have sex with other zombies.
The infected remember aspect of life before such as marriage and sex and they try to mimic this, and R collects relic of life before small trinkets of everyday life, but he just can't accept that this is it, that he will be cold dead and hunting the living. Then one day he meets Julie, who for reason unknown to him he saves her. After eating her boyfriends brain and he catches glimpses of his life with Julie he realises that that is what he wants. Warmth and kindness and love and life.
Julie although scared for her life realises that this is something more to R then meets the eye, she can see there is something that sets him apart from the others. The more time they spend together the more R begins to change, his speech improves, his desire to hunt humans fades and life begins to return to him. Between them they may have found the cure to end the era of the zombies.
This is a great book with a balance of comedy romance and insight to life. I found it to be a really fun and interesting read, and even with my fear of Zombies I was able to read this one with out too much issue. these is a very clear Romeo and Juliet theme running through out the book, two lover that can't be together, the threat of death and even their names R and Julie echo that of the tragic Marion even managed to sneak in a balcony scene.
I really enjoyed this book, it was an interesting read, and is has a good few twist and turns to keep the story from going stagnate. It's got a bit of everything romance zombies fear and hope it is a very unique story and I am surprised I hadn't heard about it before, if you haven't read this book I would definitely say to add it to your list of must reads.
Rella Xx
