Warm Bodies

A few chapters into Warm Bodies it was obvious to me that it had started out as a short story. In fact, it probably would've been much better if it had stayed that way.Warm Bodies has a lot of great lines, and a lot of very pretty prose mulling through the undead mind of a love struck zombie. Its often existential, as one's thoughts would be when one doesn't really exist in the traditional sense. Its also quite repetitive. I appreciate what Isaac Marion was trying to do. With culture's current zombie obsession, the questions are often “What would you do to survive?” and rarely venture into “What's the point?” Which should surprise no one, the zombie apocalypse when it isn't a repressed fear of people, it is a thinly veiled last-man-standing escapist fantasy of running rogue in a world with no more rules or order. However, that doesn't mean that Warm Bodies is the first story to raise these questions - several of the installments to [b:The Living Dead 3302568 The Living Dead John Joseph Adams http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51-3y-xl4DL.SL75.jpg 3339382] anthology which I loved and reviewed last year go there, and much more artfully than this does.The characters were more like concepts than people, and were difficult to find a connection with. The fact that R is an empty shell is not too much of a grievance, that's kind of point, but Julie just wasn't that interesting at all. She's supposed to be some kind of former wild child, military brat turned good girl. I appreciate the attempts to root her in reality - her dysfunctional past, the conflict with her father - but she still feels pretty Manic Pixie to me. R and Julie's relationship sounded like a great friendship, but there was no romantic chemistry. If anything I felt like R was more in love with Perry, Julie's boyfriend who he ate the brains of. In a lot of ways, Perry is the more interesting character than either of them, though he probably wouldn't have been if he weren't dead. A lot of Perry's development comes with the grand perspective of no longer having to worry about survival and existing as a specter inside R's head. His presence creates a lot of the tension when Julie's character is introduced, but after he fades away the book hits a big lull until the major conflict begins. I think the reason why this is getting a 3-star rating instead of anything lower is because I wisely took a break from it during the dull part and came back just in time for things to pick up, and I did actually like the ending.I like this as a kind of parable, a modern gothic fairytale, if you will. The mythology that Marion creates about the zombies and the plague that created them is really interesting and the Boneys, the skeletal leaders of zombie society, are creepy as hell. But that just reaffirms my original thought that this would've been much better as a short story or at least a novella.

Enjoyable. The kids really loved the movie and I show the trailer in booktalks, and I have to say, this is one of the few times where I think I may actually prefer the movie over the book. The book's interesting, but the movie excises a few of the more slow-moving and secondary plot lines, making it funnier and snappier.

In my mind I am eloquent; I can climb intricate scaffolds of words to reach the highest cathedral ceilings and paint my thoughts. But when I open my mouth, everything collapses.

I truly loved the first part of the book. Even though I had to ignore everything I knew about zombies and, sometimes, R sounded more like a senile vampire than a zombie, I thoroughly enjoyed his inner monologue. It was so quirky and funny and just very well written. I also loved the abandoned airport setting and his daily routine.

I kept thinking that the book was amazing, until the part where he and Julie got separated, when she took the car to return to the stadium and she left him behind. From there, it felt like I was reading a different book. So many things happened much too quickly, in just a couple of days, and I didn't like that. I don't like it when the flow of a book goes from smooth to rushed. I'm not saying I stopped enjoying the book, but it stopped being perfect.

Another thing that didn't sit that well with me was was the fact that barely anyone thought of R as monster, even though his survival depended on eating the brains of humans he had to kill. Both Julie and Nora let go of the fact that he killed Perry way too quickly. “Perry” forgave R way to quickly. They kept making up excuses for him. But usually people don't react like that. When one finds out their loved one was killed by someone they usually lose it, even if for just an instant. She was supposed to be angry with him and fear him, even if she had to come to a different conclusion later. I know it's fiction and anything can happen but, personally, I would have preferred a more realistic approach to Perry's death.

R is a fascinating character and his relationship with Julie could have been something quite special, but it did not go quite how I'd hoped to. I couldn't feel much chemistry between them after they left the airport. Probably because they didn't have that much time to bond further.

I liked Julie as he wasn't the usual brainless, helpless heroine but
I found it strange that Julie's and Perry's relationship downplayed so much. She once loved that boy, and even if their love was pretty much zombified by the time he died, there had to be a part of her that needed to mourn him.

As you can see, I've had a few issue with it here and there, but overall, very enjoyable book.