Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
Mar. 28th, 2012 10:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
’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 …
The zombie apocalypse has happened. The dead rule the earth; the living are confined to heavily defended settlements.
R is a zombie who lives in an abandoned airport. But he’s no mindless monster. Despite having no memories of his past (not even his name), he can communicate and has dreams and flashes of thought. He believes there should be something more than this.
While hunting for human flesh, he saves a woman called Julie from being eaten and smuggles her back to the airport. There they develop a tentative friendship, one that helps R to grow beyond his limitations while changing Julie’s perceptions of the zombie threat. Can their friendship survive both the secrets that R is keeping from Julie and the opposition of both their worlds?
Isaac Marion’s debut novel is a fresh and tender take on the post-apocalyptic zombie world, told with a wry wit and a certain level of sentimentality.
It’s clear from the start that R is no ordinary zombie. I loved his theories on his pre-zombie life, his adherence to routine and the small details that come out on how the zombies have come together to form their own basic society. I also enjoyed his friendship with M, a more slobbish zombie with a love of pornography who calls R on his bizarre behaviour.
I really enjoyed the idea that the zombies’ desire for brains is because brains give them a tantalising experience of the victim’s memories and emotions. Marion also cleverly spins the stages of zombification, with the ‘elders’ or bonies guarding their history and teaching new zombies. One of the most chilling scenes in the book is where a class of zombie children are taught how to kill.
Julie was, for me, less interesting and less developed, there for R to project onto. It was interesting that their relationship is partially shaped by the fact that R had eaten her boyfriend, but when this is revealed she’s far too quick to accept it so an important issue is brushed under the carpet to keep the story going. Their romance was less icky than I thought it would be, but I would have liked to see more of its effect on R’s zombie wife.
The book sometimes descends into sentimentality and overdoes its reliance on Sinatra to convey emotion. However I thoroughly enjoyed it and would love to read what Marion does next.
The Verdict:
Isaac Marion’s debut novel is a fresh and tender take on the post-apocalyptic zombie world. It has a wry wit and does well in reinventing and developing old ideas in zombie fiction. It is a touch too sentimental at times and I could have done with less Sinatra and a slightly more developed female lead character, but it’s still a thoroughly enjoyable read and one that I’d have no hesitation in recommending.
’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 …
The zombie apocalypse has happened. The dead rule the earth; the living are confined to heavily defended settlements.
R is a zombie who lives in an abandoned airport. But he’s no mindless monster. Despite having no memories of his past (not even his name), he can communicate and has dreams and flashes of thought. He believes there should be something more than this.
While hunting for human flesh, he saves a woman called Julie from being eaten and smuggles her back to the airport. There they develop a tentative friendship, one that helps R to grow beyond his limitations while changing Julie’s perceptions of the zombie threat. Can their friendship survive both the secrets that R is keeping from Julie and the opposition of both their worlds?
Isaac Marion’s debut novel is a fresh and tender take on the post-apocalyptic zombie world, told with a wry wit and a certain level of sentimentality.
It’s clear from the start that R is no ordinary zombie. I loved his theories on his pre-zombie life, his adherence to routine and the small details that come out on how the zombies have come together to form their own basic society. I also enjoyed his friendship with M, a more slobbish zombie with a love of pornography who calls R on his bizarre behaviour.
I really enjoyed the idea that the zombies’ desire for brains is because brains give them a tantalising experience of the victim’s memories and emotions. Marion also cleverly spins the stages of zombification, with the ‘elders’ or bonies guarding their history and teaching new zombies. One of the most chilling scenes in the book is where a class of zombie children are taught how to kill.
Julie was, for me, less interesting and less developed, there for R to project onto. It was interesting that their relationship is partially shaped by the fact that R had eaten her boyfriend, but when this is revealed she’s far too quick to accept it so an important issue is brushed under the carpet to keep the story going. Their romance was less icky than I thought it would be, but I would have liked to see more of its effect on R’s zombie wife.
The book sometimes descends into sentimentality and overdoes its reliance on Sinatra to convey emotion. However I thoroughly enjoyed it and would love to read what Marion does next.
The Verdict:
Isaac Marion’s debut novel is a fresh and tender take on the post-apocalyptic zombie world. It has a wry wit and does well in reinventing and developing old ideas in zombie fiction. It is a touch too sentimental at times and I could have done with less Sinatra and a slightly more developed female lead character, but it’s still a thoroughly enjoyable read and one that I’d have no hesitation in recommending.
