WARM BODIES

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

So, I read Warm Bodies back when it first came out, because at the time, the original cover of a zombie walking down a road with red wide tendrils flying behind him, really caught my eye. And then when I saw Stephanie Meyer’s endorsement on the cover, I was sold, before I had even read the blurb. Author endorsements of books are something that I do take in consideration. After reading it through, I was a little puzzled by her high opinion of this book, but I will get to that in just a moment. Getting back to the book, I decided to include this review because the movie for Warm Bodies will be coming out very soon. I do want to the see the movie, and I have high hopes, based on the trailers that I’ve seen.

            Warm Bodies is a quirky, witty, and a very interesting zombie read with a twist: at its heart, it’s a love story, as well. Dare I say that Marion is a brilliant writer because I’ve never read anything like this before, so kudos to him for his creativity and the very original post-apocalyptic world that he has created. That is not to say that there aren’t other zombie romance books out there with other fantastical post-apocalyptic worlds, I just haven’t read them.

Having said all that, I enjoyed the first half of the book more than I did the second half, as the zombies, like R, started to evolve and were becoming more capable of higher brain functions. I was intrigued with R’s life from the very start, pre-zombie and present, and found myself, wanting to know more about him. And poor Perry, yikes! That was definitely cringe-worthy, and a scene that stayed with me the entire book. I think that Julie’s character could have been a little more developed and I was hoping, a little more complex. The ending is a little rushed and anti-climatic but nonetheless, there was a satisfying conclusion.

I read somewhere later on that Marion drew inspiration from Romeo and Juliet, when writing this book. R (Romeo), Julie (Juliet), Perry (Paris), and M (Mercutio). Now that I know that, I can definitely see the parallels.

Getting back to Meyer’s stamp, this surprised me after reading it because there are references to drinking, smoking pot, premarital sex, and the heroine cusses quite liberally throughout. Given Twilight and her religious background, I was quite expecting this book to be fairly clean. Overall, I would say that this book is intended for a more mature audience.