Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

'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...

My Rating: 4.5/5
Genre: Horror, Paranormal (Zombies), Romance, Black Comedy, YA
Read on the 30th of November




Paperback, UK Edition, 240 pages 
First Published October 1st 2010 by Random House Vintage





MY REVIEW:


Warm bodies is a very small book, and I am kind of sad that I finished it so quickly.  What I have to say, first of all, is that although this is classified as "Horror", I didn't feel a single prickle of fear throughout my reading journey. On that matter, it is a very light read. It is written in first-person narrative, through R's point of view, which is a first, as usually in YA novels the POV is that of a female character. 

If you'd ask me 24 hours before I read this, I'd say that even the idea of zombies makes me want to throw up - but not after spending my day in R's head. R's POV was enriched with small doses of black humor, often mocking the other zombies and himself for their brainless behavior and way of "living". As the story goes on though, R becomes a bit moodier and then magic happens:  he starts debating what is the meaning of being human, and even more, alive. This is an aspect I never expected to find in this book, and it surprised me in the best way possible, as it is strongly entangled in the romance between him and Julie. 

Moving on the romance part, there is nothing special or heart-rendering about it. I think that on the most part it is symbolic - something like a dead Romeo (R for Romeo, just my theory) falling in love with the very much alive Julie (Julie for Juliet) and that being the lever of change. Both characters where well built and funny, brightening up the whole "dead" feel of their world. 

I can brag on and on and on about this book, it's like if it was tailored to my tastes through and through. It was, in all except for two little things: One, It was a bit confusing. Sometimes Perry's thoughts and memories would pop up, and there was nothing indicating who thinks what. Two, there is a couple of small details that were left unexplained. These are my only complaint. Guess what, even the ending I found perfect - sweet, sad, filled with hope... In one word, perfect.