Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Publisher: Vintage
Published: 31st January 2013
Pages: 240
Format: ebook
Synopsis:
'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...

Review:
I have developed a slight thing for zombie stories. I have no idea how this came into being, especially considering I can't watch scary movies, but it is a thing none the less. And Warm Bodies was a surprising read, incredible and touching without losing what it is that makes it a zombie book.

Warm Bodies tells of R, a zombie with no memory of what he was before he died, only the initial of his name, but he is different. He has amazingly coherent thoughts and dreams and he himself was just plain awesome. I very quickly fell for him, even though he is pretty disgusting. He was sweet and caring, considering he's dead. And his interactions with Julie were priceless. Julie was pretty badass, having put up with so much already in her dying world then getting "kidnapped" by R but she doesn't lose it. They were a sweet pair that helped piece together R's memories and understanding of what had happened.

The reason for the zombie apocalypse wasn't really alluded to until the end, but as it was from R's point of view and he had no memories, it was sort of nice to just concentrate on the surviving aspect. But after you get to the Stadium, the miniature village tucked inside where it's safe, you get the impression of something awful. The breakdown of the world was well-written and scarily realistic, with an amazing commentary on the human condition. The extent of how much mankind can screw up out world is astonishing. It ended... not exactly happily, but at least with hope for a better future.

This went towards my Genre variety and ebook challenges. Thank you to Vintage and netgalley for my copy.