Wednesday 18 September 2013

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion


R is a zombie.  He exists in a slow-paced, endlessly repetitive world broken only by short bursts of feeding until he meets Julie, a normal human.  Rather than feeding on her, R decides on impulse to capture her and protect her.  But being around a living human for such a long period of time starts to have unusual effects and R finds himself changing, becoming different from all of the zombies around him.  Can a relationship between a human and a zombie ever work?

My first read for RIP!  Sadly it was less than stellar but it was still exciting to get my participation in the event under-way.  I never had massively high hopes for Warm Bodies, but it did come recommended from someone who isn't normally a paranormal romance fan, so I was hoping that it would be fun and enjoyable.  And to a certain extent, it was.  I liked the tongue in cheek tone of the novel and the moments of dry humour Marion sprinkles throughout the story.  Warm Bodies doesn't take itself too seriously and I liked that.

The romance itself was surprisingly sweet and believable too.  I'm still not quite sure how Marion pulled it off, but R falling in love felt sweet in a non-tacky way.  There was no insta-love and the interactions between the two leads were sensitively written, with just enough humour to keep them from being sappy.   I was most definitely rooting for them.

The issue I had with Warm Bodies wasn't the romance, but rather the way the zombie issue itself was dealt with.  Now I'm not an expert on zombies, but I know the basics and I wasn't cool with the zombie mythology in the book.  There was no explanation of how the zombies came to exist in such large populations across the world and as soon as I could predict where the ending was going with R, it felt like a cop out.  I don't want to spoil it for anyone but the whole zombie idea was altered too much for my liking.  It felt like the easy way out.

And that wasn't the only easy way out.  R initially meets Julie on a feeding/hunting trip with other zombies and Julie's boyfriend is killed.  This could have been an interesting source of conflict/tension between them and could have led to some real-life complications, but everything was brushed aside by Marion in order to make the romance 'easy'.  This didn't sit well with me.

On the whole, Warm Bodies was a short, fun read full of dry humour but it required just too much suspension of belief when it came to the zombies themselves.

Source: Personal copy 
First Published: 2010
My Edition: Vintage, 2013
Score: 3 out of 5


15 comments:

  1. The issues you mention would bug me no doubt but I'm glad to hear that the romance wasn't too sappy. I thought the trailer of the movie was too silly.

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    1. I'm interested in the movie, but then I like Nicholas Hoult from Skins.

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  2. Oh hey! It's based on Romeo and Juliet! I did not know that. I think I may stick with the film on this one, as it sounds very silly and fun. A good movie for a Netflix watch on a weekend afternoon sometime (assuming it ends up on Netflix).

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    1. Hmmm, it seems only loosely related, although I could see some connections. The ending is very different!

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  3. I've seen this around so much that I've been wary of reading it. It's like that wariness is inevitable with all YA book craze that gets turned into a film (which I guess isn't fair on all of them).

    Along those lines, I think that's why he might've killed off her boyfriend at the beginning? Because YA, especially paranormal YA is notorious for their love triangles. No. To. Ri. OUS. But I've heard good things about the humour in it so I might give it a try.

    Btw what is RIP? I'm assuming it's a Halloween related read-a-thon but there were no other posts tagged with it and the picture doesn't link to a masterpost or anything.

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    1. Book crazes around YA books tend to put me off, too. I wouldn't have picked this one up on my own, but it is a fun and sweet read so I'm glad I tried it.

      RIP is a reading event in Sept and Oct, in which you read horror/dark fantasy/supernatural type books, in keeping with the season. It stands for Readers Imbibing Peril.
      http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/r-eaders-i-mbibing-p-eril-viii

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  4. Oh, I think I'd have problems too if the background of some unhuman creatures wasn't explained (zombies or whoever in another book). It looks like this is mainly a romance book and not a zombie book like I thought :)

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    1. Yes, the romance is the major plot line and everything else secondary.

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  5. I totally and completely fell in love with this book and didn't think too hard about the details...lol. I also enjoyed the film version. I've wanted to love zombies for so long but have been DEATHLY afraid. So this book allowed me to embrace a new mythology of sorts. I am looking forward to what Isaac Marion writes outside of this universe though - I think he's quite talented.

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    1. I must be too analytical, I need to learn to shut that part of my brain off! Agree that Marion is a talented writer.

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  6. I really loved this book! I didn't really LIKE the changes in the zombie mythology, but it's one of those things that I shrugged off because you know, they're zombies. I guess they don't all have to be the same. (I didn't like the random zombie "sexual" interactions... those were too weird.)

    I agree that the romance thing happened well, except when the whole ex-boyfriend thing was brushed aside. I think that was probably done better in the movie. Actually, have you seen the movie? It was a lot more humorous, and some of the zombie stuff was changed a bit, so you might like it a lot.

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    1. The zombie sexual interactions certainly were weird, although they made me laugh too, so I didn't mind them too much.
      I'm keen to see the movie, because I really like Nicholas Hoult. Hopefully it will end up on Netflix.

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  7. Aww I'm sad this one didn't do it for you. I agree the whole zombie mythos they go for here doesn't work at all with other versions. But once I let that go I enjoyed it.

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  8. I think all changes to the zombie mythology should beOKed by a panel of judges headed by George Romero.... I kid, I kid... but still, I'm wary of books that stray too far from canon.

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  9. The movie was kind of a fun flick. It definitely takes a somewhat 'sunnier' turn as far as zombies are concerned by the end, and that can be weird for anyone who's seen/read a lot of zombie stuff.

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