Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Available on
Amazon * Amazon.de * Barnes & Noble * Goodreads
Synopsis:

R is having a no-life crisis--he is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he is a little different from his fellow Dead. He may occasionally eat people, but he’d rather be riding abandoned airport escalators, listening to Sinatra in the cozy 747 he calls home, or collecting souvenirs from the ruins of civilization.

And then he meets a girl.

First as his captive, then his reluctant guest, Julie is a blast of living color in R’s gray landscape, and something inside him begins to bloom. He doesn't want to eat this girl--although she looks delicious--he wants to protect her. But their unlikely bond will cause ripples they can’t imagine, and their hopeless world won’t change without a fight.

Review:

Warm Bodies was a book club read recently. I had seen the movie back when it came out and absolutely loved it. It was so much fun and just amazing. I did read the book back then right afterwards and was really disappointed in it. I found it was not fun and cute and everything I loved about the movie. I was curious to see if now that I have had some distance if I would enjoy the book more. While I did enjoy it more than the first time I read it I still didn't like it.

R is a zombie who is not really happy with his lot in life. He collects things, he tries to connect with his other zombies, he just wanders around the airport where he lives. They go out sometimes to eat people, they need to eat or they will really break down, but he doesn't like it. It is different from eating when he was a human anyways.

Then he meets Julie. Or gets some memories of hers when he eats her boyfriend and then he is intrigued. There is something about her that draws him in and he wants to protect her. He brings her to the airport to keep her safe. Of course she has to eventually go back to her people and the odd relationship between the two of them starts things changing.

Now this all sounds good. Sounds like fun. Only I really didn't enjoy reading it. It was...the whole zombie world was just strange and not in a good way. And kind of gross. Like zombie "sex". *shudder* The zombies are much like humans. They get "married" then get zombie kids given to them, the kids have school to learn to kill humans, etc. Sounds like it should be interesting, but the way it was written I just really didn't like.

Also there is this love story aspect to the whole thing that I just didn't really see at all. R and Julie? Didn't see it. Sure R cares for her in his way, but in love with her? No. I didn't see Julie even really caring for R at all so when that came up, when she was like I want to kiss him, I was just like wait what? Where did this come from?? So it didn't work for me.

Overall with some distance from the movie I enjoyed the book more, but I still didn't really like it. I wanted it to be more fun and cute instead of gross and lame.

Rating: ★ ★