Warm Bodies | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Review
- Michaela Raschilla
- May 3, 2020
- 3 min read
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Warm Bodies
Written by Isaac Marion
Published October 2010 by Random House Vintage
So they said that zombies, ghouls, and ghosts would be the next big thing after vampires, werewolves, and demons if this book has any say I would call them omniscient. Who are they? you ask. I have no clue, literary analysts? You tell me. I read it somewhere I'm sure.
This is what had originally drawn me to the book in the first place. While I am not an avid book before movie person I do try to read before I watch when I can. I am never against reading the book after. I guess you would say I am the kind of person who promotes reading at all. You will never hear me say oh you saw the movie, its fine then you don't really need to read the book they are basically the same thing. Never.
This is a perfect example of that statement being utterly false. Even from the trailer I can tell they changed a few things that proved to be key components to several plot points in the novel.
I might update this post after viewing the movie and tell you about the differences and which I thought was a better medium for the story but for now I will leave it at this.
Let me get into the nitty-gritty of the book.
As far as plot goes, I thought this book had a good arc but the flow was a little to my disliking. For instance, I would say 85% of the novel was exposition and rising action. It really held you until the end before getting to the meat of everything. You would get snippets here and there, and you definitely had moments of action but the moment you were waiting for the big reveal the epiphany so to speak had to happen within the last fifty pages if not the last twenty. Now the book was by no means slow. I read it in one sitting. Start to finish.
Part of what made it so likeable was our main character and narrator R. This cute little zombie had quite the eloquent brain but the tongue of a toddler. It was quaint. He was valiant and daring for a supposed mindless corpse. That was the point wasn't it?
Our heroine Julie was slightly less endearing for me. While I sympathized with her I couldn't say that I liked her very much. Even while looking through R's rose colored glasses at her I didn't find her very strong. She had admirable qualities but there was something about her that bothered me. Perhaps it was her nonchalance at the knowledge that her current dead boyfriend ate the brain and acquired the memories of her previous dead boyfriend.
I would have to say that my favorite characters in the whole novel by far though were the two best friends. M, R's best friend was sarcastic as hell and I loved him for it, even if he was a zombie. How a zombie retains such a great quality I have no idea but the bruiser who can make me laugh will win my heart any day. My second favorite being Nora a much more strong female. When women are living in a zombie infested world I expected most if not all the women to be more like her. She was brazen and hardened and I liked that about her. While Julie seemed apathetic to some things she should have been emotional over and completely emotional over other things and was inconsistent in her fear and sadness Nora held a brave front. I admired her as a character and the stock piles of gumption she administered throughout the final pages.
I would like to add that my copy has these great anatomical drawings at the beginning of each section and while they didn't add anything to the story they were super cool to look at and I enjoyed them as an aesthetic addition.
I gave this novel a total of four out of five stars.
Overall, I really enjoyed the story and most of the characters while it had some little things that bugged me with the construction and unfolding of the story and definitely left me wanting to know what happened to the world overall I did get enough to satisfy myself as it is. I would recommend this to anybody who enjoys romance novels because it is completely ridiculous idea. It has some great social implications and I could consider it commentary on our society today as well as on the society within the novel. Ever so slightly thought provoking.
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