Hello Blogiverse!

Hope you’re having a productive weekend. I’m enjoying the fruits of my labors from my first semester of grad school with a much needed break. I may be getting borderline lazy and not getting out as much as I used to, but hey, I’m enjoying it. Also, it’s giving me plenty of time to work on writing. More on that in another post, but for now it’s book review time!

Today I’m reviewing Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion.

Okay, so I watched the movie what feels like eons ago, but I do recall liking it. What really brought this book series to mind was a convo with one of my book buddies Misty from Misty’s Book Space.

I hadn’t had a lot of time to do buddy reads with grad school, but with the break on, I reached out as soon as I could. Misty loves romance, and I love horror, so we thought this novel would be a perfect mix of both things we adore.

This post will be my individual opinion, followed by a read and rant post where we talk about what we thought without getting too spoilery.

Alright, let’s get on with the review!

Blurb

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.

GoodReads

Amazon

***Brief disclosure***

I am an Amazon affiliate and earn a tiny commission for purchases made through the Amazon links in this post at no cost to you. It’s a great way to help me keep things running on my blog if you’re already intrigued enough to make a purchase. 

The Review

This was a tough book to rate, borderline knocking my head against the wall difficult. There were some really great things going for it, but also some things I wish would’ve been done better.

In a nutshell, this book is about a zombie named R. He lives out his existence in a destroyed America, hunting those still lucky enough to have their lives for a fresh meal. That all changes when he meets Julie. Something begins to change in him, something that could change the post apocalyptic world around him. Could this be the beginning of the end for zombies, or is this just a fleeting aberration?

I’ve been on something of a zombie kick lately, and this book was a fun departure for me. I love the post apocalyptic setting. Doom and gloom is something that definitely fits me.

R was an intriguing protagonist. In films and novels written on the subject we’ve rarely seen any glimpse inside of the zombie’s mind, and this take was really fresh. R keeps some semblance of his human thoughts, but is trapped in the nightmare of being a zombie and a slave to his cravings. I do have to say that I think we could’ve seen more of the zombie side in the beginning to showcase how uncontrollable his urges are. He just seems a bit too aware from page one for my taste, and that polarization would’ve given him more development.

I really liked Julie as the romantic interest. Her no-nonsense personality really shines through, especially in her dialogue and actions, but she also has a softer side that we get to see too.

Honorable mention goes to M. He may not say much, but he’s quite the bachelor zombie and I loved the little tidbits of humor he provided.

I think the plot is where things fell a bit short for me. So R starts to feel different and embarks on this journey to figure it out. That’s all great, and I enjoyed following along, but the real issue for me is that there really weren’t many (if any) answers to what’s going on with R by the end of the book. If anything there are more questions. I don’t mind having some lingering questions at the end of a book, but it felt like I went through this whole novel and got almost nothing in the answers department. It was super frustrating for me.

More specifically, I’m confused as to why a specific victim of R’s had such an impact on him. It’s fine that it does have an impact, but without any answers it just seemed a bit random to me.

I did enjoy this book enough to give the next book a try, but if there aren’t enough answers given in the next book, then I probably won’t be continuing on from there.

That’s A Wrap!

Well that’s it for this book review. I hope you enjoyed it!

Have you read this book? Are there other similar books you’ve read that you simply have to gush about? Feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to start a conversation!

Have a great day!

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