Review - Warm Bodies (Isaac Marion)

   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...                                                           

                                                                              -Goodreads.com

 My Review

I don’t quite know where to start with this book. I have quite mixed feelings about it, I didn’t love it nor did I hate it either. It simply existed upon my bedside table, was read until finished, and then put to the side; with no further thought really given. It’s not that it was a bad book it just didn’t particularly spark anything in me.

I first wanted to read this book after seeing the trailer for the movie, but was kind of disappointed when the book, didn’t really have any of the witty dialogue I was hoping for. ‘R’ was a very internalized character with a lot of the dialogue going on in his head. At times during the book, I felt the dialogue was too drawn out and had too much of a philosophical feel to it, something I wasn’t really expecting; not that it wasn’t a nice change.

I think the author did a good job of developing the characters, particularly R and it was great to see him change throughout the book, both physically and emotionally. However the main drawback to my enjoyment of this book was the slow pace. It started off great, but kind of lulled in the middle, with a lot of travel, internal monologue and little action. It wasn’t till the end that the story really picked up again.

If you have the time, and are particularly interested in the internal war of instinct versus morality then this book is definitely for you. But if you’re more interested in a hack and slash thrill ride I would give this one a miss.

My rating: 3/5