Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Warm Bodies: A Novel
Warm Bodies: A Novel
Warm Bodies: A Novel
Ebook305 pages4 hours

Warm Bodies: A Novel

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Read preview

About this ebook

R is a young man with an existential crisis--he is a zombie. He shuffles through an America destroyed by war, social collapse, and the mindless hunger of his undead comrades, but he craves something more than blood and brains. He can speak just a few grunted syllables, but his inner life is deep, full of wonder and longing. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he has dreams.

After experiencing a teenage boy's memories while consuming his brain, R makes an unexpected choice that begins a tense, awkward, and stragely sweet relationship with the victim's human girlfriend. Julie is a blast of color in the otherwise dreary and gray landscape that surrounds R. His decision to protect her will transform not only R, but his fellow Dead, and perhaps their whole lifeless world.

Scary, funny, and surprisingly poignant, Warm Bodies is about being alive, being dead, and the blurry line in between.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherAtria Books
Release dateApr 26, 2011
ISBN9781439192337
Warm Bodies: A Novel
Author

Isaac Marion

Isaac Marion grew up in the mossy depths of the Pacific Northwest, where he worked as a heating installer, a security guard, and a visitation supervisor for foster children before publishing his debut novel in 2010. Warm Bodies became a #5 New York Times bestseller and inspired a major Hollywood film adaptation. It has been translated into twenty-five languages worldwide. Isaac lives in Seattle with his cat and a beloved cactus, writing fiction and music, and taking pictures of everything. Visit IsaacMarion.com for more on these endeavors.

Related to Warm Bodies

Titles in the series (3)

View More

Related ebooks

YA Horror For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for Warm Bodies

Rating: 3.8987584336198666 out of 5 stars
4/5

1,047 ratings143 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    From my Cannonball Read V Review...

    I know it might be blasphemy to admit this, but here goes: I’m not really into zombies. I have no desire to watch The Walking Dead (and have muted all related hashtags on Twitter); no interest in World War Z. I did see Shawn of the Dead about two years ago and I recall laughing very loudly at Zombieland. But that’s it for me.

    I say this all because the reason I ended up reading Warm Bodies is because I saw the movie. It was available on Redbox, my husband and I wanted to watch something, and we both thought we’d remembered someone saying it was cute and different from standard zombie fare. And that generic someone was correct: the movie was adorable. So adorable that we ended up watching all the extras, including one where they speak with the author of the book. If I’m remembering correctly, the book was actually written to fulfill an option placed on a short story Mr. Marion had written, and which a film director had picked up. That sounded kind of interesting, so I decided to read the book.

    The book is a quick read – it’s not short, but the action moves at a nice clip. If you’re familiar with the film, you’ll recognize most of what’s in the book, although there are some differences. Based loosely on Romeo and Juliet, Warm Bodies follows the life (or “life”) of R., a zombie who has a very rich inner monologue. He lives in an airplane at the airport (flight has stopped long ago), goes out hunting with his fellow zombies, and even has a zombie wife. Until he runs into Julie and her friends, regular humans out on a scavenging mission from their home, an old sports stadium. Julie gets caught up with the zombies in R.'s hunting group, and R. saves her, taking her back with him to the airport and hiding her from the other zombies who just smell the life in her.

    While the book certainly has some connection to the star-crossed lovers concept of Romeo and Juliet (I mean, how much more star-crossed can you get when one of you is, you know, dead), I enjoyed it more for its exploration of what being a zombie means. Why DO they eat brains? What happens when they do? Do they have any feelings? Can they be helped? What does that mean for the regular, living humans? As I said, I’ve never really cared for zombies once they are seen as this threat to the humans, but the back story? The view from their eyes? That’s pretty cool indeed.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I will give this book a rating of 2.5. It wasn't for me. There were parts I enjoyed but at 50-60% in I just wanted it to be over. I felt some parts weren't necessary and prolonged the story. It took too long for me to get invested/attached to the characters, almost the end 70%. I will not see the movie.

    Although, I am not a Zombie fan and this book wasn't to my liking, I can understand why others enjoyed it. Marion is a good writer with interesting concepts. I will recommend this book and pass along my paperback copy to my nephews. Whom I'm sure will love it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What got me into reading this book was the narration by the author.The story starts with a strange dead like feeling and then changes subtly as the zombie protagonist starts changing .This narration is worth noticing .Although the story is not something very very unique but still its worth a read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    "Unable to believe what's happening, I put my arms around her and just hold her. I almost swear I can hear my heart thumping. But it must just be hers, pressed tight against my chest"This is one of my own books that I purchased from Amazon. I have heard so much about the book, and the fact that it's been turned into a movie that I had to get my hands on a copy.I haven't read anything by this author before, so I had no clue what his writing style was like. I'm glad I took the plunge because it was an amazing read.The story is written from "R's" perspective, which I think is really interesting. To have a zombie telling the story is going on a completely different angle, and it worked well. I adored "R". He really told the story well. The descriptions of certain things were occasionally quirky, fun and made you giggle. I enjoyed following his story, and I really felt for him and could understand his own personal feelings. Julie I really liked too. She was a strong independent woman who had a lot of spunk, and it was great to see her feelings come across too. "R's" friend "M" and Julie's friend Nora are another couple of like-able characters; always sticking up for their friends. Perry, who you learn about, seems like a right idiot, but he soon grows on you. Finally, you have "The Boneys" which are the dead of the dead. Literally. I thought the storyline was fantastic and well thought out. I was following the book entirely from the start to finish and couldn't put it down.The quote from above was definitely my favourite from the book. I found it really sweet and adorable.I love the whole general structure to the book. The chapters aren't too long, which is nice. The book is split into three parts: wanting, talking and living. These three parts contain the contents of what they are basically about, which you will learn when you read it. I find the pictures at the beginning of every chapter are interesting, nice to look at and certainly spark the book up. The cover of the edition I have is a simple one. A straightforward white background, with a picture of some blood vessels sprouting like a tree around the words "Warm Bodies". It looks unique.Overall, I'm going to give this book five stars because I absolutely loved the storyline and writing style. The characters were described fantastically, and my heart was in the book completely. I know I will read this book again one day. If you are interested in stories with zombies, romance and action, then I suggest you pick this up. It is a fantastic read.Happy reading =)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book was quite good. I thought I wasn't going to like it, but I found I enjoyed it even more than the movie. The is a book about a zombie who saves a girl instead of attacking. It has some interesting humorous moments as well as some pretty thrilling ones, in my opinion. I am a lover of all things zombie and really enjoyed this new take on zombie culture. I would love to experience more stories like it. Perhaps I'll look into reading more by Isaac Marion.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Bra-a-a-ins!Brain.Dreams. Heart.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In the book, Warm Bodies by isaac Marion is very cliche. The main character's name is R. He eats the brains of Perry who was dating Julie. When a zombie eats someone's brain they can feel and see the emotions of the human. So R falls in love with Julie since Perry was. Instead of eating her he leads her back to his home in the airport were he keeps her hidden. There they bond. In the beggining of the stroy R has a wife and kids that were zombies but his wife leaves him for another zombie. When Julie decides to go home R comes along later. With some make up she and her freind make him look human. The humans and zombies unite to fight against the corpses. Soon the zombies become healed with love and human effection. MY REVIEW----This book is extremely cliche and with some intresting factos. Since the begining I knew Julie would fall in love with the zombie and the zombies would become healed. This is how every cliche book ends ; with a happy ending. But there were little things that i really liked. The memories that the zombies see when eating a brain. Or how on each chapter there is a pictrue of a human body part with explanations. I like that he had a wife and how they adopted kids in the begining of the book. I especialy liked Perry's past story. How his father and mother were both zombies and killed. It's sad but shows us how Perry doesn't have a huge will to live anymore. This book is better then the movie but the movie was very good as well.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book was so amazing that I really can't form words to describe how much this book opened my eyes to this world and how it could be so much better if we all just loved each other...not to death, but to LIFE! I saw this movie last year and literally cried at the end because I got the message loud and clear. It was only natural for me to read the book for what was left out of the movie and I wasn't disappointed. There were so many messages, passages, phrases, and even whole pages that I underlined just so I could remember them for later. There is only one other book that opened my eyes so wide that it changed my point of view drastically and that was "The Shack" by Wm. Paul Young. This book comes in second place to it. You have to read this book. It's short and easy to work your way through. Just make sure you take a moment to let your uneaten brain soak up some of the wisdom. If not, you'll remain brain dead.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What got me into this book is the movie, the movie was really good and I didn't realize that there is a book for it so I picked the book. I have to say the book was a little cliche. The girl is going to falls in love with the zombie and the zombie is going to heal, anyone could predict the ending from the start. However I really like how when the zombie eats a human's brain he could see the human's memories. Cliche or not cliche this was a really fun read and I totally enjoyed both the movie and the book
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Needed some better editing. A lot of potential but some of the themes definitely could have been brought out more deftly.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Given this wonderful opportunity to review this book I can only say that I am glad not to have missed it. "WARM BODIES" is the kind of novel that leaves an imprint on your mind and broadens your imagination. This novel is without a doubt one of the best reads I've come across in a very long time. I find the entire concept of the regaining of humanity so enlightening and for once to have a zombie novel give hope to the prospect of recreating the world was vastly creative! Kudos to you Isaac Marion, you have pulled off what I feel will become one of the greatest stories in the supernatural vein that contains depth, intrigue, and emotion. I hope you continue to write because I can honestly say I crave more of this story as much as the "Bonies" crave retribution!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Love the writing style and FYI it is not appropriate for young teenagers. Language and violence
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I love this book and I will try to translate it in chinese then I can share it with my friends.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Warm Bodies throws zombie lore on it's ear and does it well. Essentially answering the question, "What if Romeo were a zombie and Juliet wasn't?" it's a thought provoking ride that keeps the pages turning. Perfect for readers who aren't usually zombie fans.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Cute premise, but the execution felt a little heavy handed. Particularly the end.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm not a zombie fan, but this story was great. It was a whole new way to look at zombies- with the cure itself giving new perspective. I liked the romance and I liked the scenario it was set in.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    See my review of this book, and many more, at Tales from the Great East Road.


    (Contains spoilers.)


    What exactly happens to a person’s mind when they’re bitten by a zombie? R knows he has lost a huge part of himself to the virus, including his name, but that doesn’t mean he stops thinking – or dreaming. He spends his days wandering the airport he and his fellow zombies have overrun, losing himself in routine of walking in circles, as he tries to remember. He even has a friend he can talk to (albeit very slowly).

    Despite this R is still a zombie: a monster that craves human blood. Until he meets Julie, a human girl, and find he has to save her life or reasons even he doesn’t know. Can R still be human in some way? Is it possible he’s falling in love?

    Warm Bodies starts off beautifully. Through R’s first person narrative, we are shown the inner workings of a man who has become a monster, still clinging onto the last few pieces of his humanity. He wonders who he is, as “R” is all he can remember from his name, and tries to forge relationships with other zombies. He understandably becomes obsessed with human creations, like music, to try and feel connected to humanity again. This novel also uses the interesting idea that the reason zombies eat human brains is because they can relive a person’s memories through this. This leads to a hilarious scene between R and his friend M, sharing a brain like two teenagers sharing a joint.

    If the book had continued in this fashion it would have been five stars. Then along come the love interest, Julie. This girl has survived a zombie apocalypse, watched the world fall apart around her, seen her boyfriend eaten in front of her, yet spends the whole book whining her life is so hard and that Daddy doesn’t love her enough, because he’s trying to save everyone else and fix the world. It’s near impossible to believe that she’s so special that she is supposed to be the one who cures all the zombies by spreading love. Also, how could you fall in love with the zombie who literally ripped apart your boyfriend right in front of your eyes?

    The book would have worked so much better if it had been the story of R’s redemption by facing all the monstrous things he’d done to survive, but he is never punished for his actions and all the people he has killed, not even by himself. In fact, Julie forgives him for eating Perry, her boyfriend, almost instantly because they were having relationship problems. By eating Perry’s brain, R is (somehow) able to communicate with the dead man through his memories – these scenes are very weird and disjointed. The whole book was written in a a poetic style that felt forced, like the author was trying too hard.

    Warm Bodies could have been such an amazing novel, but it quickly lost its harsh, realistic edge then continued to go downhill as it tried too hard for a “happily-ever-after” ending, which ruined it completely.

    2 stars.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Warm Bodies is probably the most unique work of fiction I've ever read. It is a tale of post-apocalyptic human survival against a zombie horde, except in this case, the main character and first-person narrator is one of the zombies. Said zombie is an existential philosopher who is trying to discern his reason for living (or being undead as the case may be). All of this is couched in a love story, although I hesitate to classify it as romance like many other readers do. It just simply isn't written in the style of romance, nor are the emotions as palpable as they are in most romance novels. However, I will certainly allow that love is a driving force in the story and without it there couldn't have been the happy ending that is classic to romances.In my opinion, what makes this story so unique is it's protagonist, a zombie simply known as R. He can no longer remember the name he had when he was one of the Living, but he recalls the first letter being R. He spends his days in an often stupefied state at the old airport which is inhabited by his hive, lumbering around and groaning. Despite his outward appearance and actions, R has a rich inner thought life in which he analyzes his existence as a zombie. At his heart, R is a philosopher, but even though he can ruminate on the deeper meaning of life and death, he cannot remember enough human speech to verbalize much of what he's thinking, and even if he could, there is no one around who would care. I liked that R exhibited an unusual sense of morality for a creature such as himself. Although his “wild nature” drives him to hunt humans, he's not entirely comfortable with doing it. He's also a collector of human artifacts, which I saw as a way for him to remain linked to his humanity. Something inside R begins to fundamentally change the day he goes hunting and eats the brain of a young security officer named Perry. R promptly starts feeling guilty about this, because through consuming the scrumptious morsel, he becomes privy to all of Perry's thoughts and memories. Some of his most compelling memories are of his time with a girl named Julie. Essentially living vicariously through Perry's memories, R decides that Julie, who was present when Perry and most of the other members of her salvage crew were killed, is not someone to be eaten, but someone to be protected. He takes her back to the airport with him, and she becomes the first person he has ever really tried to communicate with since being turned zombie. Together, they embark on an adventure in which they must try to figure out why R's interactions with Julie have begun to change him, why some of those changes seem to be transferring to other zombies in his hive, and whether they might be able to stop or even reverse the effects of the plague that made the zombies.Julie is the main female character, but we only see her through R's eyes. Because of this, there were times when I felt like something was missing. There wasn't quite sufficient explanation about who she was as a person and her motivations for doing certain things. She's had a pretty rough life in which she had to grow up fast in a world that was crumbling around her. She's a brave spitfire who doesn't really take any grief from anyone, and she has a curious nature too. This may be part of why she's so open toward R almost from the start. She sees that he's different from other zombies she's encountered, and after a short period of fear, she becomes almost blasé about being friends with him. This is where being privy to her thoughts would have helped me to understand her motives better, but as I read further and learned more about her life, my understanding of her character gradually became clearer.There are a few secondary characters who play significant roles. Perry, despite being dead, lives on in R. The way in which he begins communicating with R reminded me somewhat of the relationship between Melanie and Wanderer in Stephanie Meyer's The Host. Perry was an intriguing character who appeared to be a rather doom and gloom person. He had essentially decided his life was all but over anyway and that he probably wouldn't live much longer. I think I understood what fueled this attitude in him, but again, like with Julie, it would have been nice to know a little more about him. Perry, in effect, becomes R's conscience, driving him to seek more from life. Julie's best friend, Nora, is another kick-butt girl who doesn't take any crap. R's zombie friend, M, also recognizes when things begin to change and helps lead the revolt. Then there is Julie's father, the general in charge of the human security forces, who unfortunately has become so blinded by his own hatred for the zombies, he won't listen to reason when Julie tries to tell him that she thinks she may have found a way to start curing them. Luckily, his second in command and Julie's surrogate grandfather, Rosso, sees what his friend doesn't.It appears that one of the major genre categories for Warm Bodies is young adult fiction which makes sense given the age of the protagonists. Although their ages aren't outright specified, it is implied that Julie, Perry and Nora are still teenagers, but in many ways they act older, probably due to their circumstances. No one really knows how old R is, but there is some speculation that he was probably only in his twenties when he was turned. Given the young adult classification, there is some content in the book to which parents might object. For starters, there is quite a bit of language, including frequent uses of the f-word. Given that most of the characters appear to be teenagers, there is also some underage drinking going on. Sex is more talked about than actually described, but there is some mature content in that respect. Some of the things that occur: R briefly describes zombie sex which is basically a poor imitation of human sex, a character watches porn, a character's arousal is implied, a character tells of having prostituted herself at the age of thirteen, and a boyfriend and girlfriend are mentioned to have made love several times. When looked at in perspective, none of these things, language, drinking or sex, are terribly surprising though, given the rough nature of the post-apocalyptic setting in which people are struggling for day to day survival and social niceties have, for the most part, become a thing of the past. Of course, last but not least is the violence and gore. More than once the zombies go on hunting raids, looking for humans to eat, and sometimes, the consumption of human flesh is described. At times, it made me a little squeamish, but overall, I didn't think it was overly graphic. There are some good messages for young people here too about standing up for what's right, looking for common ground to solve differences, not giving up even though things seem hopeless, and the fact that love can heal a multitude of hurts. Overall though, given the content and the philosophical nature of the book which might be difficult for younger readers to understand anyway, I would only feel comfortable recommending it to readers sixteen and up who wouldn't be bothered by any of the things I mentioned.In Warm Bodies, Isaac Marion has crafted a very unusual story that was an enjoyable read. I liked the world-building here, and he described everything in a way that was easy to envision. He's also a master of metaphor. Not only is he clever with a turn of phrase, but the entire story becomes a metaphor for hate, avarice and a plethora of other sins, a morality tale of sorts. While it was a very well put together story, I wouldn't say it was perfect. In addition to some character motivations being a bit murky as I mentioned earlier, the pacing was a little slow in places, especially given the post-apocalyptic setting filled with zombies. This novel is written in present-tense which I think was appropriate, but the author has a tendency to frequently use present perfect tense when I thought simple present tense would have given the narrative more punch and a greater sense of immediacy. Despite me zoning out a little during the earlier parts of the book, the ending was pretty action-packed, keeping me on the edge of my seat. For this reason and because of the delightful oddity of the story, I decided it was worthy of keeper status. While Warm Bodies is a self-contained story, it does leave some room for a continuation which it appears Mr. Marion is working on as we speak. There are also some short stories he wrote which are set in the same world and star the same characters. I'll be looking forward to checking those out while waiting for the next installment in the series.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Mixed on this one. The writing was engaging but the book struck me as (unintentionally) depressing. R seemed like he was having a mid-life crisis and there seemed to be too many undercurrents trying to say we live zombie-like lives. Or maybe I was just reading way too much into it. But yeah. I did like the characters, though, and the first three quarters of the book was pretty engrossing. The last fourth got a little deep thinky / mystical for me. So yeah, mixed.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Opening with the best kind of dry humor, this book instantly grabbed me and made want to read more. R is our zombie narrator, and we follow him as he explains what the world is now. Filled with shambling and lost zombies, R and his friends each have no memory of who they were or what really happened to them in the first place. All that has been lost in the recesses of their mind when they turned. Or has it?

    We are introduced to R at the beginning, and he remains our zombie narrator the rest of the story. My favorite part about R was how different he was from the others, even in the very beginning. There was a overall humanity to him that was easy to relate to, and yes I really did find myself falling in love with a zombie. Rotting flesh and all. What Isaac Marion does is create this character that is such a part of us that, despite his undead state, you find things to relate to in him. R likes the simple joy of riding escalators, of listening to Frankie Blue Eyes, and even of just sitting in the sunshine. Even though he has no pulse, he is so endearing!

    This book completely surprised me. Yes, it does contain all the typical zombie items. Eating of brains, shambling, and of course the occasional rotting flesh. However it so much more than that. At the heart of Warm Bodies is a love story of the most sincere kind. In fact I'd equate it to a bit of an old school fairy tale. It isn't always pretty, it isn't always happy, but in the end everything turns out the way it is meant to. Definitely unique, this book has successfully meshed the romance and zombie elements together in a perfect way! I cannot begin to explain how impressed I was.

    Final verdict? I devoured this book with a fervor from beginning to end. A perfect mix of bittersweet romance and zombie lore, Warm Bodies is a book that is unlike any other I have ever read! R helps us to explore our own mortality and humanity, while leading us through one heck of a story line. Thank you Isaac Marion. I was able to see my beloved zombies in a whole new light and I couldn't ask for more!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A fun story. The writing isn't great, the plot doesn't make sense, and one of the two main characters, Julie, is portrayed so shallowly as to be unbelievable and verging on offensive (she has no hangups, not even reflexive, about falling in love with the zombie who murdered and ate her ex). It has a happy ending. I hate to say it, but I think the movie may have been better. Go in with low expectations, and enjoy.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Warm Bodies (Warm Bodies #1) by Isaac Marion was so boring that I got about half way through by forcing myself and gave up. I could not finish which is not like me at all. If I review a book, I finish it but I just could not torture myself any longer.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Very great book. loved the book and the movie. awsome!!!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When I finished this book just minutes ago, I stood and watched out of my window and saw trees, cars and people. I thought what to say about it and find it hard. When I read Hunger games I was frightened because nothing in there was unbelievable. This book gave me similar feeling. Who knows where disease evolve and/or human evolutions is heading to. But don´t think it is a world ends book, it is a world begins book. And a love story also.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    R. is a zombie, shuffling slowly and relentlessly through life, thinking a lot, but barely able to speak. And then, in a raid on the living, he gets a bit of the brain of Julie's boyfriend and becomes protective of her. From there the story becomes ever more complex and filled with life, and warmth, and characters, and complexity. It's a bit like the world of Oz, suddenly glorious Technicolor after the bleak greyscale of Kansas.

    I don't want to talk about the plot too much, because I'm afraid anything I could say would be spoilery. There is a change in mood and tone with the addition of Julie, and that depth is vivid after the soul-crushing start. Reading this was a delightful revelation. This is the book for people who think they don't like zombie stories. I can't wait to see what else Marion does.

    Library copy.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    this book was meh.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    loved the movie
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was on my wish list for so long. So I was beyond happy when it was picked for the book club I participate in. I couldn’t wait to read it, and started it as soon as I got it.I had such high hopes for this book, and I wasn’t let down at all. The only problem I had with it, was that it wasn’t long enough. I really wish it was longer.Warm Bodies made me so happy. I think I had a smile on my face the entire time I was reading it.I can’t wait for book two. I hope it is just as fun and cheesy as the first.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Book: I love zombie books, and this one will probably be on my list of pick me ups. I'm not usually one to read stories about love, but include zombies, and I'm there. Yes I'm weird.

    Warm Bodies is a very quick read. We get a first hand account of how the zombie, R, sees the world. He's different. He doesn't necessarily want to be a monster. He just doesn't have much of a choice. He's very endearing, and really awkward. I think his characteristics before becoming a zombie shine through. But that's just me. I do hope that we have an opportunity to get glimpses into R's life before zombification. Julie is a great character. She's tough, and take charge, but she also has the capacity for forgiveness.

    If you're looking for a ton of action, there isn't much in this book. Although the Boneys are kind of freaky. This is a great love story with a zombie twist. I definitely recommend it for a light, fun read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A book I first read about 4 years ago. With my hands on the novella prequel and the novel sequel, I dipped in again. First, a word on the film of the book. It’s not a bad film, but it uses the more humourous parts to convey the author’s much more visceral idea too lightly. When I first saw trailers I imagined the book to be a Young Adult ‘popcorn’ story, a jokey hoot. Do yourself a favour; if you’ve seen the film, regardless of whether you liked it, DO read the book. It’s a decidedly different experience.With the characters of Julie and ‘R’ the setting is a modern twist on Romeo and Juliet set in a dystopian future where zombies outnumber the living. Even many of the survivors seem dead inside, imprisoned as they are behind their safety barriers. Like many zombie books this is a story that questions and reflects society, but particularly skilfully. An unexpected read the first time around, and no less pleasurable the second. The book contains threads of something dark and disturbing, yet enlightening. This book will speak to some people though not all; I hope it speaks to many. This is not a gory horror novel, not a teen Rom-com spoof. Hidden within its pages is a celebration of life in all its messiness. The story is a metaphor for so many things, the state of the world, life’s meaning, civilisation out of control. It imparts the essence of almost every zombie story and life itself. It’s a book about living.

    1 person found this helpful

Book preview

Warm Bodies - Isaac Marion

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

PRAISE FOR

WARM BODIES

The words Isaac Marion uses to describe his grim near-future are silken smooth. They slip through the mind’s grasp easily, pleasurably, leaving hardly a hint of themselves in the images they evoke.

The Seattle Times

"It’s got the boarded-up strongholds and mob mentality of Night of the Living Dead—but also romance."

Time Out New York

I never thought I could care so passionately for a zombie. Isaac Marion has created the most unexpected romantic lead I’ve ever encountered, and rewritten the entire concept of what it means to be a zombie in the process. This story stayed with me long after I was done reading it. I eagerly await his next book.

—Stephenie Meyer, #1 New York Times bestselling author

of the Twilight saga

"Warm Bodies is a strange and unexpected treat. R is the thinking woman’s zombie—though somewhat gray-skinned and monosyllabic, he could be the perfect boyfriend, if he could manage to refrain from eating you. This is a wonderful book, elegantly written, touching and fun, as delightful as a mouthful of fresh brains."

—Audrey Niffenegger, #1 New York Times bestselling author

of The Time Traveler’s Wife

Dark and funny.

Wired

This title is also available as an eBook.

Marion explores the meaning of humanity through R’s journey toward personhood, a tale that gets grander in scale as his empathy builds and the book’s true villains—cynicism, apathy, and status quo—are revealed.

Paste Magazine

"Isaac Marion has a great new voice that hooks you from page one and accomplishes the impossible: it makes you care about young zombie love. Warm Bodies is a terrific read."

—Josh Bazell, New York Times bestselling author

of Beat the Reaper

A jubilant story about two star-crossed lovers, one of them dead and hungry for more than love.

—Kirkus Reviews

Marion is a disarming writer, ruefully humorous, knowingly cinematic in scope. This is a slacker-zombie novel with a heart.

The Guardian (UK)

"Warm Bodies is a terrific book—a compelling literary fantasy that is also a strange and affecting pop-culture parable."

—Nick Harkaway, author of The Gone-Away World

R does possess a certain winsome charm, and the upbeat ending will warm many hearts.

Publishers Weekly

A visually arresting, bleakly Ballardesque world. . . . Wryly playful, cinematic, and ultimately moving.

Time Out London

A mesmerising evolution of a classic contemporary myth.

—Simon Pegg, New York Times bestselling author

of Nerd Do Well

Both tender and lacerating, this zombie novel has more to say about being alive than being dead. ‘Love’ is not a strong enough word for my feelings about this book.

—Maggie Stiefvater, author

of the Shiver trilogy and the Books of Faerie novels

Enormous fun.

Marie Claire (UK)

"Warm Bodies is a terrific zombook. Whether you’re warm-bodied or cold-bodied, snuggle up to it with the lights low and enjoy a dead-lightful combination of horror and romance."

—Examiner.com

A captivating debut novel that is as romantic as it is terrifying. . . . Marion is an amazing storyteller who writes from his heart, or from his viscera, as the case may be.

—SFScope

A unique and poignant story about life, love, and change. . . . Marion’s writing style is straightforward, funny, and strong, just like his characters. . . . You can’t help but be drawn into this post-apocalyptic world and root for love and hope where none should exist.

—Fresh Fiction

Thought-provoking and highly original. . . . Imaginative characters and quirky dialogue make this a captivating read . . . that readers will devour.

—Dark Faerie Tales

Has there been a more sympathetic monster since Frankenstein’s?

The Financial Times (UK)

title

For the foster kids I’ve met

You have known, O Gilgamesh,

What interests me,

To drink from the Well of Immortality.

Which means to make the dead

Rise from their graves

And the prisoners from their cells

The sinners from their sins.

I think love’s kiss kills our heart of flesh.

It is the only way to eternal life,

Which should be unbearable if lived

Among the dying flowers

And the shrieking farewells

Of the overstretched arms of our spoiled hopes.

—Herbert Mason,

Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative

. . .

The Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet II,

lines 147, 153, 154, 278, 279

STEP ONE

wanting

picture

I AM DEAD, but it’s not so bad. I’ve learned to live with it. I’m sorry I can’t properly introduce myself, but I don’t have a name anymore. Hardly any of us do. We lose them like car keys, forget them like anniversaries. Mine might have started with an R, but that’s all I have now. It’s funny because back when I was alive, I was always forgetting other people’s names. My friend M says the irony of being a zombie is that everything is funny, but you can’t smile, because your lips have rotted off.

None of us are particularly attractive, but death has been kinder to me than some. I’m still in the early stages of decay. Just the gray skin, the unpleasant smell, the dark circles under my eyes. I could almost pass for a Living man in need of a vacation. Before I became a zombie I must have been a businessman, a banker or broker or some young temp learning the ropes, because I’m wearing fairly nice clothes. Black slacks, gray shirt, red tie. M makes fun of me sometimes. He points at my tie and tries to laugh, a choked, gurgling rumble deep in his gut. His clothes are holey jeans and a plain white T-shirt. The shirt is looking pretty macabre by now. He should have picked a darker color.

We like to joke and speculate about our clothes, since these final fashion choices are the only indication of who we were before we became no one. Some are less obvious than mine: shorts and a sweater, skirt and a blouse. So we make random guesses.

You were a waitress. You were a student. Ring any bells?

It never does.

No one I know has any specific memories. Just a vague, vestigial knowledge of a world long gone. Faint impressions of past lives that linger like phantom limbs. We recognize civilization—buildings, cars, a general overview—but we have no personal role in it. No history. We are just here. We do what we do, time passes, and no one asks questions. But like I’ve said, it’s not so bad. We may appear mindless, but we aren’t. The rusty cogs of cogency still spin, just geared down and down till the outer motion is barely visible. We grunt and groan, we shrug and nod, and sometimes a few words slip out. It’s not that different from before.

But it does make me sad that we’ve forgotten our names. Out of everything, this seems to me the most tragic. I miss my own and I mourn for everyone else’s, because I’d like to love them, but I don’t know who they are.

•   •   •

There are hundreds of us living in an abandoned airport outside some large city. We don’t need shelter or warmth, obviously, but we like having the walls and roofs over our heads. Otherwise we’d just be wandering in an open field of dust somewhere, and that would be horrifying. To have nothing at all around us, nothing to touch or look at, no hard lines whatsoever, just us and the gaping maw of the sky. I imagine that’s what being full-dead is like. An emptiness vast and absolute.

I think we’ve been here a long time. I still have all my flesh, but there are elders who are little more than skeletons with clinging bits of muscle, dry as jerky. Somehow it still extends and contracts, and they keep moving. I have never seen any of us die of old age. Left alone with plenty of food, maybe we’d live forever, I don’t know. The future is as blurry to me as the past. I can’t seem to make myself care about anything to the right or left of the present, and the present isn’t exactly urgent. You might say death has relaxed me.

•   •   •

I am riding the escalators when M finds me. I ride the escalators several times a day, whenever they move. It’s become a ritual. The airport is derelict, but the power still flickers on sometimes, maybe flowing from emergency generators stuttering deep underground. Lights flash and screens blink, machines jolt into motion. I cherish these moments. The feeling of things coming to life. I stand on the steps and ascend like a soul into Heaven, that sugary dream of our childhoods, now a tasteless joke.

After maybe thirty repetitions, I rise to find M waiting for me at the top. He is hundreds of pounds of muscle and fat draped on a six-foot-five frame. Bearded, bald, bruised and rotten, his grisly visage slides into view as I crest the staircase summit. Is he the angel that greets me at the gates? His ragged mouth is oozing black drool.

He points in a vague direction and grunts, City.

I nod and follow him.

We are going out to find food. A hunting party forms around us as we shuffle toward town. It’s not hard to find recruits for these expeditions, even if no one is hungry. Focused thought is a rare occurrence here, and we all follow it when it manifests. Otherwise we’d just be standing around and groaning all day. We do a lot of standing around and groaning. Years pass this way. The flesh withers on our bones and we stand here, waiting for it to go. I often wonder how old I am.

•   •   •

The city where we do our hunting is conveniently close. We arrive around noon the next day and start looking for flesh. The new hunger is a strange feeling. We don’t feel it in our stomachs—some of us don’t even have those. We feel it everywhere equally, a sinking, sagging sensation, as if our cells are deflating. Last winter, when so many Living joined the Dead and our prey became scarce, I watched some of my friends become full-dead. The transition was undramatic. They just slowed down, then stopped, and after a while I realized they were corpses. It disquieted me at first, but it’s against etiquette to notice when one of us dies. I distracted myself with some groaning.

I think the world has mostly ended, because the cities we wander through are as rotten as we are. Buildings have collapsed. Rusted cars clog the streets. Most glass is shattered, and the wind drifting through the hollow high-rises moans like an animal left to die. I don’t know what happened. Disease? War? Social collapse? Or was it just us? The Dead replacing the Living? I guess it’s not so important. Once you’ve arrived at the end of the world, it hardly matters which route you took.

We start to smell the Living as we approach a dilapidated apartment building. The smell is not the musk of sweat and skin, it’s the effervescence of life energy, like the ionized tang of lightning and lavender. We don’t smell it in our noses. It hits us deeper inside, near our brains, like wasabi. We converge on the building and crash our way inside.

We find them huddled in a small studio unit with the windows boarded up. They are dressed worse than we are, wrapped in filthy tatters and rags, all of them badly in need of a shave. M will be saddled with a short blond beard for the rest of his Fleshy existence, but everyone else in our party is cleanshaven. It’s one of the perks of being dead, another thing we don’t have to worry about anymore. Beards, hair, toenails  . . . no more fighting biology. Our wild bodies have finally been tamed.

Slow and clumsy but with unswerving commitment, we launch ourselves at the Living. Shotgun blasts fill the dusty air with gunpowder and gore. Black blood spatters the walls. The loss of an arm, a leg, a portion of torso, this is disregarded, shrugged off. A minor cosmetic issue. But some of us take shots to our brains, and we drop. Apparently there’s still something of value in that withered gray sponge because if we lose it, we are corpses. The zombies to my left and right hit the ground with moist thuds. But there are plenty of us. We are overwhelming. We set upon the Living, and we eat.

Eating is not a pleasant business. I chew off a man’s arm, and I hate it. I hate his screams, because I don’t like pain, I don’t like hurting people, but this is the world now. This is what we do. Of course if I don’t eat all of him, if I spare his brain, he’ll rise up and follow me back to the airport, and that might make me feel better. I’ll introduce him to everyone, and maybe we’ll stand around and groan for a while. It’s hard to say what friends are anymore, but that might be close. If I restrain myself, if I leave enough . . .

But I don’t. I can’t. As always I go straight for the good part, the part that makes my head light up like a picture tube. I eat the brain, and for about thirty seconds, I have memories. Flashes of parades, perfume, music . . . life. Then it fades, and I get up, and we all stumble out of the city, still cold and gray, but feeling a little better. Not good, exactly, not happy, certainly not alive, but . . . a little less dead. This is the best we can do.

I trail behind the group as the city disappears behind us. My steps plod a little heavier than the others’. When I pause at a rain-filled pothole to scrub gore off my face and clothes, M drops back and slaps a hand on my shoulder. He knows my distaste for some of our routines. He knows I’m a little more sensitive than most. Sometimes he teases me, twirls my messy black hair into pigtails and says, Girl. Such . . . girl. But he knows when to take my gloom seriously. He pats my shoulder and just looks at me. His face isn’t capable of much expressive nuance anymore, but I know what he wants to say. I nod, and we keep walking.

I don’t know why we have to kill people. I don’t know what chewing through a man’s neck accomplishes. I steal what he has to replace what I lack. He disappears, and I stay. It’s simple but senseless, arbitrary laws from some lunatic legislator in the sky. But following those laws keeps me walking, so I follow them to the letter. I eat until I stop eating, then I eat again.

How did this start? How did we become what we are? Was it some mysterious virus? Gamma rays? An ancient curse? Or something even more absurd? No one talks about it much. We are here, and this is the way it is. We don’t complain. We don’t ask questions. We go about our business.

There is a chasm between me and the world outside of me. A gap so wide my feelings can’t cross it. By the time my screams reach the other side, they have dwindled into groans.

•   •   •

At the Arrivals gate, we are greeted by a small crowd, watching us with hungry eyes or eyesockets. We drop our cargo on the floor: two mostly intact men, a few meaty legs, and a dismembered torso, all still warm. Call it leftovers. Call it takeout. Our fellow Dead fall on them and feast right there on the floor like animals. The life remaining in those cells will keep them from full-dying, but the Dead who don’t hunt will never quite be satisfied. Like men at sea deprived of fresh fruit, they will wither in their deficiencies, weak and perpetually empty, because the new hunger is a lonely monster. It grudgingly accepts the brown meat and lukewarm blood, but what it craves is closeness, that grim sense of connection that courses between their eyes and ours in those final moments, like some dark negative of love.

I wave to M and then break free from the crowd. I have long since acclimated to the Dead’s pervasive stench, but the reek rising off them today feels especially fetid. Breathing is optional, but I need some air.

I wander out into the connecting hallways and ride the conveyors. I stand on the belt and watch the scenery scroll by through the window wall. Not much to see. The runways are turning green, overrun with grass and brush. Jets lie motionless on the concrete like beached whales, white and monumental. Moby Dick, conquered at last.

Before, when I was alive, I could never have done this. Standing still, watching the world pass by me, thinking about nearly nothing. I remember effort. I remember targets and deadlines, goals and ambitions. I remember being purposeful, always everywhere all the time. Now I’m just standing here on the conveyor, along for the ride. I reach the end, turn around, and go back the other way. The world has been distilled. Being dead is easy.

After a few hours of this, I notice a female on the opposite conveyor. She doesn’t lurch or groan like most of us; her head just lolls from side to side. I like that about her, that she doesn’t lurch or groan. I catch her eye and stare at her as we approach. For a brief moment we are side by side, only a few feet away. We pass, then travel on to opposite ends of the hall. We turn around and look at each other. We get back on the conveyors. We pass each other again. I grimace and she grimaces back. On our third pass, the airport power dies, and we come to a halt perfectly aligned. I wheeze hello, and she responds with a hunch of her shoulder.

I like her. I reach out and touch her hair. Like me, her decomposition is at an early stage. Her skin is pale and her eyes are sunken, but she has no exposed bones or organs. Her irises are an especially light shade of that strange pewter gray all the Dead share. Her graveclothes are a black skirt and a snug white buttonup. I suspect she used to be a receptionist.

Pinned to her chest is a silver nametag.

She has a name.

I stare hard at the tag; I lean in close, putting my face inches from her breasts, but it doesn’t help. The letters spin and reverse in my vision; I can’t hold them down. As always, they elude me, just a series of meaningless lines and blots.

Another of M’s undead ironies—from nametags to newspapers, the answers to our questions are written all around us, and we don’t know how to read.

I point at the tag and look her in the eyes. Your . . . name?

She looks at me blankly.

I point at myself and pronounce the remaining fragment of my own name. Rrr. Then I point at her again.

Her eyes drop to the floor. She shakes her head. She doesn’t remember. She doesn’t even have syllable one, like M and I do. She is no one. But don’t I always expect too much? I reach out and take her hand. We walk off the conveyers with our arms stretched across the divider.

This female and I have fallen in love. Or what’s left of it.

I think I remember what love was like before. There were complex emotional and biological factors. We had elaborate tests to pass, connections to forge, ups and downs and tears and whirlwinds. It was an ordeal, an exercise in agony, but it was alive. The new love is simpler. Easier. But small.

My girlfriend doesn’t talk much. We walk through the echoing corridors of the airport, occasionally passing someone staring out a window or at a wall. I try to think of things to say but nothing comes, and if something did come I probably couldn’t say it. This is my great obstacle, the biggest of all the boulders littering my path. In my mind I am eloquent; I can climb intricate scaffolds of words to reach the highest cathedral ceilings and paint my thoughts. But when I open my mouth, it all collapses. So far my personal record is four rolling syllables before some . . . thing . . . jams. And I may be the most loquacious zombie in this airport.

I don’t know why we don’t speak. I can’t explain the suffocating silence that hangs over our world, cutting us off from each other like prison-visit Plexiglas. Prepositions are painful, articles are arduous, adjectives are wild overachievements. Is this muteness a real physical handicap? One of the many symptoms of being Dead? Or do we just have nothing left to say?

I attempt conversation with my girlfriend, testing out a few awkward phrases and shallow questions, trying to get a reaction out of her, any twitch

Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1