Warm Bodies

'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...

*May Contain Spoilers*

Isaac Marion discovers the cure to the zombie apocalypse in his novel, Warm Bodies. And surprisingly, it's the will to stay alive, the will to change, and the desire to love. R is the main character and for a zombie, he's only half bad. 

Readers may have a difficult time connecting with R because as a member of the Dead, he can't remember anything about his life. Without a past to build a foundation on, readers will struggle to connect with R. But, he is constantly fighting to regain any semblance of a life - therefore, a different foundation is created. 

R's story is one of hope, love, and faith. He refuses to give up hope for a better way of being a living dead creature. He finds that he can still fall in love and he has faith that the Dead and the Living can come together, building a new world while helping the Dead population reverse their transition. 

The plot of the novel is very intriguing, but doesn't pick up speed until the second half of the book. The main movement is how R's actions affect other members of the Dead. When he saves the heroine, Julie, it causes a tidal wave of change to hit the Dead population. Highly recommended novel for those who have strong stomachs as the details do get a little bloody. 

Rating: 3.5/5 Cups

Warm Bodies: A Novel