Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

First in the Warm Bodies series

4 stars

R is a zombie. He doesn’t remember his name or where he comes from, but R is different from most zombies. He eats brains along his zombie comrades and ravages the destroyed American landscape, but he craves for something more than brains and the feeling of life they give him. He is one of the few zombies that can speak, not full sentences, but grunted syllables. After experiencing the memories of a teenage boy during an attack he saves Julie, the boy’s girlfriend. As an awkward friendship starts to form he feels himself changing into something else. I definitely wasn’t expecting that at all. I thought Warm Bodies was going to an epic zombie novel with great action scenes and a fiery romance. It wasn’t that, but I’m not disappointed at all. I hadn’t heard of Warm Bodies until sometime in August when I heard it was going to be a movie and I had seen the movie poster. The movie poster deeply resembles Twilight’s.


Aside from the similar poster when I saw the trailer I knew it wouldn’t be like Twilight at all. I rushed to my library and checked this book out immediately. The thing that’s most impressive about this novel is the writing. Marion has a way with words and he reminded me of King’s writing at times. I didn’t feel all that connected with the characters.


The main male character is R. R, well R is R. I’m not exactly sure how to explain him. Yes he is a zombie. Yes he thinks like a human. No isn’t a mindless flesh eater. His life in the airport, which is his zombie along with hundreds of other zombies, was very dull. He acquired a wife and children in the strangest way. I enjoy R’s point of view and it’s not very often that I read a full male perspective novel. R is probably one my favorite zombies I’ve come across. I haven’t come across a lot, but I’ve read about a few and he definitely stole my heart.

Swoon Worthy Scale: 9

The main female character is Julie. I don’t feel connected to Julie. There were a few times towards the end when in the stadium when I did, but for the longest time she seemed like a cardboard cutout. She’s very different in the stadium though. Realer, but at times slightly annoying. I don’t really care for her because well I feel like I don’t really know her. She seemed more like a zombie at times. I want more character development for her in the next book.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 7.5

The Villain- The Boneys are zombies that have lost all their flesh and are just bones and skeletons. They are passed zombies and are something else completely. The scene at the end has me confused to Boneys and I’m not sure if they should be taken as a threat or as just another thing of life. I don’t really feel intimated by them. I wouldn’t want to run into them on the street, but I expected them to be a lot worse.

Villain Scale: 8

There were a few supporting characters in Warm Bodies. The biggest is Perry, the teenage boy that R ate and Julie’s boyfriend. I liked Perry he was complex. He started out happy, full of life, but he started to turn colder and he stopped living life. It was like he completely gave up on everything and was just going through the motions of life. M is R’s friend and fellow zombie. I really liked M. For a zombie he was pretty funny and I liked the ending for him. Nora is Julie’s friend and she spends most of her time with R and Julie in the Stadium. I liked Nora, she was vibrant and funny. Julie’s father, Mr. Girgio or General Girgio, was like Julie said already dead just not yet decayed. I didn’t like him all that much, but I did like Rossio, his friend and colleague.


Character Scale: 8

I’m not exactly sure why Marion made such a big deal about the fact that this wasn’t a YA novel. You have Stephenie Meyer saying what a great book on the front cover, people might assume this. I don’t think it’s YA though. Keep that in mind. There is lots of violence and gore for the first chapters as it mostly R eating brains. There’s smoking of marijuana and underage drinking. Not all that different from some YAs, but I personally don’t feel it’s a YA novel.


Marion did bore me for the longest time with part one and R’s time in the airport, but the second and third parts were great. Marion writes great action scenes though. I didn’t want to put this book down when I got to that part. I was entranced and I didn’t want the wonder to stop. Overall it’s a pretty good book, not amazing, but definitely worth reading especially if you love zombie novels.


Cover Thoughts: I don’t really care for the cover. It’s not a bad cover, but I don’t really like it all too much. I guess it fits, but I personally think the cover could’ve been better.