I am surprised that a book
like Isaac Marion’s The Burning World, the follow up to his sleeper hit Warm
Bodies, did not come out with much fanfare. Its predecessor was a surprise
success that had enough mainstream appeal to warrant a big budget movie, but it
was also much more than that. It was a quaint, eloquent story about the
elusiveness of love, shot through the familiar lens of a zombie tale. I read it
back in 2011 (I think), but after having read its sequel, some of the book’s
flaws are now pretty apparent, especially after finishing this souped up
sequel, which clocks in at an even 500 pages, and tries to thread in a few
different story threads that don’t really add up until the very end, which left
me a little disappointed and not quite satisfied. The book begins where the
other one left off. R is enjoying his new life, really his third one, after
transforming from a flesh-eating zombie into something in between a human and
the undead. He has the love of Julie, who sacrificed a lot to save R’s life, and
they are trying to carve out a life in the shell of what was once Earth. But
after an attack and an invasion by a mysterious company that promises to
restore order, R and Julie, as well as a few people they meet along the way,
literally take flight from them in search of a cure and a place to hide. There
are three story threads that come in at out at different times, and it is hard
to tell what is set during a different time period, what is happening now and
what is a dream. Marion is very good at making something that would corny in a
lesser writer’s hand seem profound and moving, and this proposed trilogy is a
testament to that, but the journey the group takes and where they end up didn’t
have the power the first lean novel promised. I will be eager to finish out the
trilogy, but I will be quite weary about doing so.
Rating: 4/5
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