Review: "Warm Bodies" by Issac Marion

This book came as a total surprise to me. It looked like, judging from the cover, to be a very pedestrian book that was trying to cash in on the recent zombie craze that has been brought about due to the success of The Walking Dead, but I closed this book feeling very moved, and it may just be the most humane and heart-warming tale of the zombie apocalypse ever told. We first meet R, the main character, as he is living out his existence as an abnormally sentient, yet still bloodthirsty flesh eater. He has a best friend names M, (no one can remember their names from the their original lives, as expected) and a new family with a wife and two kids whom he found in wandering in the airport terminal. He lives out his zombie existence with little question as to why he devours human flesh, until he east the brain of a man named Perry and begins to relive that man’s memories. R immediately falls in love with the Perry’s girlfriend Julie, whom he saves from the rest of the zombie horde. The more he lives out the past events of Perry’s life, the more he falls in love with Julie and the more he begins to become human again. He speaks using more words and syllables and is able to think of ways out of dire situations. Could it be that true love is the key to ending the zombie epidemic, and thus saving the world? The novel goes on to answer this question and more, as the action moves forward. It sort of becomes like John Ajvinde Lindqvist’s novel Handling the Undead, where the zombies represent something in ourselves, instead of an outside force acting upon us. While that novel used the undead to show the stages of grief and letting go, this novel uses them to show how die-hard optimism in the face of pessimistic events is sometimes the greatest tool of personal survival. Optimism, which is somewhat frowned upon by most people, is very underutilized by creative people as a means to tell stories. I think it is just cooler to be that misanthropic person who makes it seem like they know a lot about the world because they think negatively of everything. But I digress, and the story itself is probably more about hope being important no matter how hard it is to achieve or how far away it might be. Like all great zombie stories, the human element can be just as terrifying and in this case, those antagonistic humans are the ones who don’t see any way out of there zombie filled world and are simply waiting to die. At the end of this novel though, as cheesy as it is, it’s main theme is that love is what separates those who live life to the fullest, and those who would rather see the world burn than have the courage to give optimism a chance. Maybe I am too mushy, but I was very touched by this tale of zombie love, and it is a perfect life-affirming book to read this Halloween season.

Rating: 5/5