A review by maddie_reads_stuff
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

4.0

A zombie sparks change in Living-Dead interactions when he spares the life of a teenage girl.

This is my first zombie book, but I am fairly certain in my belief that it is atypical for its topic at the very least. For one, it is written from the perspective of a zombie and occurs years after whatever apocalyptic event occurred. We don't even run into any living humans until after learning about our zombie's daily life. It is a quirky and interesting read. Things get a bit more philosophical when R kidnaps a human girl and we learn more about the human side of things. R begins changing (how, exactly, is unclear as we are limited to R's understanding of events) and a revolution (of sorts) begins.

Overall, I liked the book, but there was a major obstacle in my enjoyment of it: The obvious parallels to a certain overrated Shakespearean play. *cough

Spoiler

Romeo and Juliet

cough* Yes, it took a balcony scene about 53% of the way into the book before I realized what Marion had done, but then I spent the remaining 47% fighting my brain as it searched for every other allusion and worrying whether it would end the same way as that story of woe.

Spoiler

It doesn't. Thank god.

What bothers me even more, having finished the book, is that Warm Bodies is not actually that similar in plot at all. Yes, we have 2 young (well, we don't know R's age) star-crossed lovers (except not really, for most of the book they're tentative enemies or allies) who want to live in different circumstances. But that's it. These random (in my opinion) allusions just take away from the more interesting questions Marion raises about the state of the world and the dark side of human nature.

Spoiler

I mean, I wish my brain was a little less preoccupied about whether M was supposed to be Mercutio and focused more on the fact that the Grigio became a Boney almost immediately and was clearly already considered a heartless zombie by his daughter before he even died.