Book #38: Warm Bodies

Title: Warm Bodies

Author: Isaac Marion

Date started reading: May 27, 2013
Date finished reading: May 28, 2013

Publish date: December 2012
ISBN: 978-1476717463
Number of pages: 256

Official summary: "R is a young man with an existential crisis–he is a zombie. He shuffles through an America destroyed by war, social collapse, and the mindless hunger of his undead comrades, but he craves something more than blood and brains. He can speak just a few grunted syllables, but his inner life is deep, full of wonder and longing. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he has dreams. After experiencing a teenage boy’s memories while consuming his brain, R makes an unexpected choice that begins a tense, awkward, and strangely sweet relationship with the victim’s human girlfriend. Julie is a blast of color in the otherwise dreary and gray landscape that surrounds R. His decision to protect her will transform not only R, but his fellow Dead, and perhaps their whole lifeless world." (http://www.isaacmarion.com)

Official movie trailer:

The Hillywood Show's "Warm Bodies" parody (Mainly just posting this here because I want to save it, but it's hilarious):



How I obtained the book: Got a free copy through my now-former employer (a newspaper)

My commentary:

• Pre-reading: I am not at all a zombie fan. I decided to read this book for two reasons: 1) I was bored and watched the movie which didn't suck as badly as I expected, and 2) I got a free copy. 
• Post-reading: Ok, so I'll admit it. For a zombie story, this book was really good. I liked it a lot. Not quite as much as the movie, but a lot. I'm glad that the movie people cut out the things they did because it made the movie flow a little better than the book.

Memorable quotes:

• “I want to change my punctuation. I long for exclamation marks, but I'm drowning in ellipses.”  ~ R
• “In my mind I am eloquent; I can climb intricate scaffolds of words to reach the highest cathedral ceilings and paint my thoughts. But when I open my mouth, everything collapses.”  ~ R
• “Writing isn't letters on paper. It's communication. It's memory.”  
• “I am Dead, but it's not so bad. I've learned to live with it.” ~ R
•  “My friend "M" says the irony of being a zombie is that everything is funny, but you can't smile, because your lips have rotted off.” ~ R
• “Once you've arrived at the end of the world, it hardly matters which route you took.” ~ R
• “It's hard to take your life so seriously when you can see it all at once.”  
• “I'm not a general or a colonel or a builder of cities. I'm just a corpse who wants not to be.” ~ R
• “Even in my bravest moment, I am a coward.” 
• “Why is it beautiful that humanity keeps coming back? So does herpes.” ~ Nora
• “I want life and in all its stupid sticky rawness.” 
• “She is Living and I'm Dead, but I'd like to believe we're both human. Call me an idealist.”   ~ R
• “It's a shitty world and shit happens, but we don't have to bathe in shit.” 
• “The world is a liar. Its ugliness is overwhelming; the scraps of beauty make it worse.”  
• “It doesn't matter. We are where we are, however we got there. What matters is where we go next.” 
• “Life only makes any sense if we can see time how God does. Past, present, and future all at once.” 
• “There's no rule book for the world. It's in our heads, our collective human hive-mind. If there are rules, we're the ones making them. We can change them whenever we want.”  
• “The future is as blurry to me as the past. I can’t seem to make myself care about anything to the right or left of the present. You might say that death has relaxed me.” ~ R
• “Miracles don't exist. There is cause and effect, dreams and reality. Living and Dead. Your hope is absurd. Your romanticism, embarrassing” 

Buy on Amazon.com: Warm Bodies: A Novel