Publisher - Vintage
Format - Paperback
Synopsis - 'R' is a zombie. He has no name, no memories, and no pulse, but he has dreams. He is a little different from his fellow Dead. Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Her name is Julie and she is the opposite of everything he knows - warm and bright and very much alive, she is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape. For reasons he can't understand, R chooses to save Julie instead of eating her, and a tense yet strangely tender relationship begins. This has never happened before. It breaks the rules and defies logic, but R is no longer content with life in the grave. He wants to breathe again, he wants to live, and Julie wants to help him. But their grim, rotting world won't be changed without a fight.
Warm Bodies is the type of book that i'd like to own twice. One for sitting on my shelf looking pretty and comfortable and one for covering in highlighting, post-its and annotations. I got so much from this book that I just didn't expect. We learn quite early on that R is different to other zombies, but we're not sure how or why. We don't even find out much about how zombies came to be this way but it didn't matter. Mostly what I got from Warm Bodies was - look at the bigger picture.
I remember this bit specifically (page 88 of the Vintage film cover). R is asking himself why is his history so foggy when his present is bursting with colour and vibrancy since meeting Julie, and it got me thinking. That's just life, isn't it? All of us go about our lives, doing the daily things we need to do (hopefully not eating brains) until we meet someone that changes everything. Whether romantic or otherwise. That someone changes your outlook on everything. That's the same for any nationality, religion, age etc. It's human. We're all human. Even those who seem different have feelings.
Warm Bodies also has hints of Romeo & Juliet, which as a Shakespeare nerd made me incredibly happy and I geeked out for a good 10 minutes. This book isn't happy, or overwhelmingly uplifting. It's a slow read to match the pace of R's mind, thoughts and speech, but it is incredible and easily one of the best books i've read, not only this year, but ever. I didn't have any expectations of this book before reading but I definitely came away feeling like i'd gained something. It's also impossibly funny!
With gems such as "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. " it was hard not to love! Granted, it's a dark kind of humour but I laughed SO MUCH. Warm Bodies will always have a special little place in my heart now and I hope more people get the chance to read this book.
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