Warm Bodies: A Fresh Perspective From a Rotting Body

Introducing Warm Bodies, by Isaac Marion, a zombie love story that- wait, what? A zombie love story? Well, now I have heard everything. Vampires and werewolves seem likely enough candidates for paranormal romance, but zombies? They’re rotting! They can’t talk (well, in this book, they can form short, drawn out sentences)! They eat human flesh (which is somehow much worse than drinking blood to most people. I don’t know how that one slipped by)! And yet, despite all of this, Isaac Marion has created a zombie protagonist who is not only compelling, but a romantic interest. Most importantly, R is an anomaly in the zombie world. That’s how it always starts, isn't it?

For starters, R is quite a philosophical and contemplative zombie, which even he admits is strange and unnatural. Sure, he shuffles around an abandoned airport with a bunch of other zombies, but he wonders why zombies are the way they are. He muses a lot, wondering “How did this start? How did we become what we are? Was it some mysterious virus? Gamma rays? An ancient curse? Or something even more absurd?” Marion subtly gives back story to the apocalypse, either through R's thoughts or flashbacks from humans (I’ll get to that soon). R also contemplates about the purpose of being a zombie. He remarks that he could remember a time when he was purposeful and accomplished things, but now he just wanders an airport and eats flesh sometimes. He says “being dead is easy.” I myself have been wondering and even asking my friends if they’d rather live a simple life without responsibilities or worries, or if they’d rather live a full life currently, wrought with emotion, challenges, pleasures and hardships.

Everyone picks the latter choice.

R would as well.

Everything is flipped turned upside down (thanks, Will Smith) when R, his friend M and a small hoard of zombies attack a recon group of humans in the city. R kills a boy and takes a bite from his brain (those with weak stomachs, beware), instantly flooding him with the boy’s memories. The boy Perry’s memories are exactly the reason he likes brains; they’re his drug of choice and make him feel alive. When he sees the blonde girl form the boy’s memories, his girlfriend Julie, R is quite taken with her. He saves Julie, brings her back to the airport to protect her and to keep her safe. As R spends more time with Julie and revisiting Perry’s memories, R starts to feel alive and fall in love with this headstrong, beautiful girl. Of course, teenage romance just isn't easy, especially when the object of your affection’s dad wants you dead. This time for good.

I don’t want to give anything else away, but I would like to make the disclaimer that this book is pretty gritty at times. Don’t expect some light and fluffy paranormal romance novel. There is strong language at times. However, don’t let these deter you from reading this book. Despite the language and somewhat graphic descriptions, there is a lot more at heart to this novel than shock value. This is definitely not Twilight, and it doesn't ruin zombies either. It’s not just a simple love story. Marion describes zombies in a pretty gruesome and sometimes rather explicit way, especially when it comes to zombies’ actions in their attempt to feel human again. There actually is a battle where people get hurt, and gasp! Some even die! It's an actual book, instead a long fanfiction Stephanie sneezed out one day and handed to her publisher. Actually, Cracked.com did a funny piece on how to turn awful fanfiction into a bestseller. Twilight meets all 6 of the criteria. 

The best part about Warm Bodies is that it isn't a simple love story. R’s muses about how the zombie apocalypse started, what it is to be human, the interference of  the Boneys and who they are in our society (the people who want things to stay the same, no matter what) etc. These are all things I found myself relating to. I was able to stop and think about those questions and what they meant to me. Unfortunately for people I know, this also means I now ask them “what if” and “would you rather” questions, much to their chagrin.

The writing was concise, yet descriptive enough to get the picture. It was nice to have a break from the exhausting over-descriptive prose that appears in some novels I read. The characters are compelling and the story line is certainly unique. Besides, just check out what he wrote for his Amazon.com bio: “I've written a few books, but most of them are terrible. Warm Bodies is the only one so far that's worth your time. I'm about to turn 30. I'm 6'3. White. Left handed. Mildly bearded. I write strange stories about strange events, often from the perspectives of strange things. I apologize in advance for any injury or inconvenience.” If that’s not enough of a clue to his writing style and sense of humor, then I don’t know what is.

Hey! He really is mildly bearded!

I would definitely recommend Warm Bodies to anyone who likes a little bit of romance, but also wants adventure, battles, zombie apocalypses, and likes the idea of being able to change.

I saw the movie a few weeks after reading the movie and I thought it was pretty good. The book didn't have too many complexities and it wasn't too long. These, along with a plot people can follow and like, are pluses in Hollywood studios’ books. It was Hollywoodified, what with casting a Caucasian actress for the part of a black girl, and changing the ambiguous age of R to definitely teenage. It added more humor, simplified the plot, and ditched the zombie wife and adopted zombie kids, but they rather cleverly kept the two kids in the movie as random characters who view scenes in a detached manner sometimes. I would say it’s a good companion to the book, more of a lighter, more humorous, more quirky teenage comedy romance adventure than anything else.

Oh good, well that narrows it down. Also, people keep comparing it to Twilight, but I didn't really see a connection, other than the fact that it has a boy with pale skin, a girl, romance and conflict. And the girl can look a little like Kristen Stewart at times, but she acts so much better. And her character isn't painfully awkward. On the one hand, you lose some of the complexity of the philosophical internal monologues, but on the other, Nicholas Hoult is a stunning actor and I can’t help but be drawn to an interesting movie plot with some inclusion of romance. And if it takes place during a zombie apocalypse, even better.

A Natural History of Dragons: Quit Dragon Your Feet and Read This Book Already!

Look at the cover! It's so pretty!

If you’re anything like me, and I pray to God that you’re not, then you are horrified by the thought of just purchasing something without having “sampled” it yet. And in this case, I am of course referring to books and movies. Only on two occasions have I purchased a book because I thought it might be good and it turned out to be a BIG MISTAKE. And I mean “big” in the sense that I wasted several hours of my life attempting to read and like these books, but failing. And more than that, my competitive streak deflated at the thought that I was not returning to finish those books. Since then, I have not bought anything I haven’t read, seen, tried on, sampled, whatever.

It’s a good thing, then, that recommendations exist! I would feel much more at ease buying a book or movie from a source I valued, and such was the case of this book. Hank Green (for those of you not familiar with Nerdfighteria/Nerdfighters, Vlogbrothers, YouTube or John Green, the author of several best-selling Young Adult fiction novels, is an entertaining and pretty geeky vlogger whose videos I watch, and you should too) recommended several books in an early April VEDA video. Now, the other two were science fiction novels, and true sci-fi literature is something I have not delved into too deeply. But the third piqued my interest, partly because it had the word “dragons” on the title. Ever since How to Train Your Dragon, I have been started loving dragons. Hank Green's recommendation was interesting, as well. He described A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan as “If J. K. Rowling, Charles Darwin and Jane Austen had a baby, that would be impossible. That would be a messed up baby. But if they wrote a book together, it would be this book.”

Is that not one of the strangest combinations of writers you've ever heard of? Okay, maybe not "ever". I could wrap my head around the Jane Austen and Charles Darwin part of it, and the Jane Austen and J. K. Rowling part, but could not fit all three of them together coherently. So I got it. And I read it. And I liked it.

One of the hardest questions I've ever had to answer. 

A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan is about a Victorian Woman named Isabella, and she is fascinated by dragons. Because dragons exist in her world, which is also Victorian England, but it’s called Spirling, but Brennan isn't fooling anyone, and she knows it. The just knows that Spirling is basically England, but with dragons. Isabella is fascinated by the anatomy and engineering of dragons. She wants to know how they work, how they behave, what they eat, what their lifestyles are like, where they live, everything. She is scientific, curious, headstrong and adventurous, a combination which often leads her into trouble and danger.

She and her husband join a small observation party, to study the rock wyrm(dragons) in Vystrana. This country is essentially Russia or some similar Eastern European country, but it’s hard to place it exactly. Lately, there have been dragon attacks, and this hardy group decides to find out the cause and stop the dragon attacks.

There is a good deal of intrigue and mystery as to why these dragon attacks are happening, and it’s not as simple as it would seem.  I love mystery, and often books with mystery have kept me up until early hours (6 a.m. one time) in a desperate attempt to finish the book. This book had enough intrigue to keep my attention, but not enough to stay up  too late (early?). I would gladly sacrifice several hours of sleep for the right book, but this was not such book.

The characters themselves are likable, and I liked that Isabella was adventurous. However, because this book is largely plot-based and mystery-driven, none of the characters have very strong personalities. They do not do outrageous things, have hilarious sayings, have a lot of character development or develop strong relationships. In fact, it was fitting to the writing style, given the fact that this book is set in Victorian times and Isabella is compared to Charles Darwin. In this sense, Brennan wrote it in a Victorian English style, but not so much that if Jane Austen were to rise from the dead and for some reason decide to pick up this book, she would not confuse it with one of her peers’ works. That might drive away some readers who lack the patience or tolerance for a less-than-dynamic writing style/voice.

The ending, too, wrapped a little too quickly and neatly for my taste. It was confusing, especially since the book is largely plot-based. I mean, I can understand wanting to finish a book that has already been going on for 300 pages, but this was a little too simple. It is just a book for entertainment, and Brennan knows that her readers are not expecting some profound declaration about the current state of society. In a way, the ending is satisfying.

There are some really gorgeous works of art by Todd Lockwood; he does fantastic fantasy art found here and here. If you like art, then I would suggest checking out his stuff.

Just of a few of the, well, few illustrations in the book. 

All in all, it was something you might like if you like scientific, adventurous and a little bit of dry humor, (“Between that and the abseiling, I think I left enough skin behind on those rocks to cover an entire person”), then you would not be remiss in reading this book. I mean, come on! It has dragons in it! If that’s not enough to convince you, then I don’t know what is.