“Warm Bodies” by Isaac Marion – What Zombies Want

Most novels about the zombie apocalypse out there, regardless of their differences, have the same structure: it is told through the point of view of one or multiple survivors of the apocalypse who try to make their way somewhere while fighting off hordes of the undead, all while learning that people can be worse than zombies. 

However, in Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion, the approach taken is quite different. The story is told through the perspective of R, a young man facing a crisis: he is a zombie. However, he isn’t brain-dead like all the books and movies would imply. In fact, he has a very complex emotional life brewing inside, but he can barely communicate. 

One day, upon eating a teenager’s brains, he recovers his memories, most importantly, that of his victim’s girlfriend. Unexpectedly, this conjures up all sorts of emotions in him, and so R sets out to have one of the creepiest relationships in the history of literature.

I have to say that reading this novel was a real breath of fresh air; a new take on a genre, something we don’t nearly get enough of these days. The simple fact that it is told from the point of view of an intelligent zombie already raises certain questions, most importantly, if zombies are capable of rational thought and if they actually could live amongst humans. 

Yes, there is a lot of black comedy to be found here, with the whole zombie-human relationship dynamic going on, but it is far from being the main focus of the story, at least as far as I could tell. It was a journey of self-discovery seen from the eyes of a creature capable of little more than intelligent thought.

In addition, it is pretty interesting to see how R’s decision to protect his victim’s girlfriend start to affect the other zombies. It is both funny and thrilling to seeing zombies learn and change their behavior, giving hope of there being a future for both the human race and zombies as well. All in all, it’s a fresh and original take on the zombie apocalypse, one that any fan of the scenario can’t afford to skip out on.

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Isaac Marion Personal site Isaac Marion is an American author who hasn't started his career too long ago with a number of self-published novels, his 2010 work Warm Bodies has turned him into a best-selling author, tackling the zombie genre from a somewhat different perspective than usual. His latest novel, The New Hunger, was published by Zola Books in an eBook format.