Review: Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Synopsis from Goodreads:
A zombie who yearns for a better life ends up falling in love—with a human—in this astonishingly original debut novel.

R is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he has dreams. He doesn’t enjoy killing people; he enjoys riding escalators and listening to Frank Sinatra. He is a little different from his fellow Dead.
Not just another zombie novel, Warm Bodies is funny, scary, and deeply moving.

"I am Dead, but it's not so bad. I've learned to live with it...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."

I knew as soon as I read the first paragraph that I was going to enjoy this book. It has a very dry humour and is also a very witty satire on modern society.


Warm Bodies is a really unique take on the zombie apocalpse story- told from the zombie's point of view! The main character in this book is a zombie called R (because that's all that he can remember of his first name) who lives with a horde of other zombies in an abandoned airport. Although the words that R speaks out loud are usually only monosyllabic grunts, his narrration of the story is very intelligent and extremely witty.


I loved the main characters in this book, particularly the zombies themselves. Sure, R occasionally kills people and eats their brains, but he's also a very funny, very resourceful and sweet guy, who loves to ride the escalators, hoard his few little treasures and listen to Frank Sinatra records. M- R's zombie friend seems to have a little more smarts, and a little more humanity left in him than the other lurching and groaning mindless drones, and I really enjoyed his sarcastic humour, and his whole quirky attitude to the world.


When R meets Julie everything changes, and he has the overwhelming desire to look out for her, and to be close to her. He begins to notice the world around him once again. He tries harder to communicate, and gets better at speaking and moving like a person- being around Julie starts to bring him back to life. In this story the zombies have taken over and what is left of the human race are barricaded into cities or stadiums, and fighting the constant tide of the undead. We see glimpses of flashbacks to the past and how it all started, and a horrifying vision of this militiaristic society exhausted, demoralised and on the brink of giving up. But with R and Julie forming an unlikely friendship across the divide, suddenly anything is possible.


This is a clever book with excellent characters, a decent story, and a completely unconventional romantic hero. I just loved the sarcastic humour throughout the book, all the snarky quips- and come on, it's pegged as a "zombie romance story"- how can you not want to read this?


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There are also plans to release a film of Warm Bodies starring Nicholas Hoult in August next year, by Summit Entertainment, and directed by Jonathan Levine.

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.

Scary, funny, and surprisingly poignant, Warm Bodies is about being alive, being dead, and the blurry line in between.

The Time Will Come #37

The Time Will Come is a weekly meme hosted by Jodie at Books For Company, where we can spotlight those books that we've had sitting on our shelves for too long. Books that we really want to read but never seem to get around to.

I have wanted to read Claire De Lune by Christine Johnson since it first came out, and I don't why I still haven't read it yet, since I really like werewolf books. I like the sound of this one too, with a bit of a twist on the mythology. Book 2 titled Nocturne was also published earlier this year. I should just read it already shouldn't I!

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Torn between two destinies?

Claire is having the perfect sixteenth birthday. Her pool party is a big success, and gorgeous Matthew keeps chatting and flirting with her as if she's the only girl there. But that night, she discovers something that takes away all sense of normalcy: she's a werewolf.
As Claire is initiated into the pack of female werewolves, she must deal not only with her changing identity, but also with a rogue werewolf who is putting everyone she knows in danger. Claire's new life threatens her blossoming romance with Matthew, whose father is leading the werewolf hunt. Now burdened with a dark secret and pushing the boundaries of forbidden love, Claire is struggling to feel comfortable in either skin. With her lupine loyalty at odds with her human heart, she will make a choice that will change her forever?

Book 2- Nocturne published August 2011

Werewolves, and a love story, and the usual trouble and strife- sounds good right?
Maybe one day....

Review: Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Synopsis from Goodreads:
Climbing to the top of the social ladder is hard--falling from it is even harder. Regina Afton used to be a member of the Fearsome Fivesome, an all-girl clique both feared and revered by the students at Hallowell High... until vicious rumors about her and her best friend's boyfriend start going around. Now Regina's been "frozen out" and her ex-best friends are out for revenge. If Regina was guilty, it would be one thing, but the rumors are far from the terrifying truth and the bullying is getting more intense by the day. She takes solace in the company of Michael Hayden, a misfit with a tragic past who she herself used to bully. Friendship doesn't come easily for these onetime enemies, and as Regina works hard to make amends for her past, she realizes Michael could be more than just a friend... if threats from the Fearsome Foursome don't break them both first.
Tensions grow and the abuse worsens as the final days of senior year march toward an explosive conclusion.

When I started this book I thought that it would be a light and fluffy story of high-school bitchiness- I couldn't be more wrong. It was quite dark and disturbing but no less brilliant for being so harrowing. The first chapter opens up on a drunken teenage party, and sets the stage for a scene that was very hard to read about. We are thrown straight into the drama of the story, told in Regina's own words. Feeling unable to tell her parents what has happened Regina confides in a girl that is supposed to be her friend, but instead betrays her and twists her story. Regina has gone through high-school as one of the popular girls, the best friend of Anna- the queen bee of the school, but now she is accused of sleeping with her friend's boyfriend and is an outcast from her former group- the bully now becoming a victim of bullying herself. Her former friends go out of their way to make Regina's life hell, painting her locker, destroying her possessions, and setting up an abusive website. The tension in the book builds up and up as their taunts get worse and worse, and start to descend into physical attacks.


Despite Regina being a mean bully and complete bitch, you can't help but feel sorry for her and admire her courage in what she is going though, even if it is a taste of her own medicine, the rumours about her completely untrue. Courtney Summers writes about a group of teens who have sex, drink, take drugs and skip school, but despite this they are still vulnerable teenagers with confidence problems who just want to fit in and be admired. Regina has a serious eating problem, and Kara worries about her weight. They act confident and superior to the rest of the school, but underneath they are just desperate to be accepted.


Afraid to be on her own Regina approaches the people at the back table at lunchtime, dubbed "the garbage table", and the bottom of the social ladder. Michael has never cared about being popular, and is happy to spend time on his own, unnoticed in the corner. But when he does start to open up he is a very sweet person, and believes Regina's side of the story. A victim of Regina's bullying in the past, I found myself really hoping that he could get over the events of the past and be the support that Regina needed. Michael was the surprise of the story and I was surprised to find how much I grew to like him, his unlikely friendship becoming a light in a dark time. Despite not wanting to get involved in any conflicts he can't help but be put in the middle at times, and is forced to choose between sticking up for Regina and taking abuse himself or to not get involved at all and let Regina deal with it on her own.


This is Mean Girls taken to the next level. It is a tense emotional read which highlights an important social issue, and gets right into the minds and hearts of the characters- showing in a very real way the hopelessness, terror and loneliness of being the victim of bullying, and the malicious cruelty of those who perpetrate it, by the extreme level that they take it to. This book is shocking and horrifying, but feels so terrifyingly real that it's also a work of genius. I loved this book and these characters, and would recommend this story to any fans of a gritty contemporary YA story. This is one of those books that is hard to read but impossible to turn away from.

Best Of The Bunch- October 2011

Best Of The Bunch is a monthly award ceremony hosted at the end of the month by Lyrical over at Lyrical Reviews where we can look back over the books read the past month and award a Best Of The Bunch award to our favourite book of the month.

October:
This month I have reviewed on the blog-

• Exile by Rebecca Lim (3.5 of 5 stars)
• Fins Are Forever by Tera Lynn Childs (4 of 5 stars)
• The Promise by Apryl Baker (3.5 of 5 stars)
• Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien (4 of 5 stars)
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (5 of 5 stars)

My Best of Bunch award is going to go to...

*drumroll*

... no surprises here... Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor!

This book gets my vote because it was so beautifully written with such wonderful characters. It was so unique and just magical, vivid, funny, and tragically romantic. I loved how it very cleverly linked the events of the present to flashbacks of the past, and just generally made me go Wow!

Read my full review of this book here.

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Featuring necklaces made of wishes; an underground shop dealing in teeth; magical tattoos; a wishbone on a cord, DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE is a thrilling story about Karou and her secret life as an apprentice to a wishmonger. Karou manages to keep her two lives in balance. On the one hand, she is a seventeen-year-old art student in Prague; on the other, errand-girl to an inhuman creature who deals in wishes and is the closest thing she has to family. Her life is surrounded by mysteries she is desperate to unveil.

I did a pretty poor job of reviewing books this month, and I vow to do better in November, trying to post at least 2 book reviews a week. To read the full review of any of the other books mentioned above please check out the blog archive on the sidebar on the right of the screen.

I would love to see which book your award would go to, so check out Lyrical's blog to add your post to the list. Leave me a comment below as well.

Thanks for reading!

In My Mailbox 30th October 2011

In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren where book bloggers can talk about the books they've gotten the past week- whether bought, borrowed, swapped or given for review. This feature was started to increase interaction between bloggers and increase our awareness of all the new books coming out.

It also gives me a chance to be nosy and see what everyone else has got to read, and so gives me plenty of new books to pine after!

I got so many fantastic books this week. I got-

Bought:

On my birthday last week I got some money and vouchers which I used to buy... books!

• Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson, I love the sound of this book which sounds really unique and original, with magic, prophecies, a love story and a quest.

Review by Mel at Mel's Random Reviews

• Fade and Gone by Lisa McMann. These are books 2 and 3 in the Dream Catcher series. I read book 1- Wake earlier this year and really enjoyed it, but my library didn't have the rest of the series. It's about a girl who can fall into other people's dreams while they are sleeping, and a romance with another outcast at school- Cabel.

I also went a bit mad on the Zombie books this week- Braaaaains!

• The First Days by Rhiannon Frater. A post-zombie apocalypse novel with kick-ass girl heroines. I first noticed this book in a review by Ashley of The Bookish Brunette (whose blog is awesome, and her enthusiam for zombie novels is infectious). But all the 5 star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads speak for themselves. I can't wait to read this.

• I Kissed A Zombie, And I Liked It by Adam Selzer.

The title says it all really. Fluffy high-school romance- with zombies.

• Zombie Queen of Newbury High by Amanda Ashby. I bought Ashby's other novel Fairy Bad Day earlier in the year, but still haven't read it yet. Both these books look like funny light-hearted fun, and I hope I get a chance to read them soon, probably when I need an injection of fluffy silliness.

From the Library:

• Heist Society by Ally Carter. Ally Carter's other series Gallagher Girls is very clever, very sweet and really funny, so I'm really looking forward to reading this new series about a teenage cat burglar.

• Sweetly by Jackson Pearce. This is a modern retelling of the old fairystory Hansel and Gretel and a companian novel to Sisters Red (which was a fantastic book).

Audiobook:

• Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan. This is a futuristic sci-fi novel about a family travelling in a spaceship to a distant planet. Love triangles, betrayals and attacks on the ship from outside. This sounds like a really good book.

Those were the books that came into my house the past week- what did you get?
Happy reading!