Warm Bodies (Warm Bodies, #1) in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

May 28, 2016 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was amazing

Shelves: zombies, dystopian-and-post-apocalyptic

Quod tu es, ego fui, quod ego sum, tu eris.

What you are, I once was.
What I am, you will become.

This book surprised me by being awesome.

I really like zombie books, and I'd heard lots of good things about this one, but it just didn't sound good to me. Zombies that can think and feel? A zombie romance???? I don't think so! Not for me, no thank you!

Then I saw a trailer for the movie, and it was funny! Suddenly, I wanted to read the book. I'm glad I did.

It's hard to believe this is a debut novel

Quod tu es, ego fui, quod ego sum, tu eris.

What you are, I once was.
What I am, you will become.

This book surprised me by being awesome.

I really like zombie books, and I'd heard lots of good things about this one, but it just didn't sound good to me. Zombies that can think and feel? A zombie romance???? I don't think so! Not for me, no thank you!

Then I saw a trailer for the movie, and it was funny! Suddenly, I wanted to read the book. I'm glad I did.

It's hard to believe this is a debut novel! It's witty, funny, gruesome, thought-provoking, entertaining, and philosophical.

I marked a bunch of passages.

Before, when I was alive, I could never have done this. Standing still, watching the world pass by me, thinking about nearly nothing. I remember effort. I remember targets and deadlines, goals and ambitions. I remember being purposeful, always everywhere all the time. Now, I'm just standing here on the conveyor, along for the ride. I reach the end, turn around, and go back the other way. The world has been distilled. Being dead is easy.

***

... I rip out his throat. The burning red taste of blood floods my mouth. The sparkle of life sprays out of his cells like citrus mist from an orange peel, and I suck it in.

***

Sex, once a law as undisputed as gravity, has been disproved. The equation is erased, the blackboard broken. Sometimes it's a relief. I remember the need, the insatiable hunger that ruled my life and the lives of everyone around me. Sometimes I'm glad to be free of it. There's less trouble now. But our loss of this, the most basic of human passions, might sum up our loss of everything else. It's made things quieter. Simpler. And it's one of the surest signs that we're dead.

***

There's no benchmark for how life's 'supposed' to happen ... There is no ideal world to wait around for. The world is always just what it is now, and it's up to you how you respond to it.

It's not perfect. The ending was a little weak. But I'll forgive it a slightly weak ending, because the ride was fantastic.

I'm using this for the "horror" category in the 2016 BookRiot reading challenge.

ETA: I totally missed the R(omeo) and Julie(t) (and M(ercutio) and Perry/Paris) parallels when I read this. Because I'm dense like that. ...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Vanessa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

Having seen the trailer for the film based on this novel, I came to the story with certain expectations. I was expecting YA romance, with all the drama that implies. I was expecting neutered bad guys and angelic good girls. I was expecting Twilight, but with zombies! I was pleasantly surprised by what I found instead. This novel is charming and offers a fresh take on what I thought was a fairly saturated genre.
"R" and his fellow zombies kill living people and eat their brains. They stumble arou ...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Una rated it liked it · review of another edition

I really would have liked this book if it was only about "R" and his journey as a zombie with some sort of consciousness. I think what turned me off is the change from that into a Zombie version of Twilight.
...more

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Nov 08, 2011 Kate McCartney rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-fiction, zombies

A Romeo and Juliet starring Zombies!

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Apr 15, 2011 Cassandra Moore rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book was a unique and fantastic read. The question the book seems to be asking is what is life? Does R have a life? R is a zombie with feelings and intelligent thought. That alone makes him unique in the realm of zombie novels and movies. He has no pulse, but he contemplates his existence.

Full review available here: Wickedly Delicious Tales ...more

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