Warm Bodies
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| Author | Isaac Marion |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Post-apocalyptic fiction, gothic fiction, paranormal romance, black comedy |
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Publication date
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October 14, 2010 |
| Media type | Print, e-book, audiobook |
| Pages | 240 pp |
| ISBN | |
Warm Bodies is a novel by author Isaac Marion. The book was described as a "zombie romance" by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and makes allusions to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The author, based in Seattle, originally wrote a short story titled "I Am a Zombie Filled with Love". Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, acquired the publishing rights to the full novel in early 2010.
In a post-apocalyptic future, a male zombie still in the early stages of decay lives in a community of the Dead in an abandoned airport near the city. He refers to himself as “R” since he cannot remember his full name, among other details of his life. R reveals through first person narrative that human civilization has been destroyed by wars and disasters, resulting in a mysterious zombie plague. Now whole communities of zombies live in hives, and are separated into two categories based on the amount of decay: Fleshies, the Dead who still have flesh on them, and Boneys, the Dead who have been reduced to nothing more than skeletons with bits of muscle keeping them together. The Boneys are basically the leaders of the Dead, and are seemingly stronger and more intelligent than Fleshies. They can only be killed if their brains are destroyed. The zombies are very lethargic for the most part, have limited speech and short memories, and are notably illiterate. They live in what is a mere, twisted shadow of a normal society. One of the few times they are truly focused and animated is when they go hunting for the Living, their only food source, during which they spontaneously form a hunting party. The brain is the best part, because if they eat it, then they can relive the memories, feelings, and thoughts of their prey. Anything that’s left of the prey is brought back for the others to eat.
R is portrayed as unusual, since he not only contains more empathy and intuition than his fellow Dead, but is also able to express it better than most of them despite being Dead. He openly shows distaste for eating human flesh, and is the only zombie there who is able to form four, coherent syllables in one breath. After a hunt, he meets a zombie woman, and they quickly become girlfriend and boyfriend. She takes him to church where a Bony preacher sees them, and marries them on impulse. The next day, R and his new wife are presented with two Dead children. Seeing them try to play like Living children depresses R, and he is gripped with a feeding frenzy. He leads a hunting party to the city where they find a group of young adults scavenging supplies. Attacking with unusual energy, R feeds on the brain of a young man named Perry. After experiencing his memories, R sees Perry’s girlfriend Julie, and in a moment of mercy, saves her from the others. He disguises her scent with zombie blood, and takes her home where he hides her in a 747 airplane. The airplane is R’s “house” where he can have some privacy, and hoard the interesting objects he finds. He slowly gains Julie’s trust, and convinces her to stay for a while until the others forget about her (though in reality, he just really likes her). Throughout the week, R feeds her food from the airport’s restaurant, entertains her with his treasures, including a record player, and Julie tries to teach him to drive a car which R has managed to get started. She also tells him a little bit about her life. In time, R begins feeling guilty over killing Perry, which is made worse since Julie doesn’t know it was him, and is giving him the benefit of the doubt. Despite his guilt, R continues eating the remains of Perry’s brain, seeing it as a rare treasure.
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