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REASONS WHY YOU NEED TO READ WARM BODIES RIGHT THE FUCK NOW
1. ZOMBIE LOVE STORY
Basically, everyone I know is fired for not telling me about this book two years ago when it was published, because it is EVERYTHING MY ID LONGS FOR AND MORE when it comes to a) my love of zombies b) my love of dystopia c) my love of human/other stuff and d) my love for love stories. It's written from the POV of 'R', a zombie, and is about what happens when he saves a human girl and takes her with him instead of eating her. Now, for me, and some of you guys too I know, that will be an advertisement. I know some of you might be cobbsquinting at it though, so bear with me.
2. THE WRITING
Isaac Marion is an amazing writer. His way with words is just kdhfkjdfhgfjkd and it really shows in the way he executes this story. It works so beautifully, so fucking achingly, and it's about so much more than just "zombie meets girl meets drama" (see point 3). Some choice quotes to give you a bit of an idea:
There is a chasm between me and the world outside of me. A gap so wide my feelings can't cross it. By the time my screams reach the other side, they have dwindled into groans.
*
Maybe my infection can't travel through soft moments like these. Maybe it needs the violence of the bite.
*
After a few hours, with her fear safely tucked away in her dreams, she rolls over, removing most of the gap between us. She's facing me now. Her faint breath tickles my ear. If she were to wake up right now, would she scream? Could I ever make her understand how safe she really is? I won't deny that this proximity ignites more urges in me than the instinct to kill and eat. But although these new urges are there, some of them startling in their intensity, all I really want to do is lie next to her. In this moment, the most I'd ever hope for would be for her to lay her head on my chest, let out a warm, contented breath, and sleep.
*
I try valiantly not to stare at her as she arches her back and stretches, adjusting her bra strap and letting out a little whimper. I can see every muscle and vertebra, and since she’s already half naked I imagine her without skin. I know from grim experience that there is a beauty to her inner layers, too. Marvels of symmetry and craftmanship sealed away inside her like the jewelled movements of a timepiece, fine works of art never meant to be seen.
*
How nice if I could edit my own life. If I could halt in the middle of a sentence and put it all to rest in a drawer somewhere, consummate my amnesia and forget all the things that have happened, are happening, and are about to happen. Shut my eyes and go to sleep happy.
But no, R. No sleep of the innocent. Not for you. Did you forget? You have blood on your hands. On your lips. On your teeth. Smile for the cameras.
3. THE HUMANISM
Warm Bodies really is so much more than "Twilight with zombies", as it's unfairly being slugged about the place. The love story is essential and integral, yes, but from R's perspective with Marion's prose it becomes this amazing love song to being human and all the things worth fighting for in that being. I'm still drowning in too many feelings to really put together much cohesive meta or analytical talk about this right now, but it truly is far deeper than most paranormal romance.
4. EVERYTHING
Underneath all of the above are all the countless subtle ways this book/canon sings delicious siren songs to my id. Love! Scenting! Sweet tentative slow burn! Protectiveness! Bed sharing! Blood! Kissing! Guns! Zombies! EVERYTHING.
This is the book's Book Depository listing
And here is the movie trailer, which plays things with a slightly more explicit humour than the book seems to but still looks skjdhfksdfkjsdfjk
Click to viewThis entry was originally posted at http://cthonical.dreamwidth.org/102376.html