Book Review: Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
Jun. 15th, 2011 07:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaTitle: Warm Bodies
Author: Isaac Marion
Published: New York: Atria Books, 2011
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 239
Total Page Count: 103,140
Text Number: 296
Read Because: recommended by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thalestral, borrowed from the Corvallis public library
Review: In a zombie-overrun dystopia, R is a survivor from the other side of the fence: a zombie who, when he consumes the brain and memories of a young man, finds himself falling unexpectedly, impossibly, in love with the victim's girlfriend. It almost makes me feel bad to dislike a book that's so desperately well-intended. Warm Bodies falls into exactly the trap that you'd expect: a zombie makes for a poor protagonist, romantic lead, and narrator. It's hard to love a corpse, and so Marion compensates by making R a different corpse, one a little fresher and more emotional than your average zombie, and by giving zombies a bit of society and culture. The zombie trope has become painfully overplayed, but there is still room for complex and quiet zombies amid all the fast zombies and slow zombies, the rage zombies and hunger zombies, and so I applaud this attempt—but Marion boils down "essential" zombie characteristics into a comical slew of shambling and grunting and then piles on zombie school and zombie family units, and the combination is utterly unconvincing. R's narrative is likewise—and while I'll admit that I have no love for first person narratives, this exceeds issues of personal taste. Written in present tense, R is a shambling corpse on the outside and a tortured poet on the inside from page one, and not only do the two aspects never seem like part of a convincing whole, they never evolve—and so R's growth from mindless zombie to changed man goes unrealized where it counts: in his own voice and mind.
It's also hard to love a corpse in any romantic sense, and, yes, this does its best to quash any chemistry in the love story. That's almost a low blow, but chemistry, vital spark, and human energy become increasingly important themes, and Warm Bodies never quite manages to offer up any of them. Love interest Julie is initially the book's only compelling voice, but once other characters become multisyllabic she loses her individuality. Externally, R's growth from apparent zombie to apparent man is surprisingly gradual and well-realized, but this victory is overshadowed by his failed narrative. But as it ends, the book's downfall is that its thematic scope exceeds its practical limitations. Marion throws aside all science or subtlety and hammers home his message about life and hope, and not his characters nor themes nor undeveloped prose—often belabored and sometimes strangely glib, although always easily consumable—are strong enough survive the beating. This isn't to say that Warm Bodies is outright bad. It's not. It's a raw, unpolished first novel that sells itself on the weirdness of its premise, and that premise has some potential—I'm not sure that I could ever be sold on a zombie love story, but I appreciate an unusual approach to zombies and zombie-as-metaphor—but while Marion achieves the rare moment of thoughtful introspection, Warm Bodies is never adequately realized, never convincing, never subtle enough. Is it too much to expect a subtle zombie story? It shouldn't be, when an unusual, strange, romantic zombie is what's put on the table. Warm Bodies isn't a success, it wasn't the right book for me, and I can't recommend it.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Man do I hate giving negative reviews to recommended books! (I can't lie, a negative review of a zombie romance is almost fun to write—but what book did everyone else read, with these awesome reviews?) I do, however, have to again recommend Catherynne M. Valente's "The Days of the Flaming Motorcycles" as the best take on quiet, introspective, emotional, even romantic (if in a different sense) zombie story that I've yet encountered. Plus, it's free and short. Go read it.
Author: Isaac Marion
Published: New York: Atria Books, 2011
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 239
Total Page Count: 103,140
Text Number: 296
Read Because: recommended by
thalestral, borrowed from the Corvallis public libraryReview: In a zombie-overrun dystopia, R is a survivor from the other side of the fence: a zombie who, when he consumes the brain and memories of a young man, finds himself falling unexpectedly, impossibly, in love with the victim's girlfriend. It almost makes me feel bad to dislike a book that's so desperately well-intended. Warm Bodies falls into exactly the trap that you'd expect: a zombie makes for a poor protagonist, romantic lead, and narrator. It's hard to love a corpse, and so Marion compensates by making R a different corpse, one a little fresher and more emotional than your average zombie, and by giving zombies a bit of society and culture. The zombie trope has become painfully overplayed, but there is still room for complex and quiet zombies amid all the fast zombies and slow zombies, the rage zombies and hunger zombies, and so I applaud this attempt—but Marion boils down "essential" zombie characteristics into a comical slew of shambling and grunting and then piles on zombie school and zombie family units, and the combination is utterly unconvincing. R's narrative is likewise—and while I'll admit that I have no love for first person narratives, this exceeds issues of personal taste. Written in present tense, R is a shambling corpse on the outside and a tortured poet on the inside from page one, and not only do the two aspects never seem like part of a convincing whole, they never evolve—and so R's growth from mindless zombie to changed man goes unrealized where it counts: in his own voice and mind.
It's also hard to love a corpse in any romantic sense, and, yes, this does its best to quash any chemistry in the love story. That's almost a low blow, but chemistry, vital spark, and human energy become increasingly important themes, and Warm Bodies never quite manages to offer up any of them. Love interest Julie is initially the book's only compelling voice, but once other characters become multisyllabic she loses her individuality. Externally, R's growth from apparent zombie to apparent man is surprisingly gradual and well-realized, but this victory is overshadowed by his failed narrative. But as it ends, the book's downfall is that its thematic scope exceeds its practical limitations. Marion throws aside all science or subtlety and hammers home his message about life and hope, and not his characters nor themes nor undeveloped prose—often belabored and sometimes strangely glib, although always easily consumable—are strong enough survive the beating. This isn't to say that Warm Bodies is outright bad. It's not. It's a raw, unpolished first novel that sells itself on the weirdness of its premise, and that premise has some potential—I'm not sure that I could ever be sold on a zombie love story, but I appreciate an unusual approach to zombies and zombie-as-metaphor—but while Marion achieves the rare moment of thoughtful introspection, Warm Bodies is never adequately realized, never convincing, never subtle enough. Is it too much to expect a subtle zombie story? It shouldn't be, when an unusual, strange, romantic zombie is what's put on the table. Warm Bodies isn't a success, it wasn't the right book for me, and I can't recommend it.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Man do I hate giving negative reviews to recommended books! (I can't lie, a negative review of a zombie romance is almost fun to write—but what book did everyone else read, with these awesome reviews?) I do, however, have to again recommend Catherynne M. Valente's "The Days of the Flaming Motorcycles" as the best take on quiet, introspective, emotional, even romantic (if in a different sense) zombie story that I've yet encountered. Plus, it's free and short. Go read it.
