Warm Bodies
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| Written by: | Isaac Marion |
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| Synopsis: | |
| Genre(s): | Post-apocalypse, Gothic, Black comedy, Romance |
| First published: | October 14, 2010 |
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I am dead, but it's not so bad. I've learned to live with it.
—R
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A zombie romance novel, written by Isaac Marion that originally started as a short story called I Am a Zombie Filled With Love that you can read here. After a worldwide, though gradual, Zombie Apocalypse, the Living have been forced to retreat to isolated safe-places as the Dead populate the outside world. Out there is our protagonist "R", a zombie who still, in a way, clings to humanity more than his kin, inhabiting a deserted airport terminal which they only leave to hunt food.
But in a hunt gone slightly awry, R eats a young man's brains and fully acquires the man's memories, motivating him to save Julie, his victim's girlfriend, from the rest of the horde and bring her back to his "home" in the airport.
After she realizes that he poses no harm to her and is vastly different from what she has known zombies to be, they start an awkward relationship that changes the futile and rigid ways of both the Living and Dead worlds.
A lot Better Than It Sounds, and don't be scared off by the concept similarities that it has to Twilight, or the review quote on the cover by Stephanie Meyer.
Made into a rather well-received movie in 2013.
- Abduction Is Love: A very mild example, as the other possible option would have been much more bloody.
- Adaptation Expansion: Started as a short story.
- The Alcoholic: General Grigio.
- Armies Are Evil
- Cannibalism Superpower: With brains come memories.
- Chastity Couple: R doesn't even kiss Julie until the very end. When he does, there are ... interesting effects.
- Crazy Survivalist: General Grigio
- Death Seeker: Perry, since his father's death.
- Dem Bones: The oldest zombies are just bones with sinew attached, endlessly reliving the last moments of their lives.
- Driven to Suicide: Julie's mother.
- Gainax Ending: It's implied early on that zombies are supernatural in some way, but the ending all but confirms that they're a form of The Heartless. Furthermore, both they and humans can be purified, as signified by Eyes of Gold.
- Ghost Amnesia: Zombies can't even remember their own names.
- Horror Hunger
- It Can Think: R is the first zombie to string together more than four syllables, but even the boneys are capable of philosophy.
- I Will Protect Her
- Karmic Death
- No Zombie Cannibals: Desperate zombies that have wandered alone for a long time and gone crazy may attack and eat other zombies, but normal zombies only eat living people to sate their need for life energy.
- Picky People Eater: To a degree, as body fat is useless and disgusting for zombies to eat, so a fatter person isn't more filling or delicious.
- Posthumous Character: Perry
- Posthumous Narration: The first person narration switches between R and Perry.
- Pretend We're Dead: Average zombies mainly recognize humans through smell and obvious mannerisms, also inverted when R has to pretend he's alive.
- Refuge in Audacity: R manages to infiltrate in the humans' base pretending to be a live human chased by zombies.
- Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain
- Romeo and Juliet: R and Julie? From two sides eager to kill each other on sight? Definitely an inspiration.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Zombie version: R is the sensitive guy while M is the manly man.
- The Horde
- The Undead
- Undead Child
- Zombie Advocate
- Zombie Apocalypse
- Zombie Gait: By default--they can learn to imitate humans.