Warm Bodies

I am addicted to reading end-of-the-world tales.  The idea that this greedy world we live in no longer exists due to an all-governing power, plague or natural disaster is thrilling and terrifying at the same time.

In Warm Bodies, a combination of natural disaster and epidemic plague have destroyed the world.  Now the majority of inhabitants are zombies.  The small number of human survivors live in abandoned sports arenas of large, desolate cities.

This particular tale is told from the point of view of a zombie named "R."  He meets Julie when he kills and eats her boyfriend.  Suddenly R's life is turned upside down.  He starts seeing his victims memories and somehow starts feeling his emotions.  R decides to spare Julie and takes her back to his zombie home.

Yes, the book perpetuates the stereotype of mindless, grunting zombies in search of human brain, but at the same time, the author goes to prove that maybe there is much more to zombies than meets the eye.  I actually started to sympathize with these zombies and their personal battles with the state of world in which they "live."

This book is much more meaningful and poetic than you would accept a zombie tale to be.  It's not about gore, horror and eating brains.  It's about human love and emotion and how precious those things are when everything around you is falling apart.  The zombie R becomes a lovable creature as the story progresses and you find yourself rooting for him.  What does that say about humanity?  In every zombie there is a trace of human emotion and perhaps in every human there is a mindless grunt and blank stare.