Author: Isaac Marion
Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 12/25/2012
Publisher: Astria/Emily Bestler Books
★★★★★
R is having a no-life crisis—he is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he is a little different from his fellow Dead. He may occasionally eat people, but he’d rather be riding abandoned airport escalators, listening to Sinatra in the cozy 747 he calls home, or collecting souvenirs from the ruins of civilization.
And then he meets a girl.
First as his captive, then his reluctant house guest, Julie is a blast of living color in R’s gray landscape, and something inside him begins to bloom. He doesn’t want to eat this girl—although she looks delicious—he wants to protect her. But their unlikely bond will cause ripples they can’t imagine, and their hopeless world won’t change without a fight.
Full disclosure: This is my favorite book of the twenty-first century.
I guess that's kind of corny. Certainly there must be better books written during the past seventeen years, and yet this is the book that has called to me the most over the past four years since the first time that I read it.
Another note of disclosure: This is the second time I've read this book.
And it's only the second time I've read this book, which seems strange when I consider how much the language comforts me. Reading this book feels like wrapping myself in the warmth of grandmother's favorite quilt and snuggling down for a long winter's nap. Or maybe just a good read.
Let me start this review by stating this: This book is corny. It's humorous and it's implausible and it's cheesy and it's sappy and it's just a weird genre.
I want you to read this book. What I don't want is for you to read this book and groan, because it does bear its similarities to Twilight (which, by the way, I thoroughly loved but which does not make my top 10 books of the twenty-first century by a long shot).
You're here to read about this book though, and that's what I want to tell you about.
How about we start out by talking about what this book is not?
It's not a serious zombie book, for one. I have a rough time with zombie stories that take themselves too seriously, and you've probably already noticed that I read a few zombie books. After all, this is the second one in a row.
If you're looking for a book about a hardcore zombie apocalypse, this probably isn't going to be that book. Really, this book is a sappy love story.
Really.
I'm serious. If you don't believe me, it's time for you to pick this one up.
Can zombies fall in love? Apparently R can. He doesn't remember his name. He's lost it like his keys, forgotten it like an anniversary. All he has is the first letter, and no memories of who he might have been before he died. Or how he died. Or when he died.
The world has ended at the hands of a plague that has left cities in ruins. The Dead are reanimated, feeding on the flesh of the Living, and must feed in order to stave off the full Death. Zombies in this world can starve to death, and frequently do.
Brains give zombies a high, and the high gives them visions of the life the brain lived. When R feeds on the brain of one Perry Kelvin, he discovers his victim's girlfriend, and that's when everything changes. Maybe R was already changing before that, but when he combines forces with a nineteen year-old girl, everything starts to change.
Including the world around them.
These zombies are getting warmer.
I don't usually give a synopsis in my book reviews, but it is so difficult to talk openly about a book that is so much an old friend. I don't know how to share this with you without telling you to go read it.
So I will leave you with my favorite quote from this book. Perhaps my favorite quote from any book.
"I want to change my punctuation. I long for exclamation marks, but I'm drowning in ellipses."
Please read this book.
* I have yet to purchase and read a copy of The New Hunger or Burning World as a result of financial hardship at the moment. When they are available, I look forward to reading and reviewing those as well!
I guess that's kind of corny. Certainly there must be better books written during the past seventeen years, and yet this is the book that has called to me the most over the past four years since the first time that I read it.
Another note of disclosure: This is the second time I've read this book.
And it's only the second time I've read this book, which seems strange when I consider how much the language comforts me. Reading this book feels like wrapping myself in the warmth of grandmother's favorite quilt and snuggling down for a long winter's nap. Or maybe just a good read.
Let me start this review by stating this: This book is corny. It's humorous and it's implausible and it's cheesy and it's sappy and it's just a weird genre.
I want you to read this book. What I don't want is for you to read this book and groan, because it does bear its similarities to Twilight (which, by the way, I thoroughly loved but which does not make my top 10 books of the twenty-first century by a long shot).
You're here to read about this book though, and that's what I want to tell you about.
How about we start out by talking about what this book is not?
It's not a serious zombie book, for one. I have a rough time with zombie stories that take themselves too seriously, and you've probably already noticed that I read a few zombie books. After all, this is the second one in a row.
If you're looking for a book about a hardcore zombie apocalypse, this probably isn't going to be that book. Really, this book is a sappy love story.
Really.
I'm serious. If you don't believe me, it's time for you to pick this one up.
Can zombies fall in love? Apparently R can. He doesn't remember his name. He's lost it like his keys, forgotten it like an anniversary. All he has is the first letter, and no memories of who he might have been before he died. Or how he died. Or when he died.
The world has ended at the hands of a plague that has left cities in ruins. The Dead are reanimated, feeding on the flesh of the Living, and must feed in order to stave off the full Death. Zombies in this world can starve to death, and frequently do.
Brains give zombies a high, and the high gives them visions of the life the brain lived. When R feeds on the brain of one Perry Kelvin, he discovers his victim's girlfriend, and that's when everything changes. Maybe R was already changing before that, but when he combines forces with a nineteen year-old girl, everything starts to change.
Including the world around them.
These zombies are getting warmer.
I don't usually give a synopsis in my book reviews, but it is so difficult to talk openly about a book that is so much an old friend. I don't know how to share this with you without telling you to go read it.
So I will leave you with my favorite quote from this book. Perhaps my favorite quote from any book.
"I want to change my punctuation. I long for exclamation marks, but I'm drowning in ellipses."
Please read this book.
* I have yet to purchase and read a copy of The New Hunger or Burning World as a result of financial hardship at the moment. When they are available, I look forward to reading and reviewing those as well!
Please note that this review contains affiliate links. You help support my book habit by purchasing the books I review!
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