Quote of the Week #12

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” 

Oscar Wilde

Warm Bodies

The Premise:

R is a young man going through a life crisis - he's a zombie, with no name (he only remembers its initial), no memories and no pulse. However, he seems to be a bit different from his fellow Dead; he craves for something more than just eating other people's brains.

Everything changes when he meets Julie, a girl from the City that, for some reason that he can't quite understand, he decides to save.  A tense yet tender relationship begins between them; Julie brings a new perspective to R's life and he begins to crave a new life, a new chance to breathe and to feel again.

My Thoughts:

I've never been a fan of zombies stories - I don't even watch Walking Dead - and even though Warm Bodies is a zombie book, it seemed to be an exception from what I already knew.

I really enjoyed Isaac Marion's writing style; it was descriptive enough but not to the point of boring you with too many details and even though the dialogues were sometimes pretty basic and simple, you could definitely sense that there was a lot more to them. When R and M talked, they didn't exchange that many words between them- their talking abilities are somewhat limited - but there was definitely a certain complexity and depth to their considerations.  

As for the characters, my favorites were, by far, R and M.  M was witty, sometimes charming - which seems odd for a zombie - and I loved the fact that he was a lady's man, even though he was dead. I loved him and how cheeky he sometimes was. On the other hand, R is adorable. He understands that he's different from the other zombies he lives with and he raises a lot of questions about he's existence and what's going on with the world; I was actually surprised with the eloquence and profoundness of his thoughts - even though he lacked the ability to form long sentences, in his mind he seemed to have no limits. His relationship with Julie was really sweet and I liked the fact that there was a certain naivety to it. He grew a lot during the story and I think that the most interesting thing about him was his determination to change and to be a part of the solution to what is going on in the world.

Overall I really enjoyed reading this book because I had never read something like this before. I liked the fact that it showed us a different kind of zombies; in this story, it's sometimes hard to believe that R and M are zombies because there's a lot more to them than just groaning, dragging their decaying bodies and eating people's brains. The only think that, in my opinion, was a little weak was the ending; it was good but I wanted something more unexpected and with a bit more spunk to it. It also left me with some questions ("How did all of this begin and when? Why are thinks changing all of the sudden?" etc,) so I really hope that in the next books of the series I find the answers I need to fully understand what's going on.

I give this book 4,5 stars. It's not your typical story about zombies -it has a lot of great moments that will sometimes make you laugh or think and characters that are surprisingly endearing and not what you would normally expected from a book about zombies.

Reading Challenge Update #2

As you may already know, this year I've decided to take part in two reading challenges: the A-Z challenge and another one where I would try to read most (if not all) of the books that are currently sitting on my bookshelves. So here is my update for the month of February:

• A-Z Challenge - I've managed to read 3 books from my list (check out the list here) and they were The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien (review here), 1Q84 book 3 by Haruki Murakami and L A Confidential by James Ellroy (which, technically, I've finished today).

• Books from my bookshelves challenge -  This month I read 4 books that had been sitting on my bookshelves for a while and they were The Hobbit, 1Q84 book 3, LA Confidential and Giant's Bread by Mary Westmacott (review here). I'm really happy that I surpassed my quota this month, even though I didn't enjoy all of the books that I've read. This challenge was created by Sheila from http://deliberatereader.com

Read in February

 I had never read anything by J D Salinger before so I bought this book because I thought it would be a great way to know more about this author and his writing style before reading some of his other books.

I have to say, the third book in Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 "saga" disappointed me; it was too slow and it was constantly changing between different periods of time. I really enjoyed the ending, though. 

 

Short story written by a Portuguese author. It's interesting but after finishing it I was asking for more! It seems like a chapter from a book and it raises a lot of questions that are left unanswered.