From Goodreads:This very short story was the spore that eventually grew into WARM BODIES. Presented here for historical value.
I wrote a short story for City Arts magazine about R's first winter as a walking corpse. It's significantly less heartwarming than most holiday specials.
The end of the world didn't happen overnight.
After years of societal breakdowns, wars and quakes and rising tides, humanity was already near the edge. Then came a final blow no one could have expected: all the world's corpses rising up to make more.
Born into this bleak and bloody landscape, twelve-year-old Julie struggles to hold on to hope as she and her parents drive across the wastelands of America, a nightmarish road trip in search of a new home.
Hungry, lost, and scared, sixteen-year-old Nora finds herself her brother's sole guardian after her parents abandon them in the not-quite-empty ruins of Seattle.
And in the darkness of a forest, a dead man opens his eyes. Who is he? What is he? With no clues beyond a red tie and the letter "R," he must unravel the grim mystery of his existence—right after he learns how to think, how to walk, and how to satisfy the monster howling in his belly. The New Hunger is a glimpse of the past and a path to an astonishing future…
In Warm Bodies, Isaac Marion's New York Times bestselling novel that inspired a major film, a zombie returns to humanity through an unlikely encounter with love.
"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.
Bestseller Warm Bodies captured hearts worldwide in twenty-five languages, inspiring a major film and a cult fandom. Now R the reluctant zombie continues his journey in this much-anticipated sequel.
Being alive is hard. Being human is harder. But since his recent recovery from death, R is making progress. He's learning how to read, how to speak, maybe even how to love, and the city's undead population is showing signs of life. R can almost imagine a future with Julie, this girl who restarted his heart—building a new world from the ashes of the old one.
And then helicopters appear on the horizon. Someone is coming to restore order. To silence all this noise. To return things to the way they were, the good old days of stability and control and the strong eating the weak. The plague is ancient and ambitious, and the Dead were never its only weapon.
How do you fight an enemy that's in everyone? Can the world ever really change? With their home overrun by madmen, R, Julie, and their ragged group of refugees plunge into the otherworldly wastelands of America in search of answers. But there are some answers R doesn't want to find. A past life, an old shadow, crawling up from the basement.
The New York Times bestselling Warm Bodies Series has captivated readers in twenty-five languages, inspiring a major film and transcending the zombie genre to become something "poetic" ( Library Journal ) "highly original" ( Seattle Times ) and "ultimately moving" ( Time Out London ). Now the story of a dead man's search for life reaches its conclusion on a scale both epic and intimate.
Before he was a flesh-eating corpse, R was something worse. He remembers it all now, a life of greed and apathy more destructive than any virus, and he sees only one path to redemption: he must fight the forces he helped create. But what can R, Julie, and their tiny gang of fugitives do against the creeping might of the Axiom Group, the bizarre undead corporation that's devouring what's left of America?
It's time for a road trip.
No more flyover country. This time they'll face the madness on the ground, racing their RV across the wastelands as tensions rise and bonds unravel—because R isn't the only one hiding painful secrets. Everyone is on their own desperate search: for a kidnapped daughter, a suicidal mother, and an abused little boy with a gift that could save humanity... if humanity can convince him it's worth saving.
All roads lead home, to a final confrontation with the plague and its shareholders. But this is a monster that guns can't kill. A battle only one weapon can win...
My Review:
Author: Isaac Marion
Series: Warm Bodies #0.25, 0.4, 0.5, 1, 2, 3
First Read: January 31st, 2013, December 11th, 2012
Read: December 11th, 11th, 11th, 11th, 11th, 12th, 2025
Source: Online, Own, Ebook.bike
Reason Why: Loved the first book, and they're 2025 Dystopia Books and Prequel & Sequel CHallenge 2023 Books! And The Burning World and The Living are WTC Books, and The Burning World is a RR Book and a WoW Book, and The Living is a End of Series 2025 Book!
Publisher: City Arts, Atria/Emily Bestler Books, Zola Books
Published: 2005, November 28th 2011, January 28th 2013, October 28th 2010, February 2nd 2017, November 13th 2018
I Am a Zombie Filled With Love:
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| 5/5 Hearts |
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| 5/5 Books |
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| 5/5 Stars |
Boarded Window:
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| 5/5 Hearts |
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| 5/5 Books |
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| 5/5 Stars |
The New Hunger:
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| 5/5 Hearts |
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| 5/5 Books |
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| 5/5 Stars |
Warm Bodies:
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| 5/5 Hearts |
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| 5/5 Books |
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| 5/5 Stars |
The Burning World:
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| 5/5 Hearts |
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| 5/5 Books |
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| 5/5 Stars |
