A book I've been meaning to read ever since I saw the movie, but after my last Book vs. Movie read I was tentative to pick up a new one. However, after many hours creeping the Booktube world I was brought back to it again and this time I went for it.
So if you're reading this and thinking 'Warm Bodies? What is this, some terrible promo?' hahahahaha! No. Zombies ladies and gents, get your heads out of the gutter!
Either way here's a quick run down:
Synopsis:
A group of zombies live in an abandoned airport, they live day to day shuffling and groaning and every so often they go to the city to feed on the living. Things take a drastic change for the main zombie man 'R' on one fate filled hunt that will leave him questioning life as he knows it. Enter Julie, the human girl that has become the eye of R's attraction. From two completely different lives and facing all odds they are thrust into the unaccepting world where they must change the people's minds or die trying.
Review:
I'm relieved to say that this wasn't another Silence of the Lambs as there were some significant differences between this book and it's movie counterpart. But ultimately the movie is a good representation of the book and if you weren't in to reading I would recommend it as a worthy replacement. (Though I'm a reader so, THE BOOK IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN THE MOVIE!........ in like 99% of cases.)
Random cool thing about this book - the chapters aren't actually labelled as chapters which is both cool and terrible. Your chapters are labelled with pictures like this:
(Random Chapter picture from Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion)
Cool because hey, they're body parts and it's warm bodies and they're zombies and they're ripping bodies apart and it's a little genius, right? Terrible because I couldn't imagine having this for a book report or something and trying to find a quote and remember what chapter it was in. 'oh yeah, that's in the ear canal chapter or the eyeball chapter' doesn't seem very memorable or effective to me. Especially because some of them I'd actually have to go back and study the grainy picture to figure out what it was. That neat little nugget aside shall we begin to compare the two?
The book is a lot more of a personal experience than the movie feels. From the movie you gather that the zombies eat the brains, they receive snippets of memories from the owner of said brain. What they don't tell you is that Julie's now dead ex boyfriend is a special case that gives R a little more than a snippet. Also, the movie is very much that R and Perry are two completely separate entities and their memories are two completely different things where the book blurs those lines a bit and makes it maybe a little more realistic. After all, if you're experiencing the emotions and memories of someone else would they not consume you a bit?
Another interesting thing about the book is you realize there's a little more to the zombie life than the grunting and shuffling that the movie portrays. They have their own little twisted society too which makes their saving seem a little more possible. It's interesting to see that perspective and learn a little more about R before Julie.
I love that this is one of those movie adaptations that takes lines right out of the book but isn't word for word. The comedy that fills the movie is shared in the book, I was relieved to see that that wasn't just the hollywood twist on things and that it originated in the book. There were some moments I wish were a little more meaningful, and there were others that I maybe wasn't quite sure why they were kept. I was relieved to find differences between the novel and the movie and if you're a purist like R you might enjoy the read for those little details and the slight changes in how things happen.
Mostly, I want more of this and I'm so glad to see that there's a sequel coming. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a movie to re-watch.
PS. The next book on my list is actually one I started and need to finish, keep an eye out for my review of Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld!
No comments:
Post a Comment