Warm Bodies

March 21, 2011
Marion's debut, a less than successful attempt to surmount the inherent limitations of traditional zombie fiction, takes the premise that one of the walking dead, known only as R, has somehow retained a wide range of emotions in a postapocalyptic world where zombies hunt human prey. After eating the brain of a teenage boy, Perry Kelvin, and absorbing his memories, R rescues Kelvin's girlfriend, Julie Grigio, whom he takes to the airport, to the abandoned 747 commercial jet he calls home. A romance soon develops between the unlikely pair. Readers will struggle to figure out why R is different from his fellow zombies, while some of the living are oddly understanding and forgiving of R and his flesh-eating ways. R does possess a certain winsome charm and the upbeat ending will warm many hearts, but the great zombie-human love story has yet to be written.

March 1, 2011

A jubilant story about two star-crossed lovers, one of them dead and hungry for more than love.

Debut novelist Marion hits the pulse of the Twilight crowd with this morbidly romantic look at how affection really feels when your heart beats no more. "I am dead, but it's not so bad," says our zombie narrator, by way of introduction. "I've learned to live with it. This is "R," so named because it's all he can remember. But this is no Team Edward sob story. R really is a zombie, carrying the pink brains of his victims back to his communal lair for a snack. But one day, R chomps down on Perry Kelvin, a teenager whose sole affection is for his girlfriend, Julie. R begins absorbing Perry's memories, which in turn inspire him not to treat Julie like a bucket of KFC. And so the weirdest courting in the history of literature begins, as R and Julie spend time together prowling food courts and half-destroyed 747s. Julie, who could have been a simplistic mechanism to drive the book's plot, turns out to be its most inspired character, inhabiting that odd space between fear and curiosity. "Maybe you're not such a monster, Mr. Zombie," she admits at one point. "I mean, anyone who appreciates a good beer is halfway okay in my book." R begins to change, redeveloping his ability to communicate, and noticing a physical transformation to accompany his emotional awakening. But the path of true love never runs smooth, and the unlikely duo soon find themselves caught between R's ravenous companions and Julie's soldier father.

Originally self-published, this DIY success story is already slated for a film adaptation, making these quixotic lovers the grateful dead indeed.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

October 15, 2010

It's a postapocalyptic novel. No, it's a zombie novel. No, it's a love story. Actually, for first-timer Marion, who's been doing stuff like guarding power plants in and around Seattle, this is a success story. Marion published the work online, got great word of mouth, caught the attention of an agent, sold rights to Atria, sold movie rights to Summit Productions (which produces, um, the Twilight movies), saw ten countries snap up foreign rights, and even got invited to lunch by Stephenie Meyer. The story? A zombie named R, shambling through a collapsed America, falls for a human girl and decides to turn around his...life.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.