Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Warm Bodies:
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 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.

While Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion was not page after page of thrilling action, I still found myself utterly consumed by the story from start to finish. Interestingly enough, this book is told through R's perspective, and the thoughts of a zombie can be pretty funny at times. And it honestly didn't feel like a zombie book, despite the occasional loss of limbs and eating of brains. It was extremely well written and the pace flowed nicely, and Issac blended horror with emotionally driven characters beautifully. R was just one of those characters that you couldn't help but like, somehow he managed to hold on to just a little bit of his humanity while the whole world was falling apart, and it's that part of him that leads him to change everything.

I've never done this before, but I'm going to include a portion of someone else's review. Maggie Siefvater said this beautifully and I pretty much felt the same, and I know I could never say this as eloquently:

"[...]3. Did I mention metaphor? Well, let me do it again. The metaphor that the zombies stand for is not deeply hidden in WARM BODIES, and it’s equal parts lesson and warning. It also happens to be something I deeply, deeply believe in. I don’t want to say it’s about self actualization, because who even knows what that means outside of a Meg Ryan movie. It’s about living life to the fullest and feeling everything you can and not being afraid. Maybe that does sound a little like a Meg Ryan movie."