Author: Isaac Marion

At the start of the book, I think I expected a warm and fuzzy latter half. There were not many deliveries in that department, and that isn’t a bad thing necessarily. It just wasn’t what I would have thought. Zombies eating people? Of course-I understood that concept and totally expected it. Boneys (not sure if that is the correct way to pluralize the names of these creepy creatures), not so much. They were so odd and so…frightening.

Whenever they were in the story I felt a sort of chilling effect throughout my body. They honestly just creeped me out.

We find ourselves in R’s mind as the narrator. He can imagine things in his mind, he just can’t entirely express them to those around him-like all the other zombies. R is already kind of the outsider of the zombie group when we enter the story, but only because he feels remorse for eating the living. He can’t help what he is or that he was plagued with this disease, he just knows he’ll deteriorate if he doesn’t eat, no matter how morally wrong it is to him.

One fateful day his gang attacks a group of humans that includes Julie, his love interest. He ends up protecting her, and thus brings her back to his lair. We see visions of Julie’s, and her dead ex boyfriend’s, past as a result of the aforementioned attack. I think this is what really turned me toward not liking the book as much. I felt bored and less sympathetic to Perry’s character the more we see the visions. At one point I felt bad, but I just got tired of him being a part of the story. I think I wanted it to be mostly placed in the present, and a lot of the story was not.

I loved R, he was a great hero, don’t get me wrong. I loved that he was so protective of Julie and that he was different than other zombies, I just didn’t like the supporting characters-like Julie’s dad, the past of Perry, and some of the hornier zombies…those scenes were kind of disturbing on a whole other level.

Honestly, I will most definitely see the movie, but as a book, I don’t feel better for reading it. I didn’t dislike it, and I didn’t love it. It is placed somewhere in the middle. On the one hand, I loved the insight to R-he was a sweetie. On the other hand, I don’t entirely know how I felt about Julie; she was just okay. I liked her enough, I just didn’t find her to be my favorite heroine in a novel. So, for those of you who love the offbeat romance or zombie path alike, I feel you will like it. For me, I will just simply remember it and chalk it off to a quick, okay read.