Only 67 days ago R was a zombie, and he is now relearning
how to be Alive, with the help of his girlfriend Julie, who
still belongs to the Living. With the world still under the
threat of zombies, far from everyone was as lucky as R: life
was reasonably peaceful in Julie and R's little fixer-upper,
except for those pesky bloodstains that are yet to be
removed. However, one day when Julie came home from
scavenging supplies, she receives a phone call from Lawrence
Rosso at the Citi Stadium command offices. The zombies are
not the only threat anymore. On their way to the stadium,
which is where 20,000 people are huddled in a semblance of a
city, Julie and R hear a noise: there are helicopters
hovering above, which is not normal. Does it have anything to
do with Rosso's summons? Is there something else to be
worried about?
Before THE BURNING WORLD, I had read exactly one zombie book,
and it was Isaac Marion's WARM BODIES, which I had loved so
much, that I didn't even look at the blurb for THE BURNING
WORLD, I just knew I had to read it. I read WARM
BODIES
several years ago, and my memory is now fuzzy on some
details, but Julie and R held a special place in my heart all
this time. Readers who have not read the previous book will
thus be able to follow the story reasonably easily. I am
still amazed at the richness of Mr. Marion's postapocalyptic
world. While R was the first shade of grey between the white
of the Living, and the black of the Dead, there is now a full
spectrum of grey for the zombies. But not only is R changing,
so is Julie.
THE BURNING WORLD is written mostly in the first person, R's
voice, and I loved watching his thought evolution. Isaac
Marion's writing is as dazzling as the first time, if not
more. The prose is very cultured, crisply lyrical, flowing
and effortless; the author's natural eloquence makes the
darker moments more unsettling, and the lighter ones more
brilliant and happy. Even though it takes place in the near
future, Mr. Marion's postapocalyptic world is a surreal
nightmare that is easy to understand, as the vestiges are
mostly of today's world gone terribly wrong.
THE BURNING WORLD is bursting with action; the gory passages,
which are to be expected, will turn your stomach a few times,
but that's zombies for you! The characters are even more
interesting this time around, I think, mostly because of the
few who have tagged along with R and Julie. Then again, at
other times, some moments are truly poignant, especially when
words provoke heart-shattering reminiscences. I felt the
philosophical side was even more profound, the questions on
what makes us decent, what we shouldn't take for granted has
a greater importance in view of the metamorphoses that are
happening, and the dangers ahead. It is a tribute to Isaac
Marion's talent that the characters' metaphysical pondering
takes place amidst a tremendously entertaining escapist
extravaganza, and that both are just as gripping. There are
also fabulous illustrations, and I will need to have a second
look at those. I didn't even think how it would or could end,
and it was quite intriguing.
The New York Times 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.
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