Breathers

S.G Browne's debut has a uniqueness that set it apart from the over crowded market for zombie tales.  In Breathers, reanimating after death is purely down to chance.  Andy, the narrator, reanimated after he rammed his car into a tree.  The same accident killed his wife, but she didn't come back, and this resulted in their daughter being taken to live with her aunt and uncle, and Andy living in his parents basement turned wine cellar with feelings of guilt and anguish.

 

  Browne is quick to set up the premise that zombies are people, too, the only difference is that they often have the physical ailments that caused their original demise.  For Andy and his friends, formed at a local support group, there's no slow walking, no moaning, no craving of human flesh.  Their problems are due to the fact that they live in a world that was subjected to zombie movies and Breathers, what they call the non-dead, cannot separate Hollywood zombies from the ones that share their world.

 Breathers has all the necessary ingredients for an interesting read, but I found it hard to empathise with Andy.  Throughout, Andy repeats the line 'you wouldn't understand' with different variations applicable to his increasingly strange situation.  Towards the end, I realised that I didn't want to understand, and it made it hard to have a positive response to this book.  I think I liked it, there's plenty of comedy elements in there to stop it from becoming too politically motivated, but I don't think I'll rushing to read it again.

Warm Bodies

I urge any fan of the supernatural genre to read Issac Marion's Warm Bodies.  This is not the usual zombie wants brains, rampaging the world, gore fest.  I didn't think a different take on Zombies could be skillfully done, but boy was I wrong.  Warm Bodies is a love story between a girl and a zombie.

Of course for this to happen R can't be like other zombies.  Already showing indications that he is something special (he has a name and he can speak)  R goes out for a snack and ends up saving a girl named Julie.  Events from there onwards spiral out of control and make for what has been the most interesting book I have read this year.  I loved the zombie hierarchy, (the bonies were terrifyingly funny) the settings of the abandoned airport, everyday bits and pieces of mordern life that have been mutated to fit a post apocalyptic setting.  Marion managed to take everything I loved from Max Brook's World War Z and from any generic Vampire love story I have I ever read and twist it into this beautiful story.

I hope there will be a sequel.  However, another part of me thinks that Warm Bodies is perfect as is and can stand alone without any continuation.  Hopefully, it will still be on book shelves in twenty years time.  Unless there's been a zombie invasion.