Julie Grigio drives with her parents through the crumbling wastelands of America – a nightmarish family road trip in search of a new home.
A few hundred miles away, Nora Greene finds herself her brother's reluctant, terrified guardian when her parents abandon them in the not-quite-empty ruins of Seattle.
In the darkness of a forest, a dead man in a red tie opens his eyes. With no memory of who or what he is, he must unravel the grim mystery of his existence - right after he learns how to think, how to walk, and how to satisfy the monster howling in his belly...
Two warped families and a lonely monster. Unknown to any of them, their paths are set to cross in a startling encounter that will change the course of their lives – or deaths – forever.
A few hundred miles away, Nora Greene finds herself her brother's reluctant, terrified guardian when her parents abandon them in the not-quite-empty ruins of Seattle.
In the darkness of a forest, a dead man in a red tie opens his eyes. With no memory of who or what he is, he must unravel the grim mystery of his existence - right after he learns how to think, how to walk, and how to satisfy the monster howling in his belly...
Two warped families and a lonely monster. Unknown to any of them, their paths are set to cross in a startling encounter that will change the course of their lives – or deaths – forever.
Title: The New Hunger (Warm Bodies ~ Book 0.5)
Author: Isaac Marion | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Website
Publication Date: February 8 2013
Publisher: Vintage Digital
Length: 128 Pages
Add it to your TBR Pile: Goodreads
Buy It: Zola Books
Source: Purchased (eBook Edition)
Cover Love: Even Isaac himself dislikes the cover, he says on his website that the children look weird... I agree.
Point of View: 3rd person, following multiple characters
My Rating: 4 Stars
Wow. This is my first zombie novel and I loved it.
“There’s not really such thing as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ people, there’s just like…humanity. And it gets broken sometimes.”
Julie is a young girl who with her mom and dad is travelling across the United States desperately trying to find a safe place to call home. Nora along with her little brother Addis are on their own, they are trying to find other people... nice living people. The Tall Man is also on his own, after having just woken up... not knowing who he is or where he is. He only knows that he has an intense desire pushing him forward, he just hasn’t figured out what he is being pushed toward yet.
“It radiates out from him like a cloud of ghosts, countless hands clutching at the air, reaching out for…something.”
Marion’s writing is spectacular. You are pulled into their world and you feel each of the characters emotions. I will completely admit that I am a big wuss and there are a few scenes where I was frightened. There is just something about zombies... they completely creep me out. The backdrop is set perfectly, littered streets, crumbling buildings and dead bodies. Lots of dead bodies.
“It’s more eerie to be alone in a city that’s lit up and functioning
than one that’s a tomb. If everything were silent, one could almost
pretend to be in nature. A forest. A meadow. Crickets and birdsong.
But the corpse of civilization is as restless as the creatures that now
roam the graveyards.”
It is hard to describe the emotions you go through while reading this novella. You want to hate the living dead but normally you are not in their head. They are the ‘bad guys’, the ones you need to run from and or kill. But what if they are not happy with what they are now being forced to do? What if inside their minds they can reason perfectly fine but are unable to communicate what they are thinking and feeling?
My heart breaks for Nora and Addis. I think it was their story that touched me the most which I am sure will be the same for most everybody that reads this. You are rooting for them all the way through...
“She remembers sprinting over the thin after-waves that slid over each other like sheets of glass. When she ran with the waves it looked like she wasn’t moving. When she ran against them it looked like she was flying. She refuses to believe her brother will never know these things. Somewhere, they will find sand.”
I strongly recommend this novella and I am now eager to start Warm Bodies. If Isaac Marion’s writing style stays true to this then I know I am in for a great read.
“He is spent. His mind is mercury again, its brief surge of humanity melting into an oily residue on its surface, and he no longer understands the feelings he felt in that strange moment on the overpass.
But he did feel them. They did happen. They rest on the murky seabed of his mind, buried under sand and silt and miles of grey waves. Patient seeds waiting for light.”
But he did feel them. They did happen. They rest on the murky seabed of his mind, buried under sand and silt and miles of grey waves. Patient seeds waiting for light.”
I loved Warm Bodies and was excited to see this come out..I wish Isaac Marion had made it available on Amazon though..I was wary of buying from somewhere I didn't know. Sounds like an awesome read!
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