Read Only Wednesday: The Burning World (Warm Bodies #2) by Isaac Marion

Read Only Wednesday is when I feature a book I've just read, about to read, added to my TBR pile etc. Welcome to The Burning World by Isaac Marion, book two of the Warm Bodies series. I came to his books by accident (before that, I'd probably read anything BUT a zombie book), but his lyrical style and ability to not only get me to read zombies but to feel empathy for them makes him an automatic buy for me. Better still when I actually got the chance to meet him and get the book signed!

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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Read Only Wednesday - The New Hunger by Isaac Marion #zombies #dystopia

Read Only Wednesday is when I highlight a book I've just read, am reading, or have just added to my TBR pile. This week it's The New Hunger by Isaac Marion. 

Blurb:
The must-read prequel to the “strange and unexpected” (Audrey Niffenegger) and “highly original” (Seattle Times) zombie love story Warm Bodies—the New York Times bestseller and inspiration for the hit film—from the critically acclaimed author whose clever debut turned the classic horror story on its head.

The end of the world didn’t happen overnight.

After years of societal breakdowns, wars and quakes and rising tides, humanity was already near the edge. Then came a final blow no one could have expected: all the world’s corpses rising up to make more.

Born into this bleak and bloody landscape, twelve-year-old Julie struggles to hold on to hope as she and her parents drive across the wastelands of America, a nightmarish road trip in search of a new home.

Hungry, lost, and scared, sixteen-year-old Nora finds herself her brother’s sole guardian after her parents abandon them in the not-quite-empty ruins of Seattle.

And in the darkness of a forest, a dead man opens his eyes. Who is he? What is he? With no clues beyond a red tie and the letter “R,” 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. The New Hunger is a glimpse of the past and a path to an astonishing future…

Series: The Warm Bodies Series (Book 2)
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books (October 6, 2015)
Kindle: $9.99

As a lot of people will know, I am a huge, huge fan of Warm Bodies. It's the film and book that converted me from zombie-phobic to zombie fan, though I'll still rigidly avoid the classic brain-eating hordes of Hollywood. Zombies with a twist - that's different. I had already bought and read this prequel after Warm Bodies (both the book and the film), but this is a re-edited and re-released version with the bonus of a chapter from the upcoming WB sequel The Living. So, yeah, I've bought the same book twice. Believe me, it's exceptional enough a story that I'm willing to do it (and you won't find many books I say that about). To be honest, I don't like the cover as much as the original, but hey - it's the contents I'm more interested in. I'll probably update my review of the original version at a later date, or at least my own addition to cover the new edition. :P
If you're looking for something different to the traditional hordes of shambling undead who do nothing but eat the living, this is for you. The writing is poetic and descriptive, so probably a little slower in pace and less action than the traditional run away/shoot 'em up zombie stories.