Edit: Wait! Wut? There is now a sequel? Untitled Warm Bodies Sequel. I was happy with it being a stand-along but whatevaaaa, I'm happy to read another book by him.End of edit.Although this book gets 5 stars from me, it is by no means, perfect. Don't go in and think, well Stella gave it 5 stars so I'll love it. Truth is, I didn't love a large portion of this book, but if you value by opinions, then I ask you, please read on.-Start of review- Okay, as mentioned above, this book is not perfect. This is a graphic (sinusoidal) representation of how I would have rated this book throughout the novel:The book started out humorous, refreshing and a bit quirky. R, our main character is awkward, lacking a bit of neural activities and most importantly, a zombie. He is like a newly released piece of avant-garde clothing arriving at a major department store near you. You're intrigued by it, you want to like it because it's not your typical t-shirt and jeans but you're also afraid. You're afraid because he is not your typical YA main character, which means, all bets are off. There is no predictability as to where this character is going, no "a girl who finds out she is the daughter of a very powerful man, which means she possesses this special power," no "quiet girl whose male best friend has been crushing on her since they could walk, but instead falls for the hot, cold guy she barely understand." So right off the bat, for about 30 pages, I enjoyed the book, I would give it 5/5 stars.But then, things started to change. I blame my YA-trained brain for expecting "insta-love" romance to blossom. Well, THANK YOU ISAAC MARION. It didn't quite happen. Instead, the readers are confronted with about 120 pages of development. I appreciate this part because this is the character growth and relationship reinforcement that so many YA lack. But at the same time, my YA-trained brain was twitching for some action. So for the majority of this part, I thought this part was going to be a 2.5/5 for me. But I don't like to give up on books, not when I am so intrigued by the unpredictability of the plot. So, I read on, and for this, Stella's brain would like to thank Stella's curiosity.After this slump, things picked up and it was as if an old Mercedes was restored to life, it began to chug along. I won't comment on the last 70 or so pages for fear of saying too much. All I can say is the unpredictability of this book definitely bumped up this book's rating. I want to read more and more of it. Devouring words after words, hoping to find out more and more of this world Isaac Marion has painted. And we arrive at 4/5 stars.What gained this book that sought-after, coveted last star?I thought and thought about this book after I finish and I couldn't stop thinking about it. So, first of all, that is a sign I really enjoyed this book. Many neuronal action potentials later, I've summed up the other things I loved about this book:1) Marion's poetic writing. They are soft as butter and so reminiscent of John Green and Tahereh Mafi (or so I've heard). Here are some samples: "I want out ribcage to crack open and our hearts to migrate and merge. I want our cells to braid together like living thread." "I want to change my punctuation. I long for exclamation marks, but I'm drowning in ellipses." "Sex, once a law as undisputed as gravity, has been disproved. The equation is erased, the blackboard broken." "[What is love?] Maybe it's a kind of death throe. A distant echo of that great motivator that once started wars and inspired symphonies, that drove human history out of the caves and into space."2) A tie-in to Marion's writing style is his diction in certain areas – so anatomical, so relevant to the concept of the Living Dead. "The soft pink zygote of a plan." "...her zygomaticus major pulling her lips in a faint smile."
