If I am being honest with you, I have only picked up this book in Waterstones because they had 'Buy One, Get Another One Half Price' on books and this was the sixth book I bought that day. I think the trailer for the movie put me a little bit off as I thought it looks dull and boring. But then I thought : "I bought the book, might as well read it." And also I needed something to fill the days with between the last book I've read The Night Circus and Dead Ever After (which came out today). So I had 3 days to kill and this book was about the right size for it.
So I put in my handbag and took it to work with me. And I was very pleasantly surprised. This book and the story itself was not what I have expected!! Something completely different!! A book I have truly enjoyed reading.
The story takes place sometimes in the future when the human race is nearly extinct. The reason is plague which caused that humans are turning into zombies. ( You see at this point I would normally lose interest, but I kept reading on. ) In this era we meet a guy zombie called R. R cannot remember his previous life, he even cannot remember his own name. He and his fellow zombie housemates live at the airport. He actually lives in Boeing 747! Anyways, R is going on with his everyday zombie life - hunting people, eating their brains, eating various parts of their bodies, wondering around the airport and enjoying the rides on an escalator when the power turns on. Just normal life of the Dead one. On one of his trips for food he finds a group of people. He kills a boy and instantly starts to eat his brain. And the boy's memories come rushing into his mind - that's why zombies enjoy munching on human's brain. They don't have their own memories, so they get a rush from their victim's memories. And he gets to meet Julie through those memories and somehow he wants to protect her. He saves her from getting killed that day and takes her with him back to the airport where he looks after her. Them two start to get to know each other and something starts to change. R is changing.
I love how witty this book is. It is very easy to read and follow. The story is quite fast paced but very entertaining. I love R. He is such a wonderful thoughtful character. I love the fact that he thinks about everything so deeply, but then has no way of properly expressing himself. (Unfortunately, the Dead can't read and talk properly). But Julie gets him.
One of the thing I have enjoyed about this book that it's full of very interesting opinions and theories. It lightly touches on the fact that it is kinda our (humans) fault that we ended up with a plague which turns us to zombies. This book actually made me think about certain aspects of life. Will the greediness of human's characters cause us to die and extinct at the end? We are already killing our planet! Everyday!And that is our home!
I have really, really enjoyed this book and would suggest it to read to anyone who is interested. Give it a chance like I did and I promise you will definitely enjoy it.
It actually made me want to check out the film adaptation which I was not very keen before. And, please, do let me know what you think.
Check out the trailer below:
And here are some quotes I have enjoyed :
“There is no ideal world for you to wait around for. The world is always just what it is now, and it's up to you how you respond to it.”
“Writing isn't letters on paper. It's communication. It's memory.”
“What wonderful thing didn't start out scary?”
“We are where we are, however we got here. What matters is where we go next.”
“Once you've arrived at the end of the world, it hardly matters which route you took.”
“It frustrates and fascinates me that we'll never know for sure, that despite the best efforts of historians and scientists and poets, there are some things we'll just never know. What the first song sounded like. How it felt to see the first photograph. Who kissed the first kiss, and if it was any good.”
“...wanting change is step one, but step two is taking it.”
“What a massive responsibility, being a moral creature”
“The past is made out of facts...I guess the future is just hope.”
“There's no benchmark for how life's "supposed" to happen. There is no ideal world for you to wait around for. The world is always just what it is now, it's up to you how you respond to it”
“Music? Music is life! It’s physical emotion - you can touch it! It’s neon ecto-energy sucked out of spirits and switched into sound waves for your ears to swallow. Are you telling me, what, that it’s boring? You don’t have time for it?”
“When the entire world is built on death and horror, when existence is a constant state of panic, it's hard to get worked up about any one thing. Specific fears have become irrelevant. We've replace them with a smothering blanket far worse.”
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