User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Does the world deserve forgiveness? Does it deserve another chance?
I was very conflicted as I read this. The overarching emotion I felt throughout was disappointment. Unlike the rest of the series, this felt like it lacked a real direction. I wasn't sure what the goal was, and what had been the established goal at the end of
The Burning World was pretty much entirely forgotten until the climax. Conflicts were often repeated multiple times, or borrowed from previous books, and it left me feeling drained and frankly a little pissed off. A lot of time was spent flipping through perspectives and I felt like I didn't have enough time to feel much of anything for most of them. The scope of this was too big sometimes and the plot was left drowning in it.
We all decide the shape of the world, the sum of all minds together. Change has to be chosen.
But luckily, Marion is an amazing writer, and his way with words and imagery pretty much saved this. R completed his ongoing character arc all for the better and the conclusion was probably the most emotionally heart-wrenching, yet also heart-warming, endings to any series I've ever read. While I flip-flopped between considering DNFing it or framing it on my wall, I think that ultimately, this was a fantastic book that perhaps I will appreciate more on a second read through. And, of course, the themes are so profound and thought provoking. Even the bad guys sometimes manage to pull you in. Overall, I am so glad I read this and even more than that, I'm so glad Isaac finally got to release this book into the world, and I'm more than excited to see what strange paths he follows next.
Every choice has a price. We all owe a debt to this world for the things we take from it, right or wrong, cruel or kind. But these laws are soft, these laws are alive, and sometimes a debt is forgiven.
Rating: really liked it
UPDATE: The Living will be released November 13th!! Check out www.IsaacMarion.com to see the cover art AND to ore-order a signed hardcover!
Update: Isaac will be self-publishing The Living with an expected release date of fall 2018. I can’t wait to finally get my hands on this book!
Rating: really liked it
YO MY COVER FINALLY CAME
Rating: really liked it
This is the Warm Bodies ending we deserve.(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through NetGalley.)We are ten thousand generations of humans and millions more of simpler things, a vast history of lives and experiences condensed like an ocean of oil, growing deeper and more refined with each new moment of beauty. We want to ignite. We want to be heat and light. After billions of years, we are running out of patience.
“What we had before is what burned the world down. I’m ready for a whole new everything.”
“Chairs on the ceiling,” Tomsen adds. “An otter for president.”
Gebre looks at us for a moment, then tosses up his hands and turns back to his husband. “Well. Okay.”
Gael erupts with laughter. “You’re out of touch with the youth, old man.”
“I might even agree with them,” Gebre says with a shrug, “but they’re hardly representative of the general population.”
“We might be someday,” Julie says. “Maybe sooner than you think.”
"How do we make a better world without giving up a single piece of the old one? We don’t. We can’t. That’s a fucking stupid question.”
"No way around it, zombies are magic.”
Warm Bodies is a personal favorite of mine; if not in the top ten, then definitely the top twenty. (Hey, the likes of Margaret Atwood and Octavia Butler = stiff competition!) Until I met R. and Julie, never did I imagine that a book about the undead could be so beautiful and poetic. Romantic, even, and in a revolutionary, universal heartbeat kind of way.
The Burning World proved a letdown (albeit a teeny tiny one), as Marion traded some of the ardor for action adventure; it felt almost like an intermission between the more important stuff. In all fairness, bridging the gap between the beginning and end of a trilogy is HARD, and the second book in the series is still filled with its share of beautiful, transformative moments. (I challenge you to find a more tragically exquisite scene than when Nora's patient, Mrs. A, pulls herself from the pit of the plague, only to succumb to her injuries after enjoying a few brief moments of her newfound humanity.)
I'm not gonna lie: I was nervous as heck to read
The Living (especially right after the dumpster fire that was
Fury, the series conclusion to another one of my faves,
Menagerie).
Thankfully,
The Living is a harmonious marriage of the previous two books: it's got the race-against-time action-adventure chops of
The Burning World, with all of the humor, heart, and humanity that made me fall head over heels for
Warm Bodies.
The Living picks up immediately after the events of
The Burning World, as R., Julie, Nora, Marcus, and (Huntress!) Tomsen flee an imploding NYC. What ensues is a road trip across the United States - including an especially precarious and trippy (as in LSD) journey through the Midwaste - as they try to beat Axiom to Post; save their kids from being assimilated into Axiom's military-industrial complex; continue to spread the Gleam to the Dead and Nearly Living; and confront their pasts.
For Julie, this means finding her Nearly Living mother before she dies a second time; for Nora, it means confronting - and perhaps forgiving - memories she's tried long and hard to repress; and for R., it involves a trip to the basement, and bringing his crimes against humanity - as both the head of the Burners and the heir to the Atvist megacorp - to light. And they're all chasing Tomsen's white whale, BABL, hoping to bring it crashing down, thus opening the lines of communication to humanity.
One of the delights of
The Living is watching R. grow and evolve - and with it, his relationship with Julie. There's this wonderful scene where Julie confesses that what first drew her to R. was his distinct lack of a background or baggage. He was a blank canvas on which she could project whatever she needed. Slowly, though, he has become full-fledged person - imperfections and all. R. didn't have much of a choice when he devoured Perry; he was just following the plague's biological imperative. But the towns that were consumed at his behest as a Burner, and the humans devoured by the machine that was Axiom? Those were R.'s doing. How could that young man grow into the monosyllabic zombie that Julie fell in love with? How can she reconcile the man she loves with the person he once was? How can
he?
We also learn more about the nature of the plague; in general terms, it's an allegory for the times we live in now, and one that's perhaps more apt today than when the series began. The plague is forced unity and conformity; it is greed and pessimism. It is Axiom (Amazon, Blackwater, Purdue Pharma; Bethany Christian Services, CoreCivic, Wells Fargo): objectifying, tabulating, assimilating, corporatizing, mechanizing, consuming, regurgitating, and reassembling humans, nonhumans, and the natural world. It is apathy and stagnation; bigotry and tyranny. The only way through it? Love - and otter presidents.
The loveliest part of
The Living, far and away, is the Library: a subconscious, supernatural, subatomic collective consciousness. A vast, limitless record of everyone and everything that ever has been, and ever will be. Though it has a longstanding policy of steering clear of human affairs, the state of the world has become such that the Library can no longer bear silent witness. This burning world, so desolate yet still so full of potential, needs a nudge. A bit of wisdom. A tiny miracle.
And the so Library whispers, cajoles, and calls out to our protagonists. Well, the older ones; the younger ones, Joan and Alex and Sprout and Addis - they can flit in and out of the stacks at will. They are able to sip and guzzle from the Library's incomprehensible stores of knowledge whenever they like. Perhaps they can even use this wisdom to bend the laws of reality. They are the next generation; our future.
I hope they don't mind, but I'm going to pocket a small piece of the Library, and slip it into my own weird, godless magpie version of "religion, not quite a." There it will rest on the shelves alongside Octavia E. Butlers's
Parables duology; Philip Pullman's
His Dark Materials; Carl Sagan's starstuff; Aaron Freeman's essay, “You want a physicist to speak at your funeral”; and pieces of
Light from Other Stars and
The Psychology of Time Travel, by Erika Swyler and Kate Mascarenhas, respectively, and among other things.
It's strange and perhaps a bit confusing, but also as magnificent as all get out. Just roll with it and you'll have an extraordinary time, I promise.
Also awesome and compelling and worth a mention: Nora's reunion with Addis; Nora + Marcus; Tomsen vs. BABL; The Suggestible Universe; Paul Bark (sounds an awful lot like Paul Blart!); Gael + Gebre; random philosophical debates with strangers in dive bars; and the feeling you get when a ghost smiles at you.
Gleam on.
http://www.easyvegan.info/2020/01/14/...
Rating: really liked it
My enjoyment of this book may have been lessened because I read The Burning World so long ago, and this is basically “part 2” of that story. That said, it kinda felt like I jumped in the middle of a narrative, but that’s expected! It just was hard to do! I recommend reading them back to back, definitely. Some of the concepts in this were a little too “out there” for what I usually go for, and one scene in particular was a little silly, but overall it acts as a solid conclusion to the series. Just... don’t go in expecting a big name reveal for R! I may have to reread The Burning World and The Living one day to truly appreciate them together! 4/5 Stars.
Rating: really liked it
Honestly - I don't know how I felt about this book.
The first book was light and humorous, the second not as much and this one definitely not. So it wasn't what I was expecting. Also - I didn't even understand it.
So...I don't know.
Rating: really liked it
This book will be released the same year as The Burning World (a.k.a. the second book in the series)? Amazing.
Rating: really liked it
I really enjoyed this series. It's over now and I'm happy about that too. To finally see the ending of such a unique story. I was absolutely obsessed with book one. But the story got darker as it went on. The more revealed about R's past, the less I liked the book. It's still a good series, but I'm not happy with some of the details. All in all though a good read and I would recommend it to all Romance, and Zombie genre lovers.
Rating: really liked it
I think I want to finish it in a peaceful sorroundings.
Rating: really liked it
I just finished The Burning World. I love R no matter what, and I cannot wait for last book to come out! yay!
Rating: really liked it
Publishers, please publish faster. I'm dying of cliffhanger.
Rating: really liked it
The Warm Bodies series and the story of a zombie filled with love has come a long way since it made its first appearance in the world. Evolving from a sort of existential Romeo and Juliet story featuring zombies into a cautionary-tale-turned-uncanny-commentary on the current world climate and now to a beacon of hope, this series encapsulates every aspect of the human condition. It may have been pitched as a story about zombies and survival, but The Living proves it’s so much more than that.
The Living by Isaac Marion is an impressive feat of storytelling that puts this epic tale to rest in the most thought-provoking and organic way. Spanning multiple generations, thousands of miles, and several planes of existence, The Living shows us all what it really means to be alive and how to exist in the world we wish to see.
Read my full review on Hypable.com.
Rating: really liked it
The final installment of the Warm Bodies series is deeply thought provoking and intenseEverything comes to head in this fourth and final book in the series. Relationships are questioned, people are lost and found, old identities are discovered and new ones are forged. In the end, this series is ultimately a story about the power of choice, hope, willpower and humanity. Once you believe something is true, that belief can take over and bend reality, literally in the case of the Warm Bodies series.
If you want literature full of action, romance, drama and horror, this series is a no brainer. But there is more to this series than just those things, it is also very philosophical, offering a unique perspective on death, life and the afterlife.
I highly recommend this book and the ones before it.
Rating: really liked it
Amazing!!I love this book and loved the story. Very good and hopeful conclussion to the series. One of the best books of 2018!
Rating: really liked it
I received this book from Smith Publicity Publishing for honest review!
Give me Zombie!
This is not my type of reading but was happy to received this cuz it was so good. Know I have to read more books of his and read more action packed books.
Wow what a surprising read. Couldn’t put it down and enjoyed every minute of it. Has a nice flow right from the end of the other books to this book. Just when I thought it was ending you turned and keep the reader at the edge of their chair.
Keep up the great work. Can’t wait for the next adventure.
I highly recommend this book.
Great Action Pack!
This was my first time reading anything from this author. This was a awesome read. It was fast read! Just how I like it. I couldn't put it down at all and I was so hooked in the story. One setting read! It was a good fantastic read! That is something I think everybody dreams about.
Like who wouldn't!
The writing was good! I love the setting and theme in the storyline. I love the characters!
I highly recommend everybody read and get this books!
Everything comes to head in this fourth and final book in the series. Relationships are questioned, people are lost and found, old identities are discovered and new ones are forged. In the end, this series is ultimately a story about the power of choice, hope, willpower and humanity. Once you believe something is true, that belief can take over and bend reality, literally in the case of the Warm Bodies series.
If you want literature full of action, romance, drama and horror, this series is a no brainer. But there is more to this series than just those things, it is also very philosophical, offering a unique perspective on death, life and the afterlife.
I highly recommend this book and the ones before it.
