On the other hand, it’s a satisfying dystopian novel. The Burning World has plenty of touching moments, but it lacks the overall poignancy of Warm Bodies.

Instead, the conflict involves surviving current dangers, overthrowing the status quo, and dealing with trauma and loss - something every major character in the book has to do in order to move forward. Julie and R are a solid couple – indeed, one of the most satisfying elements of the book is seeing how solid they are. This book is much more action and “fight the dystopia” oriented than romance oriented. As they try to figure out whether to fight or keep running, and as their group gets bigger, R remembers more and more of his past life and his own role in bringing about the zombie plague.

Suddenly Julie, Nora, and R are running for their lives, along with their reluctant ally Abram and his young daughter, Sprout. He also struggles to repress memories of his past life, wishing to start completely over.Ĭhallenges aside, things are coming along nicely when a rival group, Axiom, invades the Stadium in which most known survivors live. As R can attest, waking is a slow process, and R struggles with eye-hand coordination, breathing, eating food, and talking. For one thing, their wounds become fresh and life threatening, and Julie’s best friend Nora spends all her time trying to heal them. Thanks to the events of the previous book, zombies are slowly starting to wake up, which creates many problems. A core group of survivors including the characters we met in Warm Bodies lies in a sports stadium and struggles to survive.

The Burning World deals with the aftermath of the events of Warm Bodies (in other words, SPOILERS AHEAD FOR WARM BODIES). The book was marketed as a science fiction YA, but it worked just fine for me as a straightforward romance novel.įinally we have a sequel, The Burning World. I liked the movie as well although I’m still upset that they whitewashed one of the characters. I didn’t think I was going to like “zombie romance,” but it drew me in. Back in 2012 I was completely amazed to fall madly in love with Warm Bodies, the novel by Isaac Marion that tells the story of a zombie named R who falls in love with a young woman named Julie.

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