Maddy Swift is a high school junior with only one real friend who can be overly dramatic. Her short-term dream is to finally attend the school’s formal with a date, so when the attractive new guy, Stamp, asks her to a house party, her life changes.

When Maddy sneaks out to meet Stamp, she ignores the bad storm and is struck by lightning. She awakens in what she thinks if a few minutes later, but quickly realizes something is very wrong.

Zombies Don’t Cry begins with a prologue before taking the reader to a period two weeks earlier. Maddy and her best friend, Haze, are in home ec class talking about the accidental deaths of three of their female classmates. Hazel believes the class is cursed. Maddy blows her off, but in a way, Hazel was right.

Zombies Don’t Cry was a relatively quick read that once again shook up my zombie beliefs. It was not the first zombie book I have read in which the zombies were able to function. It was the first that not only had a hierarchy of zombies, but also two different kinds of zombies. And the type of zombie one became depended on whether a person was bitten or experienced a high volume of electricity. Yes, electricity. The, I guess, mechanics of becoming a zombie and zombie nature that Rusty Fischer introduced were clever.

Other than that, I thought the plot was just alright and so were the characters. I have not forgotten them, but they do not stand out in my mind. I made it through Zombies Don’t Cry with no problem, but while nothing bothered me, nothing wowed me either.

Recommended for fans of zombie books and the paranormal. It may not be spectacular, but give it a try if you have the time.

R is a zombie in an America ravaged by war, collapse, and the walking Dead. Blood and brains are the highlights of his seemingly timeless “life”, but although he cannot remember who he was, he has a more meaningful existence than other zombies. He is one of the few who can speak, albeit haltingly, but within his mind he is an eloquent philosopher.

Then one event allows R’s inner eloquence shine through - as he consumes a teenage boy’s brain, he gains access to the boy’s memories. The experience jolts him and he ends up rescuing Perry’s (the boy’s) girlfriend, Julie, and vows to keep her safe. Perry’s brain - and Julie - change R and his fellow Dead and prove that if you want something bad enough, you can get it.

Wow. What an excellent zombie novel. It was so unexpected. I mean, I had read the synopsis and I was interested in reading it, but I did not think it would be this good. This original.

For one, it starts off like most zombie novels with the post-apocalyptic landscape, the Living holed up in a reinforced community, and the rest overrun by the Dead. The difference was that the narrator, who should have been the typical zombie, instead had thoughts of his own. He was not just the brain-dead monster zombies were supposed to be.

I also found it interesting how similar the Dead and the Living were to each other. Both sides were just doing what they had to do to survive, but there was a Dead scene and a Living scene that were inverses of each other. Adult zombies were teaching adolescent zombies how to kill people, indicating that tearing out the throat was optimal. Later, Living adults were teaching Living adolescents how to effectively kill zombies with a bullet to the head. The scenes were so similar and poignant.

Warm Bodies also had a sweet love story that seemed unlikely, but really worked for the novel and helped along the change. R, Julie, and even Perry were catalysts for this huge change.

Warm Bodies is a zombie novel that is beautiful in its philosophies and appreciation of life. Despite a dying world overrun with Dead, despite the inevitability of any death, life goes on and people must live it to its fullest. The messages I took from this book were to appreciate the little things and know that life is within reach if you want it badly enough.

Recommended for anyone who is a fan of zombie novels. Some death and gore, some language, but a beautiful zombie novel with a great message.

Yay! I found a zombie challenge to participate in! I’m excited - 2011 was the year zombies chomped down on my heart (hehe) and I hope to read more in 2012.

Here are the rules:

Two chomps? Sounds good to me - I’ll go for 12 zombie books in 2012!

I will list my books below as I read them.

January

01. Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion (review posted in February)

February

02. Zombies Don’t Cry by Rusty Fischer § (review posted in March)

March

April

May

* ARC

** Review Copy

§ E-Book