It’s based in theoretical science in its core. It’s what we expect of a dystopian novel. Less touchy-feeling and more grounded in a physical/scientific parallel or heck, even a frank conversation to plainly and definitively summarize what the eff happened. I found myself wishing for something more resolute in the writing. But it gives great hope for a possible future. As epic as the ending scene was, it still gave the impression of going out on a whimper rather than a bang. We see R and Nora get some great character arcs, and the rest of the group get resolution to their storylines. He’s maturing and exploring a more thoughtful writing style. I guess this is more an observation of the author, Isaac Marion’s journey as a writer, than on the franchise. So, nearly all the elements that had me falling in love with this series at the beginning were sparse in the conclusion. ‘ The Living’ is such a different creature. The structure felt a little scattered, and the frequent mental posturing over the current state of the world, or a characters inner thoughts, or that of whatever presence is included in this narrative, pushes this finale away from that YA demographic. ‘ Warm Bodies’ was a satirical love story with an element of the mystical and ‘ The Living’ is a collection of differing points of view, omnipotent, the living, and Nearly Dead alike.

While I loved the more ‘woke’ tone of ‘ The Living’ in comparison to the debut ‘ Warm Bodies,’ this is a complete departure in writing style and narrative form.

I ended putting this down after 50 pages to read a few other novels before returning. Also the changing in perspective at the start instead of picking up with R had me scrambling a little. I started this but it did not grab my attention straight away the tone of the novel feels more philosophical and waxing the poetic than in the previous novels in this series. And a strong undercurrent of philosophical conversations on living. Find answers around the formation of the two (three) struggling power regimes. We get a lot of secrets from the casts past uncovered. We follow R and Julie across America, waking up zombies, avoiding Boneys, The Fire Church, and Axiom desperate to find a place to call home with all the members of their assembled family. This was definitely an interesting read and conclusion to the Warm Bodies series.

Warm bodies books in order