History Literature / WarmBodies

* AnythingThatMoves: M ''tries'', even if zombies can't have sex.

But in a hunt gone slightly awry, R eats a young man's brains and fully acquires the man's memories, motivating him to save Julie, his victim's girlfriend, from the rest of the horde and bring her back to his "home" in the airport. After she realizes that he poses no harm to her and is vastly different from what she has known zombies to be, they start an awkward relationship that changes the futile and rigid ways of both the Living and Dead worlds.

A film adaptation was released February 2013. It stars Nicholas Hoult, Creator/TeresaPalmer, Creator/RobCorddry, Dave Franco and Creator/JohnMalkovich. '''For the film version, go [[Film/WarmBodies here.]]'''

* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler: Perry, since his father's death]]. Also [[spoiler: General Grigio]], who refuses to fight off a zombie attacker in a fit of despair.

* DugTooDeep: [[spoiler:Of an interesting metaphorical variety. Apparently Zombieism came to be after humanity hit the bottom of the proverbial "emotion barrel," then [[DespairEventHorizon grabbed a shovel and started digging]], bringing about some dark force that causes the dead to rise and develop such a craving for human emotions that the effects of it are practically a ''narcotic.'' Since the only way for the undead to obtain these emotions is to consume the flesh of a living brain (reliving the previous owner's memories in the process) you can imagine how the ZombieApocalypse unfolded from there.]]

** Further justified since she admitted herself that near the end [[spoiler: they no longer loved each other and she knew that [[DeathSeeker he really wanted to die.]]]]

** R is put out that Julie does not see the "culturally sensitive implications" of the label "corpse". Sure, the Dead may use it among themselves sometimes, but that doesn't mean the Living get a pass. Interestingly, while one could initially understand why Grigio would see ''all'' zombies as feral, living-dead blights to humanity, the fact that he refuses to see R as anything more than such ''even as R is calmly and nervously speaking to him'' gives him some very deep shades of this.

* HadToBeSharp: Pretty much every human left after the ZombieApocalypse fits this trope to some extent. They live in a CrapsackWorld and teach their children survival skills TheSpartanWay.

* HearingVoices: Complete with visions, actually. [[spoiler: Apparently Perry became an inmate in R's head, as did many of the other people R has eaten over the years]].

* KeystoneArmy: [[spoiler: When the lead boney is taken out, all of them just wander aimlessly.]]
* LoveRedeems: First it helps R regain his humanity and then [[spoiler:largely cures the rest of the zombies outside of the Boneys]].

* TheUndead: It's a story about zombies, so...

* TheUnSmile: When R tried to smile Julie told him to never do it again.

* AbductionIsLove: A very mild example, as it was partially done to keep her safe, and in any case, was far more wholesome than the usual stuff zombies try to do to humans.
* TheAlcoholic: [[spoiler: General Grigio]].

* ArmiesAreEvil

* TheBigGuy: M.
* BoyMeetsGhoul: Gender-flipped.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Julie's mother]].

* KarmicDeath

* ParentalAbandonment: Nora, Julie, and Perry all suffer from this, though for different reasons.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Colonel Rosso.

* DespairEventHorizon: From the way R describes it, being a zombie has some parallels with being in a deep depression, with the only thing that can (temporarily) relieve them being eating the brains of living humans. [[spoiler: It is later revealed that it was this trope ''on a global scale'' that caused the zombie plague in the first place, as mentioned below.]] "Boneys" take this UpToEleven, having completely given up on their humanity and literally became walking, desiccated corpses that will firmly and violently [[FantasticRacism reject any notion of non-hostility between Zombie and Human.]]

* NotSoDifferent: [[spoiler:Perry]] states that him and R are both victims of the plague, and in the end [[spoiler:there isn't much difference between the Boneys and Grigio]].

* DugTooDeep: [[spoiler:Of an interesting metaphorical variety. Apparently Zombieism came to be after humanity hit the bottom of the proverbial "emotion barrel," then grabbed a shovel and started digging, bringing about some dark force that causes the dead to rise and develop such a craving for human emotions that the effects of it are practically a ''narcotic.'' Since the only way for the undead to obtain these emotions is to consume the flesh of a living brain (reliving the previous owner's memories in the process) you can imagine how the ZombieApocalypse unfolded from there.]]

* FantasticRacism: R is put out that Julie does not see the "culturally sensitive implications" of the label "corpse". Sure, the Dead may use it among themselves sometimes, but that doesn't mean the Living get a pass. Interestingly, while one could initially understand why Grigio would see ''all'' zombies as feral, living-dead blights to humanity, the fact that he refuses to see R as anything more than such ''even as R is calmly and nervously speaking to him'' gives him some very deep shades of this.

* YourCheatingHeart: Perry cheated on Julie with [[spoiler:Nora]]. R's wife cheats on him with another zombie and you could argue that he cheats on her with Julie. Sort of.

* BlackBestFriend: Nora is of Ethiopian descent in the books, [[ButNotTooBlack although she's also half white]].

* MonsterSobStory: The movie strongly implies that Grigio's extreme paranoia about the undead justifiably stems from having to shoot his infected wife. [[FridgeHorror Given that he's not surprised that R can talk, and warns about corpses pretending to be people, his wife may well have been starting to feel emotion and turn good at the time -- or might not have.]]

* BlackBestFriend: Nora is of Ethiopian descent in the books, [[ ButNotTooBlack:although she's also half white]].

* BlackBestFriend: Nora is of Ethiopian descent in the books, [[ButNotTooBlack: although she's also half white]].

* BlackBestFriend: Nora is of Ethiopian descent in the books.
** ButNotTooBlack: Although she's also half white.

* CrazySurvivalist: General Grigio

* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler: Perry, since his father's death]].
** Also [[spoiler: General Grigio]], who refuses to fight off a zombie attacker in a fit of despair.

* DugTooDeep: [[spoiler:Of an interesting metaphorical variety. Apparently Zombieism came to be after humanity hit the bottom of the proverbial "emotion barrel," then grabbed a shovel and started digging, bringing about some dark force that causes the dead to rise and develop such a craving for human emotions that the effects of which are practically a ''narcotic.'' Since the only way for the undead to obtain these emotions is to consume the flesh of a living brain (reliving the previous owner's memories in the process) you can imagine how the ZombieApocalypse unfolded from there.]]

* EasilyForgiven: Julie forgives R so fast for the whole [[spoiler: 'eating my boyfriend' incident that one gets the impression that she didn't care much about Perry.]]

** Further justified since she admitted herself that near the end, [[spoiler: they no longer loved each other and knew that [[DeathSeeker he wanted to die.]]]]

* FantasticRacism: R is put out that Julie does not see the "culturally sensitive implications" of the label "corpse". Sure, the Dead may use it among themselves sometimes, but that doesn't mean the Living get a pass.
** Interestingly, while one could initially understand why Grigio would see ''all'' zombies as feral, living-dead blights to humanity, the fact that he refuses to see R as anything more than such ''even as R is calmly and nervously speaking to him'' gives him some very deep shades of this.

* PickyPeopleEater: To a degree. Body fat is useless and disgusting for zombies to eat, so a fatter person isn't more filling or delicious. R implies that the though of eating fat completely grosses him out. However, it's unlikely that a zombie would outright refuse to eat a fat person.

** Further justified since she admitted herself that near the end, [[spoiler: they no longer loved each other and knew that he wanted to die.]]

* GhostAmnesia: The protagonist has more of his humanity left than most zombies, and he can't even remember his own name, just that it started with the letter R.

* FantasyForbiddingParent: General Grigio, who basically thinks that any job other than Construction or Security is worthless and discourages all forms of pleasant recreation and emotional attachment.

Marion has since published two prequels: a novella called "The New Hunger" and a short story called "The Boarded Window". A sequel novel, "The Burning World", was published on February 7th 2017.

* TheHorde
* HorrorHunger

* PosthumousCharacter: Perry

* ThePowerOfLove

* RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain

* TheUndead

* ZombieAdvocate
* ZombieApocalypse

[[AudienceAlienatingPremise Don't be scared off]] by the [[BetterThanItSounds concept similarities]] that it has to ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', or the review quote on the cover by Creator/StephenieMeyer.

* HearingVoices: Complete with visions, actually. [[spoiler: Apparently Perry became an inmate in R's head, as did many of the other people R has eaten over the years]].

A film adaptation was released February 2013. It stars Nicholas Hoult, Creator/TeresaPalmer, Rob Corddry, Dave Franco and Creator/JohnMalkovich. '''For the film version, go [[Film/WarmBodies here.]]'''

* AnythingThatMoves: M ''tries'', even if zombies can't have sex.