Scan barcode
A review by blurrypetals
The Living by Isaac Marion
5.0
I have been waiting for a book titled The Living by Isaac Marion ever since I closed the back cover of Warm Bodies clear back in November 2011, when I was on Thanksgiving break and had just discovered the most magical thing a person could possibly have the privilege to discover: a truly meaningful, life changing book.
It took seven years and two unexpected other books from that moment until now for me to finally be able to hold and pore over a book called The Living by Isaac Marion and it is so surreal to me that I've just said those words and that those words are true.
I'm gonna be honest, I really don't want to talk too much about the plot at hand, mostly because it would spoil its priors, but also because I'm incredibly caught up in the pathos and ethos of it all, because I can't believe I've reached this incredibly surreal reality wherein this series is, unbelievably, over.
Instead, I'll just say this much: this book is Isaac Marion at his best. He has grown so much over the years and it's absolutely magical that he managed put together a narrative that so perfectly paralleled his evolution as a writer. He started with his rise to fame in Warm Bodies, which details a corpse learning what it means to be alive. Then he wrote a bit of a love letter to the world itself in The New Hunger as he backtracked and discovered what made Warm Bodies so good. Then he took a brave, bold new direction in The Burning World, which follows our protagonists as they learn that being radical dreamers come at great cost, ironic for a book that ultimately came crashing to the ground financially with its beautiful wax wings melted into nothingness. But then, like a phoenix from the ashes, like a zombie learning how to live again, Isaac Marion picked himself up and published the finale, perhaps not the way he planned, but eventually as promised.
He came back from the dead in almost the most literal (and perhaps the most literary) way and that is, for certain, the greatest metaphor ever turned into fact, especially when you're talking about the story of a zombie so filled with love he had no choice but to live, just like Isaac Marion, a man so filled with love, he had no choice but to tell this story.
And I can't help but feel nothing but grateful for that. Thank you, Isaac, for this story, this journey, these characters. I am so proud of you as a writer and as a man and I will never, ever, ever forget the wisdom you've imparted upon me through these books. I will be waiting eagerly to see what you do with your second life. You couldn't possibly disappoint me.
It took seven years and two unexpected other books from that moment until now for me to finally be able to hold and pore over a book called The Living by Isaac Marion and it is so surreal to me that I've just said those words and that those words are true.
I'm gonna be honest, I really don't want to talk too much about the plot at hand, mostly because it would spoil its priors, but also because I'm incredibly caught up in the pathos and ethos of it all, because I can't believe I've reached this incredibly surreal reality wherein this series is, unbelievably, over.
Instead, I'll just say this much: this book is Isaac Marion at his best. He has grown so much over the years and it's absolutely magical that he managed put together a narrative that so perfectly paralleled his evolution as a writer. He started with his rise to fame in Warm Bodies, which details a corpse learning what it means to be alive. Then he wrote a bit of a love letter to the world itself in The New Hunger as he backtracked and discovered what made Warm Bodies so good. Then he took a brave, bold new direction in The Burning World, which follows our protagonists as they learn that being radical dreamers come at great cost, ironic for a book that ultimately came crashing to the ground financially with its beautiful wax wings melted into nothingness. But then, like a phoenix from the ashes, like a zombie learning how to live again, Isaac Marion picked himself up and published the finale, perhaps not the way he planned, but eventually as promised.
He came back from the dead in almost the most literal (and perhaps the most literary) way and that is, for certain, the greatest metaphor ever turned into fact, especially when you're talking about the story of a zombie so filled with love he had no choice but to live, just like Isaac Marion, a man so filled with love, he had no choice but to tell this story.
And I can't help but feel nothing but grateful for that. Thank you, Isaac, for this story, this journey, these characters. I am so proud of you as a writer and as a man and I will never, ever, ever forget the wisdom you've imparted upon me through these books. I will be waiting eagerly to see what you do with your second life. You couldn't possibly disappoint me.