I was waiting to board my plane on friday (because unsurprising you are told to check in two hours before the flight only to have to wait around forever while the notification board advises you to "relax, eat, drink, shop" for 90 ruddy minutes) and i was short of any entertainment. i thought i would be rushing around and that a book would only fill up my already worryingly pregnant looking carry-on, which to be frugal was all i was taking for 4 nights.

So. With a discerning eye i paced the aisles of a miniature WHSmith in Liverpool's John Lennon Airport, scorning Warhammer novels, deliberating over classic novels, considering epic fantasy and basically taking forever. In the end a white spine on a shelf of dark book covers caught my eye, it was entitled Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion and published by Vintage Originals. Hmm i think....hmm indeed.

The art is stunning. Upon a completely white cover there is (i believe it to be) a solitary blood-red brain stem sprouting from the base of the book like a leafless tree in winter with the branches entwined around the words WARM BODIES. The top right corner, in a pale grey that humbly blends into the background white, reads ISAAC MARION. Accompanying him are two quotes, the quote in red, the quoter a dark grey.

'A mesmerising evolution of a classic contemporary myth' SIMON PEGG, reads one. Aha! A recommendation from a man i respect for his film and television a man who i think may think like me. Let me see the synopsis to this 'mesmerising evolution of a classic contemporary myth' and end this search for a perfect inflight book once and for all!

'R' is a zombie. He has no name, no memories and no pulse but he has dreams. He is a little different from his fellow Dead.

Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Her name is Julie and she is the opposite of everything he knows warm and bright and very much alive, she is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape. For reasons he can't understand, R chooses to save Julie instead of eating her, and a tense yet strangely tender relationship begins...

Wait a second. A romance involving a zombie for a lead? Really? I read the front again.

'A mesmerising evolution of a classic contemporary myth' SIMON PEGG

It's the same book, i didn't in a weird moment of self-sabotage try to make myself crazy by swapping the book for another and then forgetting about it simply to entertain myself. Simon Pegg thinks a romance involving a zombie lead is 'mesmerising'. Well what do i know? So i open the front page and for a thin book (238 pages) the text is quite large, but quality does not require quantity (although it does mean that i enjoy for longer).

The opening paragraph reads as so:

I am dead, but it's not so bad. I've learned to live with it. I'm sorry i can't properly introduce myself, but i don't have a name any more. Hardly any of do. We lose them like card keys, forget them like anniversaries. Mine might have started with an 'R', but that's all i have now. It's funny because back when i was alive i was always forgetting other people's name. My friend 'M' says the irony of being a zombie is that everything is funny, but you can't smile because your lips have rotted off.

And so Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion and recommended by Simon Pegg sells itself to me and i (still with reservations though) purchase it at the counter, go to the Starbucks buy a massive cup of tea (with TWO teabags) and a blueberry muffin and sit down at page 1.

So after all this build up...i love this book.

Marion explores life from the zombie's perspective. Although much of the brain has deteriorated for R at least he's aware enough to realise his loss, which saddens him greatly. For a zombie he's very reflective. This book is in turns funny and tragic with what i would call 'pop-philosophy', nothing earth shatteringly deep, but just 'what is a monster' sort of thing and though this book isn't a milestone in literacy, it is very entertaining.

It felt very current (it was written in 2010, so no surprises there) and ticks lots of boxes in regards to music, film references and teenage leads rebelling against bitter set in their ways adults. Among the Dead only the children still play, among the Living only the young still hope. There are elements of Romeo and Juliet as both are vilified for there relationship with the other. There is redemption, conflict all the necessary ingredients to a plot and it's told with great charm, wit and elegance. Although it isn't a lengthy book (i think you can and will want to finish this in an afternoon, it's so gripping) it tells its story perfectly.

I have only two minor issues about the book. Firstly that Julie and R are often very direct voices for the author's opinions and it's a little out of place and like "what happened there?". For example:

'You don't think about new things? You don't "seek"? What does that even mean? Music? Music is life! It's physical emotion - you can touch it! It's neon ecto-energy sucked out of spirits and...

(she rants a little more)

'anyway, you've still got some good stuff in here', she says letting her indignation deflate.

And yeah when i read that i was thinking, where has that come from? It was strange. Also the slightly cliched them against us and we're the only ones who can bridge the gap. Of course it's a staple to any conflict plotline and to be fair if there are the Living and Dead that's quite a divide, but it was a little heavy handed. And i stress on both those points that that's me being very very harsh and picking faults where there probably aren't any on account of my finding difficulty in believing how much this book really touched me.

Superb, you can't really go wrong with this.

Which brings me to my last point, don't you love it when you get a book you have no prior knowledge of at all and you love it?