Isaac Marion's rom-zom-com Warm Bodies won fame and acclaim with a successful film adaptation in 2013, leading Marion to expand his post-zombie-apocalyptic world in the prequel A New Hunger. In this long-awaited sequel, revived zombie R and his living girlfriend, Julie, face an increasingly complicated future.
Although the lovebirds have settled into a house in the ruined suburbs of the Pacific Northwest, Julie and R attend a meeting at the stadium where most of the area's humanity clusters, guarded by the remains of the military. Helicopters arrive bearing suited men from a corporation called Axiom, which promises modern solutions to today's problems, including "inhuman monsters who want to eat your family." Axiom wants to know the secret of R's recovery from zombiehood, something not even R understands, and tortures Julie for information. The couple is soon on the run with an Axiom defector and his six-year-old daughter, Sprout, as well as Julie's friend Nora. On a cross-country search for safe haven, R's memories of his pre-death life begin to plague him, particularly his connection to Axiom itself.
R's continued attempts to reclaim his humanity demonstrate that in his world the zombies have more individuality than the humans who make up Axiom's villainous corporate hive. Questions of individuality and morality underscore the zombies' treatment in a disquieting echo of the plight of underprivileged parts of society. Though familiarity with Warm Bodies helps, new readers can use this sequel as an entry point into this alive and kicking series. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads