I'm going to start with other - WITCHES! I love them in every flavor - the old wise crone, the maiden that just discovered she is a witch, the kitchen witch that adds a little magic in each thing she bakes, the forest nymph/guardian (#TeamMaleficent), the storm witch, the water witch - even Disney's Pixies was fun for me to watch for the kids over and over again.

 

The other that I loved is Vikings with magical powers - aka the Call of Crows series by Shelly Laurenston.

 

I have an issue with stories about vampires - basically consent and the lack thereof. There is only one series I enjoyed that involved vampires and the premise of the world building pretty much flipped the script on vampire lore. I may do a re-reading of one of the books in the series Midnight Breeds by Lara Adrian for the bingo. I like my vampire stories that take place only at night because it adds atmosphere and no sparkling vamps.

 

Werewolves and Other Shifters - these are more my speed than vamps. And I really like the fact that other animal shifters are being added to the subgenre. I have Shelly Laurenston's Hot and Badgered waiting to be read for bingo - honey badger shifter, OH HELL YES. If interested in other shifters, Eve Langlais has different series that goes wild with animal shifters.

 

I may get into zombies a bit more since a lot of BL'ers dig the White Trash Zombie books. There is a movie adaption of the book Warm Bodies that is a fun twist on the zombie lore, along with seasonal favorite movie Shaun of the Dead. I read the first book in Mira Grant's Parasitology trilogy and that had a future/sci-fi element to the zombie storyline.

 

 

 

 

Review to follow...

Warm Bodies is not my normal type of book. I prefer my zombies to be all grr-aargh-braiiiins and had never really even considered picking this book up. Especially when the movie adaptation came out and it was glaringly obvious that this was even gooshier than what I had first thought. But then the publisher randomly sent me a beautiful hardback of the second book. After glancing through the first chapter, it was obvious I needed to read Warm Bodies first. So I summoned the small sliver of heart that remains and got it.

And my overall feeling now, after having read it, is… This book is weird. Warm Bodies is really weird. I mean, I’m not easily squicked, but a romance forming between a zombie and a living human doesn’t make me go aww. I mean, I love Beauty and the Beast and other fairytales, but… Just nope. I mean, living person under magical curse that generally gets broken with a kiss is one thing . A girl wanting to kiss a smelly, rotting corpse is another. Yes, yes, R is a great guy and all that. But the whole thing started when he ATE HER BOYFRIEND’S BRAINS and got all gushy over her from his memories.

And really? What made her so special? Or him for that matter. Was he the only zombie who ever ate the brains of a dead dude with a hot girlfriend? I know, I know. These were the two the author picked to be the hero and heroine, but there was nothing that stood out as special about either of them. And by special I mean even faintly memorable. Maybe if I could have connected with or cared about any of them my reaction would be a bit different. So, yeah, I don’t really get it. I think I would have been much more interested in Nora’s story.

However, Warm Bodies was a nice, easy read. It flowed well, had some interesting visuals written in, and didn’t require the use of any already over-taxed brain cells or emotions. It’s floof with an unexpected squick factor, but it was entertaining enough. I’ll be attempting to read the second book. The author set up enough in the last part of Warm Bodies that I want to see where he goes with it.

This is why I usually don't see a movie before reading a book: the reading process just goes down the drain.

Of course, had I not seen _ and liked it _ the movie, most likely I wouldn't be reading it. Because I'm not a big fan of zombies. -_-

Thing is, I really liked the "voice" that the movie has. Especially the initial part: have you seen it on youtube? It's really funny in a dark way.

This story... not really, which leaves me in a bit of a pickle, since I'm more than ready to DNF it.

As I am with the other two books that I'm reading.

You can read my review of Warm Bodies which was originally posted back in April 2013. There's also my review of The New Hunger which was the prequel novella...and which I reviewed 4 days after I read Warm Bodies. Guess you could say I was a fan of the series. lol What's especially funny is that in the review of The New Hunger I mentioned how excited I was for the sequel and that it was due out in in 2014...and it's just come out this month. Go figure, eh?