The New Hunger: A Warm Bodies Novella

Written by Isaac Marion

Narrated by Candace Thaxton

“In rich, evocative prose, Marion transports his readers back into the postapocalyptic parable he first brought to life—or death—in his brilliant debut Warm Bodies.” —Library Journal (starred review)

“Refreshingly unique...I love this novella.” —LitStack

The must-read prequel to the “highly original” (The Seattle Times) New York Times bestseller Warm Bodies—now a major motion picture—from the author whose genre-defying debut turned the classic horror story on its head.

The end of the world didn’t happen overnight.

After years of societal breakdowns, wars and quakes and rising tides, humanity was already near the edge. Then came a final blow no one could have expected: all the world’s corpses rising up to make more.

Born into this bleak and bloody landscape, twelve-year-old Julie struggles to hold on to hope as she and her parents drive across the wastelands of America, a nightmarish road trip in search of a new home.

Hungry, lost, and scared, sixteen-year-old Nora finds herself her brother’s sole guardian after her parents abandon them in the not-quite-empty ruins of Seattle.

And in the darkness of a forest, a dead man opens his eyes. Who is he? What is he? With no clues beyond a red tie and the letter “R,” he must unravel the grim mystery of his existence—right after he learns how to think, how to walk, and how to satisfy the monster howling in his belly.

The New Hunger is a crucial link between Warm Bodies and The Burning World, a glimpse into the past that sets the stage for an astonishing future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Oct 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781442396319

Isaac Marion

Isaac Marion grew up in the mossy depths of the Pacific Northwest, where he worked as a heating installer, a security guard, and a visitation supervisor for foster children before publishing his debut novel in 2010. Warm Bodies became a #5 New York Times bestseller and inspired a major Hollywood film adaptation. It has been translated into twenty-five languages worldwide. Isaac lives in Seattle with his cat and a beloved cactus, writing fiction and music, and taking pictures of everything. Visit IsaacMarion.com for more on these endeavors.

Reviews for The New Hunger

[t1bnotown · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This provides the backstories of the main characters of "Warm Bodies," but since it was so long since I read it, I didn't yet realize it. Their three stories start out separate, but end up linked by the end, in important ways that make sense knowing what happens in "Warm Bodies." Although they are a prequel, it was nice to read them after the original, and to put together their stories and who they were and who they would become.

[sharonmariabidwell · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Having loved the author’s first published book, I had to see what else the author had done. This is a short and unnecessary read but it’s well written and enjoyable and gives us a glimpse into the background of the characters in Warm Bodies.

[titania86_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The New Hunger is a prequel to the novel Warm Bodies. It examines the origins of characters R, Julie, and Nora eight years before they cross paths in Warm Bodies. The three narratives are told in alternating chapters and all are amazing. The world they live in is falling apart. Civilization is hanging by a thread. Cities that were deemed save not long ago are discovered to be overrun. The weather is becoming more and more extreme in addition to the zombie problem. No place is safe.R has just wakened to his unlife as a zombie. He's fairly confused and can remember snatches of his old life, but it's fleeting. There's a monster in the back of his mind who mocks him and won't tell him what will sate this horrible, insatiable hunger inside of him. His story shows that he was never a normal zombie. Even when the inner monster was screaming at him, he would sometimes save whatever human victim was in front of him. He also meets M, sees the Boneys' creation, and has small but meaningful encounters with Julie. Julie is 12 years old, but she's adept in combat training and weapons as is necessary to live in this post-apocalyptic world. Although young, she already has a jaded, adult air about her. She's never experienced anything that a normal teen should: first kiss, awkward dates, school, and no real worries. She has starved for days, killed people in defense, killed zombies, set piles of bodies a fire, and tries to take care of her family however she can while they look for a permanent home. Her parents try to shield her as much as they can, but she can't be protected from a shattered world where most are dead and they can't find a safe haven.Nora is 16 years old and the guardian of her 7 year old brother Addis. She can't succumb to her own sadness or hopelessness because she would take her brother with her. She keeps strong and pushes forward to find food and shelter each night. I found her story the most compelling because she was presented with the hardest choices. Should she help a random stranger or leave them to die for the safety of herself and her brother? So many of us would say it's an easy choice. However the crux of the novel is that without humanity, it isn't really living. You wouldn't really be any different than the zombies. Her story was also the most emotional.The New Hunger had one small flaw. Marion describes R and M very similarly and it wasn't clear at times who it was. The novella is also so short. It makes me want to read Warm Bodies again to have a different view of R, Julie, and Nora. Other than that, I absolutely loved The New Hunger. It has gotten me more eager for the sequel to Warm Bodies called The Burning World.

[strider66_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sixteen year old Nora is looking after her younger brother, keeping them both alive as they wander the wasteland that used to be the United States of America. Somehow, despite the horrors they’ve witnessed, her brother’s held on to a sense of morality about how to treat others.Twelve year old Julie Grigio is travelling with her parents, looking for the safe haven mentioned in the Almanac. But the Almanac is several months old, and news travels slowly while the zombie plague and other dangers spread much faster.A dead man awakens near a river, unaware of everything. But as time passes, he remembers bits of his former life, even as a hunger starts to overtake him.This is a prequel novella to Marion’s zombie novel Warm Bodies. It’s a self-contained story so if you haven’t read the book, like me, you’ll have no trouble following along or enjoying the story. It’s a pretty bleak tale, with some disturbing imagery (including some short but rather disgusting descriptions that I could have done without), but there’s an underlying message of hope, that even when things are at their worst, some people continue to see the good in others and fight for a better world.While on the longer side for a novella, it’s still impressive how invested in the character you become. They’re well fleshed out and interesting, with quirks, hopes and fears.I’ve seen the film version of Warm Bodies, but this novella makes me want to read the book.

[booklove2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Here is a short and not so sweet one! I loved Warm Bodies, the only thing I DIDN'T love about Warm Bodies was the storyline that followed Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. So here is a chance in alternating chapters to see a little bit more of the story of R, Julie and Nora (and Nora's little brother). The book still takes place post-apocalypse... this isn't the story of their happy lives before everything went to hell but it does take place before they meet. I was surprised to see that R started out a zombie with a lot of his brain still working.... it certainly makes zombies a little more real, sad, and frightening. THINKING zombies?! I also love the idea that the zombies can't stop moving because they start to get rigor mortis. This isn't a kids book despite the page length. Pretty violent... things that even The Walking Dead avoids. It seems a lot happens here in such a short book even through splitting the book into three narratives. I love Marion's writing style and as much as I love the zombies, I'd love to see what else he can do. I'd say this is a nice expansion on the back stories of these characters.

[elliepotten · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this during the Dewey's 24-hour readathon, and it was the undisputed high point of the day. I absolutely loved Warm Bodies when I read it early last year, but I didn't really expect that much from this prequel. I WAS WRONG. If anything, I maybe liked it even BETTER than WB, because it has all the wonderful writing and endearing characters and horribly compelling zombieness, only WITHOUT the wacked-out ending, and WITH the squee-inducing fact that you know how these characters interact later and it makes everything meaningful. I haven't 'happy-eeked' so much since I read Rainbow Rowell's Attachments. It's amazing that Marion can make me love M and R this much when they eat brains, y'know? I loved every page.

[darkfaerietales_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales.Quick & Dirty: When the end of the world comes, staying alive is the only thing that matters, but it takes more than food and shelter to make it from one day to the next.Opening Sentence: A dead man lies near a river, and the forest watches him.The Review:I haven’t read Warm Bodies but after reading this novella I might actually be inclined to do so. Marion paints an extremely depressing view of a post apocalypitc world, but it is very realistic which makes it a tad terrifying. His vivid descriptions of deserted streets littered with dead bodies coupled with the intense detail he gives to the decaying bodies makes it easy to see all this carnage the moment I close my eyes. I enjoyed the parallel adventures of R, a newly risen zombie; Julie, a 12-year old travelling with her realist military father and her optimistic mother; Nora and her kid brother Addis, a dynamic pair crafted of a teenage girl forced to grow up too fast and a young boy, struggling not to be changed by the dismal and terrifying world.With only 140 pages, Marion manages to carve deep back stories for characters I understand were a little lacking in Warm Bodies. It is easy to see that R doesn’t want to become a zombie and he fights with all his might to avoid it. I enjoyed seeing the internal struggle between basic instinct tugging him towards food and his moral compass reminding him that what he is trying to do is bad. I like Marion’s depiction of zombies a lot more than other versions I have read because he actually plays off the fact that these creatures used to be human. They aren’t just brain-dead corpses trotting around killing people, well, they are but they don’t start off that way which is awesome. I loved how R kept having these deep and somewhat profound glimpses of thought and then forgot them just mere seconds later. It was both maddening and compelling to see if he could actually fight the virus plaguing his mind.Julie’s was probably the least interesting story out of the three. Considering the circumstances, she has it the easiest because she still has both her parents to travel with and they are able to drive around in a truck. They have guns and ammo and more importantly food. The only real struggle here is in Julie herself. She is only 12 years old, but she has been forced to grow up rapidly. She understands she has to kill or be killed and there is no way around it. Marion manages to keep her young though through the eyes of her mother, Audrey, who constantly tries to get her daughter to play little imagination games like a normal child. Julie plays along but having her father put a gun in her hand and have her shoot someone in the face makes playing pretend very difficult.Sixteen-year-old, Nora and her six-year-old brother, Addis have the most terrifying journey. Abandoned by their parents, Nora is forced to struggle not only to keep them alive, but she is also trying to keep Addis innocent. She does her best to shield him from reality, but admits that she can only hide him from so much. Addis, to his credit, seems to understand what is happening but manages to keep hope alive somehow by finding joy in the little things like swimming in a park fountain even though there are bodies scattered all over the place. Addis provides a little bit of a break from the weight of this book, I think.I enjoyed reading this book alone, but I’m sure I will appreciate it even more when I read Warm Bodies.Notable Scene:“I need to go to the bathroom,” she says, and stands up. The music has shifted to something modern, one of those new pop songs Addis and his friends used to listen to back in D.C. It murmurs and clangs, slow and dark, androgynous vocals doubled note for note by a mournful viola. It gives her goosebumps, and she makes a note to skip it on her way back. She never thought she’d be out of touch with youth culture by age sixteen. The darkness came so abruptly her tastes never had a chance to adjust, and now it all scares her. She retreats into the past, to the records Auntie Shirley used to play while they built Legos in the living room. Some Ella or Billie or Frank would be nice right now, despite Addis’s protests. There are worse feelings than boredom. She pushes into the women’s restroom and leans against the sink,m fighting for composure. She looks in the mirror at her tired red eyes. She sees a large mound in the corner of the room, heaving slowly under a tablecloth.FTC Advisory: Zola Books provided me with a copy of The New Hunger. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

[astariel_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was pleasantly surprised by this little prequel! I had read warm Bodies and though I wasn’t the biggest fan in the world, I did like it, so I read this like there was no tomorrow. Meaning I was sitting in my kitchen while cooking dinner, reading this on my tablet. Lol. It was a great insight to R and where he got started!I usually dislike jumping from one character to another in books as I find myself invested in one characters story only to get thrown into another a few chapters later to my distain. But Isaac Marion kept it simple and didn’t devote half the story to one set of characters and then half to another set. He kept the pace and even though there are 3 stories going on all similar to each other in someway, he brings them together very nicely! I’m not quite sure how else to say it, but I loved it!I’d love to see a sequel to the original book and I’ll be keeping an eye out for any other little stories about R.

[rubyslippersreads · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I just finished Warm Bodies, so it was interesting to find out of the backstory for R, Julie, and especially Nora.

[pollywannabook · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Review courtesy of All Things Urban FantasyAnother reviewer described Isaac Marion’s writing as “gruesome yet poetic.” That is the absolute perfect description for THE NEW HUNGER, the prequel novella to WARM BODIES (the movie version hits theaters on February 1st). In it we follow R from the moment he becomes a zombie, a sixteen year old Nora trying to stay alive with her six year old brother, and a twelve year old Julie traveling on the literal road trip from hell with her increasingly hostile parents.Unlike WARM BODIES, which is essentially a fairy tale, grim though it is in moments, THE NEW HUNGER is significantly more bleak. There are bursts of humor especially between Nora and her brother, but for the most part, this is a powerfully somber story full of death in all its ugly colors. It was wonderful to see all the familiar characters from WARM BODIES and see how they all began (M’s story was very unexpected) and crossed paths unaware. The story that resonated the most with me was Nora and Addis’s.Scavenging for food while knowing it’s not enough to keep her little brother from growing more skeletal by the day, running out of excuses for the parents who deserted them, knowing that if she stops moving the zombies that are following will devour them. That is Nora’s life at sixteen. She’s young enough herself that she doesn’t see the need to coddle her brother and try and shield him from the harsh realities of the world they now live in. The way they tease and amuse each other feels hearbreakingly real and often shocking. Likewise, watching the demise of Julie’s parent’s marriage was equally fascinating in a voyeuristic way.THE NEW HUNGER isn’t very long (it’s 128 pages), but every element from a zombie’s hunger pangs to the helpless terror of watching a loved one die is captured with such beauty, such simplistic language, that it feels immense. As much as I loved WARM BODIES and will be first in line to buy a movie ticket come February 1st, this is the story that will remain with me. This is writing at its absolute, gut-wrenching best.Sexual Content:None