Zombie Book Club

Warm Bodies (The Book) with special guest Wicked Words Book Club Podcast | Zombie Book Club Ep 115

• Zombie Book Club • Season 3 • Episode 115

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When a zombie named 'R' rescues a living girl instead of devouring her, everything shifts. Told through R’s reflective, darkly witty inner monologue, Warm Bodies challenges our assumptions of life, death, and what it means to feel. As R consumes Perry’s brain and begins to access memories, he forges a strange intimacy with Perry’s consciousness—raising the question: whose identity is really influencing R’s journey?

In this crossover episode, we join Sara and Greg from Wicked Words Bookclub Podcast dive deep into Isaac Marion’s bold reimagining of the zombie mythos. We examine how the mirrored, stagnating societies of zombies at an airport and humans in a stadium reflect each other, how R’s transformations mirror emotional rebirth, and whether love alone can shake entire systems.



Contact / Social Media for Wicked Words Bookclub + Relevant Links

Wicked Words / Wicked Words Bookclub

Isaac Marion (author of Warm Bodies)



ZOMBIE BOOK CLUB GOFUNDME: https://www.gofundme.com/f/keep-zombie-book-club-alive




Zombie Book Club Links

SPEAKER_09:

Hi everybody. It's nice to be with you. We'll start there. Yeah. Oh, are we starting? We're starting. There is the Wicked Zombie Words Book Club and podcast.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09:

Oh, love that.

SPEAKER_07:

Wicked Zombie Words.

SPEAKER_04:

So it would just be a bunch of grunted syllables then if it was a zombie book club.

SPEAKER_07:

Well, as as the episode progresses, there'd be more syllables coming out with the see what I did there? Little teaser for the read. Hey.

SPEAKER_09:

This is actually the perfect challenge. Can we describe our podcasts with as few syllables as possible in honor of the book to today, Warm Bodies?

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, that would be a fantastic task.

SPEAKER_05:

The strange thing is, I don't think I have the brain power for that.

SPEAKER_04:

It's a little early in the day and the bloody Marys are flowing. So yes, we're um.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh yeah, you guys got your bloodies, right? Actually, thanks to you, we have bloody Maria's. I told her, oh, you know what? Greg just realized he's out of Mazcal. So he's making a bo he made a boring Bloody Mary with me.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. I told her about your bloody Maria's. And I was out of um out of tequila. Tequila. I just got stuck with a regular old. Actually, I did find a little tiny bottle of artisanal mascal that I used in that.

SPEAKER_07:

You're so bougie. Artisanal Mazcal. Listen to you.

SPEAKER_04:

I think we're already really on the rails here, and this is fantastic. So why don't we um why don't we get let everybody get to know us as we kind of dive into what this episode, these two episodes that we're going to do back to back with Dan and Leah.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, what is this? A crossover episode? Yeah. The dating game?

SPEAKER_00:

Possibly.

SPEAKER_07:

So if you have never heard of us, we're Wicked Words Book Club and Podcast, and we are a couple who pods. We read a book, we talk about the book, and then we watch the film adaptation or a companion film that we choose to go along with the book. We read horror, thriller, and sci-fi. No romance. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Except for that. This is kind of. Apparently, that's not true.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah. Sorry, I guess I'm a liar. Um, this is the most romance we've ever done and probably will ever do.

SPEAKER_09:

We've always had romance in the background of our zombie stories that we read. Yeah. This is definitely full frontal. Have you guys heard of it? Zombie action. So who are you? You said you're a couple, but like who who who are you? Who are we talking to? We are Greg and Sarah.

SPEAKER_07:

We're Sarah and Greg. I don't know. I mean, what I'm a couple. I'm a Taurus. Uh like long walks on the beach.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm an aquarium. No, he's a capital.

SPEAKER_07:

Um well, yeah.

SPEAKER_09:

I I'm stumped by this question, really. I mean, it is the existential question of being alive is who am I? Who am I?

SPEAKER_04:

And now I have the existential dread.

SPEAKER_09:

Perfect. That is the whole point of podcasting, isn't it?

SPEAKER_07:

Well, who the hell are you guys?

SPEAKER_09:

I'm Leah. Um I'm Dan. I'm an artist who jokes about the apocalypse as a really excellent climate reset.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay. Yeah. I'm I'm a writer and I'm filled with existential dread. Um, always. And uh and then we made this podcast.

SPEAKER_09:

Zombie Book Club Podcast.

SPEAKER_05:

We talk about exclusively zombie books, but also movies and other things.

SPEAKER_09:

Sometimes games. We love talking to indie zombie authors and anything apocalyptic, and we also do casual debt episodes where we just say whatever we want and then try and loosely connect it to zombies. Usually it's um talking about very real life apocalypses and then trying to like make a metaphor.

SPEAKER_04:

Having listened to you guys for a while, I love sort of your I won't call it a mashup, but I love the way you kind of bring like the zombie and all the things you've just talked about with like zombie world and and the culture of zombiness and bringing it into sort of like what's going on in the current political and and social state of our country and the world. I find it like a really fun and interesting mashup, and I enjoy the hell out about uh about that with you guys. Um, I come for the zombie talk and I definitely stay for the politics and the other fun things that you guys do. So I dig it. I think it's a great little format.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh thanks.

SPEAKER_09:

That's so nice, Greg. I love your stuff because you're actually a book club. Like I when we when we came up with the term zombie book club, it was 100% because I'm like, okay, Dan, one day you're gonna publish a book and we need an audience to sell it to.

SPEAKER_05:

That was three years ago.

SPEAKER_09:

Okay.

SPEAKER_05:

Still working on it.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah. Uh and plugging away. People started listening and talking to us, and I was like, oh, I guess we kind of are a book club. But you all actually have like a really cool Discord that's very active. You have people discussing the book alongside you, which we do too, but not at the same degree of community that I think you have around talking about the books. And then I love the movie companion angle, and that we're doing that with this uh with this little mashup uh with warm bodies with you.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, that'll be fun.

SPEAKER_09:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_07:

Thank you. Well, are we ready to jump into the dating game? Because I've been dying for this. Yes.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I've never played the dating game. Oh, you're about to.

SPEAKER_07:

Well, you're about to.

SPEAKER_05:

I think we're about to get blind swiped, Dan.

SPEAKER_07:

I think I I think I'm going first. I'm gonna ask a question for Dan. And what we're gonna do is Leah and I came up with three questions. You have a total of five possible points.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_07:

I'm gonna ask Dan first, and then Leah will turn it around on Greg. Okay.

SPEAKER_05:

Are we going for accurate answers or am I supposed to make um saucy answers? Up to you.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh, you want to answer what you think Leah said.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_09:

Which could be saucy.

SPEAKER_05:

Could be anything.

SPEAKER_07:

It could be saucy. So I'm gonna are you ready, Dan?

SPEAKER_05:

Okay, I I guess I am. Take a sip of that bloody marine. Um, you ready?

SPEAKER_07:

Take a sip. For one possible point, which of the following scenarios would Leah most likely survive in? Zombie, supernatural slash paranormal, slasher, or psychological thriller?

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, it's it's gotta be the psychological thriller. Leah loves uh a psychological thriller. She loves people being locked in basements. Oh you know, people being dragged into the woods. I love that stuff, yeah. Yeah, it's Leah's favorite.

SPEAKER_09:

But would I survive?

SPEAKER_05:

I don't know.

SPEAKER_09:

Sarah, what did I say?

SPEAKER_05:

I don't think you'll survive anyway.

SPEAKER_07:

Excuse me. Sorry, I'm getting over this cold. The correct answer was supernatural/slash paranormal.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, well, I didn't see that one.

SPEAKER_07:

As she does practice witchy uh behaviors.

SPEAKER_05:

That is true. Um, that is probably where Leah has the best defenses. I'm currently working on a hex for our neighbor, so oh wow.

SPEAKER_04:

What did they do to earn a hexing?

SPEAKER_05:

That's a whole episode. Oh, wow. The short version is they dug a ditch in front of our driveway.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, making it impossible to enter our house.

SPEAKER_05:

What the hell?

SPEAKER_09:

Oh my god, that's not good. So not hexing, but I I do have a protection spell.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09:

Um, so you didn't get that point, Dan. Well, I missed it by a long shot. Greg, what about you? Can you repeat the categories, Sarah? What do you think Sarah's would would be?

SPEAKER_07:

Which of the following scenarios would Sarah most likely survive in? One, zombie, two, supernatural slash paranormal, three slasher, four psychological thriller.

SPEAKER_04:

This is hard because we consume so many of these you know, these types of of like subgenres of horror and things like that. And um, you know, we we were just watching like two movies last night. We were like, that girl's stupid, that character's dumb. You know, like in one situation it was a slasher, and in another it was, you know, um, what was the I was a zombie.

SPEAKER_06:

Zombie.

SPEAKER_04:

These people are idiots.

SPEAKER_07:

Um but so am I.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, I'm not gonna call you an idiot, but I do think you can be a little oblivious sometimes, which is which is why this is interesting. Right. I would give you the best shot in the supernatural paranormal because uh you you you vibe with the ghosts, you're really one with the otherworldly type things of that of that land.

SPEAKER_07:

That is correct. Yeah I my answer was supernatural because I am already insane, so any psychological fuckery would destroy me. And also, I am weak and slow and relatively unmotivated. So slashers and zombies are out.

SPEAKER_04:

I that's a full and wonderful complete answer, dear. Well done.

SPEAKER_09:

It is done at home. Sarah, I think you two are in the lead now. Dan. Yeah. Just because I like a psychological thriller doesn't mean I want to be in.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, you know, I wasn't in the right gear, you know. I was I started in the wrong gear, and uh now I'm ready.

SPEAKER_09:

I will say though, the fun part of this dating game was like, oh, there's a lot of things that Sarah and I have in common. We can talk more about supernatural stuff.

SPEAKER_04:

I that's why I was afraid to go with the same answer, but then I was like, no, I just I just gotta die.

SPEAKER_07:

You gotta just trust your heart.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah. Leah, do you remember the next question?

SPEAKER_09:

Yes. It's movie night. And uh do you want me to ask Greg first this time?

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, I think you ask Greg and then I'll switch it around on Dan. Perfect.

SPEAKER_09:

Okay, so Greg, it's movie night. Sarah wants three snacks for movie night. What are the three snacks?

SPEAKER_04:

Uh popcorn, probably. Uh something chocolate, and a uh like an icy with booze in it. Interesting.

SPEAKER_09:

Sarah, where would you where would you would you give a point for that?

SPEAKER_04:

I guess I guess gave you the answer for like if we went to a movie, but I guess movie night at home would be different. But um I know those are usually the things in rotation when we go to the theater.

SPEAKER_07:

So this one was that of a three possible points. I give him two out of three. My answer was something salty, something fruity, and something chocolate. So I said popcorn or pumpkin seeds, which got one of those.

SPEAKER_04:

You have never eaten pumpkin seeds in front of me.

SPEAKER_07:

I love pumpkin seeds. That is a ridiculous dummy bears or worms. Okay, you missed that point. And then dark chocolate.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

You guys, I'm so sorry. I'm like hacking, like coughing.

SPEAKER_09:

I can't really hear you, so that's good news.

SPEAKER_07:

I'm trying to do it outside of the mic, but Oh, you're doing a great job.

SPEAKER_05:

Because I didn't even know.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04:

I came home from Vegas for work and I like brought a cold with me, and then Sarah's like, I'm fine, I won't get it. And now she's dealing with the back end of it and mining.

SPEAKER_07:

Because Vegas is overrun with mutants.

SPEAKER_04:

That is true.

SPEAKER_02:

Vegas anyway is pestilence, basically. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

It's it's horrible. I hate going there for work.

SPEAKER_07:

I give Greg two out of three points for that, Leah.

SPEAKER_09:

What do you think? I think that's fair. I think that's very fair. Because I mean, I was almost going to give three, because I just assume something fruity might be a mixed drink.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, but it is because it's usually like little airline bottles of vodka and a cherry slushy. That's true.

SPEAKER_09:

I do do that at the movie theater. I mean, I'm generous. I would give Greg all four points so far. Which, Dan, I don't know if you can come back from this.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, all right, Dan. Um, how about you? You have three snacks at movie night for Leah.

SPEAKER_05:

And and to be clear, this is is this at-home movie night? Is this at the at the theater?

SPEAKER_07:

This is an at-home movie night.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay. Um a bar of endangered species dark chocolate. Oh.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh, I love those. I know exactly what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_05:

Um the uh a Ben and Jerry's uh dark fudge and brownie. I forget what it's called. It's it's like brownies and shit.

SPEAKER_07:

I believe it's what you're referring to? Yes, it is half-baked. Half-baked. I know my Ben and Jerry's.

SPEAKER_05:

Um and a third one, I'm gonna say Sour Patch Kids.

unknown:

Oh, damn.

SPEAKER_09:

Dan, damn, damn, damn. I said, I mean, you weren't wrong. I would have also I just okay, I do love the endangered species chocolates he described, but they're to me like a weekly treat. I don't like I have after dinner. That's not like a fancy I'm gonna have a movie. So what I said was the three snacks I would pick would be tortilla chips. Okay, which I feel like you should know um with some kind of dip or cheese.

SPEAKER_05:

I feel like tortilla chips is lunch, though.

SPEAKER_09:

No, we're watching movie uh ice cream and popcorn.

SPEAKER_05:

Which you got I did miss out on the popcorn. That should have been an obvious one. Yeah, at least he didn't say pumpkin speech seeds.

SPEAKER_09:

You know, we have been together longer than Sarah and Greg, but you would not know. I wonder, I'm gonna tank next week too, when we record for uh when you have to ask us questions. I know it.

SPEAKER_04:

I think Dan and I are gonna have to come up with some devious shit here to get back.

SPEAKER_09:

All right, you get one point, Dan.

SPEAKER_05:

Great. I'm on the board.

SPEAKER_09:

Dan has two out of four. Oh no, does Dan have one out of four? Dan only has one. Yeah. One out of five potential points right now. You have one, you have a chance for one more point. So you're saying that it's a fail. That's two out of five, which is fair.

SPEAKER_04:

Let's let's say I have three. I got I didn't get the last one.

SPEAKER_06:

I don't think you got the fruity one.

SPEAKER_04:

You guys are trying to be generous, and that's sweet, but that that's not what we're doing.

SPEAKER_07:

That's sweet, but play this cut through the Pika throat. I think Brig has three out of four points.

SPEAKER_04:

That's fair.

SPEAKER_07:

Okay, and you have one out of four. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

All right, last one.

SPEAKER_07:

I gotta find in our text messages where our answer to the last one was.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm also doing that.

SPEAKER_07:

Uh I remember this one was where Leah was like, let's make it interesting.

SPEAKER_09:

Ooh, fun. I found it if you want me to do it.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, you can do it.

SPEAKER_09:

Okay. Greg, what does Sarah find most annoying about you as her podcast co-host? Oh, well, I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, I was gonna say that's a very open-ended question, Leah. But it's with recording the podcast.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I mean, we gotta talk about warm bodies today. So yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04:

Um oh my god, I don't know. Um I'm sure it'll be obvious when she says it. Uh probably something about uh me being a little overly particular or overly uh analytical. Maybe maybe a little hard. I don't know. Is that your final answer? I I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_06:

Don't look at me like I'm gonna tell you.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm looking at you trying to like, you know, glean something from your forehead, but I can't do it. So no, I I give up on this one. I'm sure it'll be great though.

SPEAKER_06:

He can't think of a single annoying thing.

SPEAKER_04:

No, I have I'm perfect. Spinning in a 306. My brain is like the little wheel on the Apple computer when it gets when it's just a little beef ball. That's where my brain is right now. I'm overloading options.

SPEAKER_09:

Spinning wheel of death.

SPEAKER_04:

Exactly. That is my brain. Okay, please tell me how I'm annoying.

SPEAKER_07:

This one is kind of funny because I I gave like three possible answers.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, great. See, I wasn't wrong. You have really good odds.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I guess I kind of fucked up.

SPEAKER_07:

Hell of an odd. I said sometimes he's long-winded.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh.

SPEAKER_07:

That was it. I said the most annoying thing is that sometimes he says ill relevant instead of irrelevant.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep. Should have got that.

SPEAKER_07:

And I said, but he will never guess that. And I think we fundamentally disagree about this. Lastly, he can be contrarian for contrarian's sake, and that annoys the shit out of me, but he won't guess that either.

SPEAKER_04:

Podcasting people being a contrarian. All right.

SPEAKER_07:

At this point, it's irrelevant, so completely illrelevant.

SPEAKER_09:

Absolutely ill irrelevant. I can't even say it.

SPEAKER_02:

Illrelevant. That's too many. You gotta be a real idiot to get it wrong all the time, like I do.

SPEAKER_07:

And Dan, what does Leah find most annoying about you as her podcast co-host?

SPEAKER_05:

Um, Leah, how how many answers did you give?

SPEAKER_09:

I I can't I can't answer that. That's not fair. I've I feel like I feel like there are two messages, I'll tell you that.

SPEAKER_05:

So it could be two things or does it yeah. Um you know, I think I I've I've I have this very similar shortcomings as Greg. I think uh I am very long-winded sometimes. I uh I think probably the most annoying thing is that I go on um tangents, I have nothing to do with anything, but then loop it back around at the very end and uh and Leah can no longer connect the dots. But I'm gonna give a bonus answer. Okay. And uh the bonus answer is that when Leah says something and then she's like, Can you please edit that out? Then I say yes, and then I don't. Because I think it's funny.

SPEAKER_09:

You are redeeming yourself right now.

SPEAKER_07:

And can I tell you how many of those three did he get right? There were three possible answers, and he got two out of three flying colors, I'd say, on this one.

SPEAKER_03:

I nailed it. I I how many possible points? I think he should get at least two out of I think he should get at least two points. Oh no, this is a one-pointer. Yeah, we didn't see it. The rules are already established.

SPEAKER_07:

Because there were so many like odds. The odds are very good. If there's three possible correct answers, it's it's it's supposed to be a gimme.

SPEAKER_04:

I think you I think you're shafting Dan here.

SPEAKER_07:

Okay. I I I gotta say, no, I'm not shafting. I'm giving him the point. What do you mean?

SPEAKER_04:

I, however, was a narcissist and couldn't come up with one word.

SPEAKER_07:

But Dan, Dan, know thyself. He nailed it. Yeah, the only one he missed. But yeah, you want you wanna say it, Leah? The only one he missed.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, you missed, and honestly, it was me riffing off of the irrelevant because this does annoy me. I said, Dan says condescending, and I very condescendingly correct him. Condensending, maybe. Oh my god, thank you.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I'm gonna throw another one in there is that sometimes I think I sound condescending.

SPEAKER_09:

And then I said the thing that annoys me the most about Dan is when he doesn't delete something, I tell him to, and it lives on forever to haunt me in an episode. Dan also goes on random info dumps that are irrelevant to the topic completely, and it feels like sandpaper on my brain.

SPEAKER_07:

They're ilrelevant, maybe even.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, that was a missed opportunity. Highly irrelevant.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Dan, do you have a favorite thing that you've left in over the years or over the pods? Like the one thing that sticks out that just really pisses Lee off you left in that you maybe should have taken out.

SPEAKER_05:

I don't know if I have a favorite of that, but I do remember a few times when uh when the fury was brought down on me uh for doing such a thing. And I was like, but I thought it was funny.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

And then I uh then I went into the corner and I just curled up into a ball and staying.

SPEAKER_09:

Gonna beat you.

SPEAKER_07:

These are men with our the us being strong women, they have to deal with it somehow. It's true.

SPEAKER_09:

That's how I deal with it.

SPEAKER_07:

It's true.

SPEAKER_09:

Um, I also like to be contrarian for contrarian's sake, and so does Dan. So, Sarah, I apologize in advance.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh boy, I'm really in for it, huh?

SPEAKER_04:

What fun is constant agreement? I mean, really.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, but sometimes you disagree just to disagree, and I I cannot wrap my head. Like, this is not even just recording. Sometimes we watch a movie, and I feel like because I like it so much, you just need to tear it down.

SPEAKER_04:

No, that that's not true. See, that's I do think that's a bit of a miss uh a misconception about me. Like I if I have the opinion about it, I'm gonna give it to you. And if it's in if it's in opposition to what you think, it's okay. Yeah. You know, it's just a difference of opinion.

SPEAKER_07:

And it could just be me so hardcore believing in my point of view that I just cannot fathom you disagreeing.

SPEAKER_05:

Also, I just want to point out that when uh when you pointed out his um I'm forgetting the word. My brain's Swiss cheese right now. Irrelevant. What are we talking about? Irrelevance. Being contrary, being contrarian. So uh in the statement of him being contrarian, he had to disagree.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, of course. You see what I'm saying? You see what I'm saying here?

SPEAKER_09:

I thought we were gonna be friends, but I mean, Greg, you did win the points, so I feel like there's something there.

SPEAKER_05:

And I'm better about it.

SPEAKER_04:

Fair enough. Well, we'll see how this goes next week when we turn the table on the ladies, Dan. I think we've really got to put some thought into this because we've got some paybacks are coming.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah. I think Sarah's gonna win that one too. I think we're you're dealing with two people with serious ADHD and memory problems on this side.

SPEAKER_07:

I don't know how intense my ADHD is though, too.

SPEAKER_04:

And Sarah's memory problems.

SPEAKER_07:

And I have horrible memory problems, but I remember things about you.

SPEAKER_04:

I have no excuse then. No, it's like, um, we haven't seen that movie, and I'll be like, Yeah, we just watched that last Friday. Oh shit.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, I totally forget things we've already seen. Do you forget the ends of things that you've read or seen? Because that's my crappy problem. I'll be like, I love that. I don't know how it ended. I don't remember.

SPEAKER_07:

I I will completely like I have to go back and read my own book reviews to see what I thought of the book and to see what the book was about.

SPEAKER_05:

Someone's like, how did you feel about that book? And it's like, hold on, I gotta check my website.

SPEAKER_07:

You you're gonna need to go to our website and look it up because I couldn't tell you. I don't know. But I rate it right after I read it and I write a little review. You don't want to know what I think. So there's like two to three books a week. That's incredible though.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, contrarian. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

I do read a lot, so I do there's a lot of sleep in your brain cells.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, yeah. I don't have that experience. I read like one book a month and it's still gone forever, and all the movies I've ever seen. What's it like to date your podcaster, co-podcaster? That's a great question.

SPEAKER_07:

I would say it's extremely romantic.

unknown:

Really?

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah. Don't you love staring across at your person?

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Well, but I mean it's cool that like this is like our hobby that we do together. Like in a we share it with the masses. Like anyone can listen to it, but it's kind of our little hobby. It's like our time together that we we talk about things.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. I think you know, it's it's like just a fun creative outlet to have another conversation about the things that you kind of normally do. So we, you know, read books, which I do very limitedly, but I have been an voracious movie consumer my entire life. So to kind of mash up all of the media that we both enjoy and to be able to talk about it every week and then share it with people and it hopefully be interesting and hopefully it's funny. Um, it's just, you know, it's like a I don't know, to be like weirdly mushy about it. Like it's just it's like a good bonding thing, I think, as a couple, and it just kind of always keeps bringing us back together, even when I say ilrelevant things and can be quite a contrarian and an asshole.

SPEAKER_07:

Right.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

And and to be fair, I can be very oversensitive to our disagreements on the podcast, get very emotional and passionate about it in the moment. That's what makes it good, though. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09:

We're turning this into therapy today. Yeah, you two fighting over it follows was like my favorite that I've listened to of the two of you. It was great. Oh God, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh Sarah was so convinced she was gonna hate that movie when she walked into it. She's like, I hated this the first time I saw it. And then it was just like she was like, Oh, maybe it's not so bad. And then by the end, she's like, I hate it again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09:

And yet somehow you convinced me to watch it. Like, that's that is the magic of your did you did you watch it since you've listened to it? No, not yet.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_09:

But I'm going to, and I'm gonna have thoughts about it. I honestly have a very strong bias in siding with you, Sarah, already. So I don't know that I'm an objective observer.

SPEAKER_07:

I can't disagree with you, obviously. I think that that is probably wise. Um I don't want to be contrarian like Greg.

SPEAKER_04:

No, sure, sure, sure. What what do you guys find challenging working together and and you know, trying to create something fun and and engaging?

SPEAKER_05:

Um the podcast is our zombie. And sometimes just like a real baby, it requires a lot of care and keeps you up at night. Um and I think the hardest thing is just uh how much uh time I need to put into it on at least on on my side of things, and how little time I actually have for real life. So like uh most most uh weekdays I'm like I I have to shovel food into my mouth as fast as I can and then dive straight first into bed. And then uh as soon as I hit the bed, I just bounce right off of it and jump back into my shoes and go back to work.

SPEAKER_09:

And in between those ones when Dan hits uh his head on the pillow, I look at him really intently and be like, Dan, what do you think about this episode idea? And I'm like what?

SPEAKER_06:

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

I think that I think that's a good point though. Like if I'm we didn't really talk about challenges, but I think it is like that sort of always on of the podcast nature. Like we're always kind of like brainstorming and thinking and throwing ideas, and Sarah's always like way deeper into it than I am. And you know, it is it is a challenge to sometimes either turn it off or just you know, remove yourself from it a little bit because you're always thinking about churning content. Yeah, you know, and that's it's omnipresent.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, and there's just there's so many things you have to put thought into. So like to have two brains working on it at the same time is really helpful. Um, you know, before before all this, I I did have like uh you know, I I made I made my living as an online entertainer for a little while. Not as a famous one, um, but as one that was doing well enough to pay their very uh cheap rent.

SPEAKER_00:

That's awesome though.

SPEAKER_05:

And then sometimes eat. And uh and I if I if I look at what we do right now and like how long we've been doing it, how much work goes into it, I think I would have given up a long time ago if I didn't have Leah here to one, keep me going during especially hard times where I'm just like I just want to turn off the world. Um, and also to take a lot of that mental load of all the all the things you have to take into consideration when you're building uh an online community because it's it can be overwhelming.

SPEAKER_07:

You know, I totally agree with that because I had a podcast before this as well, and I wasn't making enough money to pay my rent or pay my, you know, so you're you're way ahead of me on that. But I have experience doing something like this, and then in this experience with Greg, I've had that exact same feeling. Like I would totally quit if I didn't have someone else with me that cared about it as much as I did.

SPEAKER_09:

A hundred percent. Because sometimes the burnout's real, and like I need to lean on Dan to be like, all right, what are we doing this week? I have to have another idea. Also, my great idea last week's not gonna last as a month. Like, I have to come out with something else. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. And also, there's like most creative endeavors that you that you take on as a as a person, it's like an internal experience set. Like you don't really realize that your thoughts and your work that you're putting into something doesn't necessarily transmit to anyone around you. So it's just like it's inside your head and that's where it lives. Um but because Leah and I are both working on this, um, you know, it's it's daily conversation, like what's going on with it, how it's going, and like what to do and what good ideas there are.

SPEAKER_09:

And just to widen the lens a little bit, I'm really excited that we're getting to know you two because already, especially you and I, Sarah, because we're, I don't know, less busy than Greg and Dan, maybe.

unknown:

I don't know.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, um, or just better at texting, but we've had already had some good conversations just around like what it's like to do this. Um, you definitely inspired me to try some new things, like talking to people who are famous, which terrifies me. Um and I just like that's already widened my circle too. So I feel like now I have a mini couple podcaster support support group.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh, well, good. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04:

I want to ask a couple of personal questions outside of this, though. So you guys are personal questions. Oh my god. Yeah, but so it's no surprise, right? You guys are based out of Vermont, correct? Yep. And you're in Michigan, right? We are.

SPEAKER_07:

Michigan, yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Right now, everybody knows where we live.

SPEAKER_04:

I know.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh shit. All right, so our address is slow down.

SPEAKER_04:

Um, I wanted to ask, because we we had a side conversation about this, but what makes Vermont an amazing place for craft beer? And what would you recommend to people who visit?

SPEAKER_09:

Oh my god, we are the worst people to ask this question. Oh, really? Oh shit.

SPEAKER_07:

Ask her, ask her Ben and Jerry's. I'm gonna tell you.

SPEAKER_09:

Well, I can I have an answer for you, but it has nothing to do with quality of beer because I hate beer. I've tried, I've tried to love it. Something about it and cut this out. No, but there is a you could come to the Harpoon Brewery, which is relatively close to us, so we could hang out, and then you could tell me if you think it's good beer while I drink their root beer on top of this, which is good.

SPEAKER_05:

And I mostly I mostly drink whiskey anyway, so it's uh I I used to like beer a lot. Um and I don't know if this is just a Vermont thing or if this is something that has plagued the entire beer world. Um, why the fuck is every beer an IPA?

SPEAKER_07:

Oh my god, Greg says this all the time.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay, I'm so glad because I love I like stout. I I like box, I like dark beer with foam on top. And uh it feels like I can't find it anywhere.

SPEAKER_07:

Anytime I see nitro stout on the menu, that's what I'm getting.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Um but also I I I haven't really enjoyed drinking for a long time because I I don't know. I mean, maybe it's because I drank too much and now it doesn't affect me anymore, but like like uh it it takes an insane amount of alcohol for me to even feel a buzz. Um and then as soon as it's in if if it does happen um after said insane amount, um, it goes away like within minutes, and then I'm left with the hangover.

SPEAKER_09:

Dan abused his liver very badly in his younger years. And uh I would not believe this was true, except for that I have witnessed it. I'm like, why are you not drunk? How is this possible? It's kind of crazy. Uh how is that bloody Maria hitting you? It's tasty. I'm feeling it. I've got a little flush in the cheeks. Oh, okay. But I'm a lightweight. What about it?

SPEAKER_07:

You might have to take a break halfway through and make another one, honestly. That's okay with price.

SPEAKER_04:

Of course. Um, let me ask a better question. And since I really kind of funned it with the goal line there. What is your uh sort of like Mount Rushmore of zombie content? Like if you guys had to pick like three or four things about the zombie content that you have consumed over your lives, like what are your personal favorites in that in that genre?

SPEAKER_05:

That is way too big of a question.

SPEAKER_09:

Let's just say them instead of explaining why.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay.

SPEAKER_09:

Uh Day of the Dead.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay. Yeah. Romero in general.

SPEAKER_09:

All Romero, yeah. Which I'm a late comer to Romero and I because I've got my movie, sure. Um what else?

SPEAKER_05:

The 28 series.

SPEAKER_09:

Stinkyo. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Love it. Uh The Walking Dead.

SPEAKER_09:

I would add Blood Quantum, that's my all-time favorite zombie movie. Yeah. Oh, I haven't seen that. It's really good because of the social commentary, and it's the kind of it's unfortunate the the writer and creator uh died, but I think and I it's unfortunate that he died, period. I guess I should say that. But I'm also sad because I think that it could have been a full-blown series that would have been really successful. Or a Netflix series. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that's not that it couldn't still be.

SPEAKER_09:

I gotta turn that around on YouTube though. Like, do you have an all-time favorite horror book or movie?

SPEAKER_04:

Well, I'll let Sarah marinate on that because that might that might be harder for her. But for me, the apex of horror is always starts and ends with The Exorcist. Oh, yeah. The William Friedkin film. Um, not only is it an awesome horror movie, but it is just an amazing film in terms of like production and sound design and music and everything else.

SPEAKER_07:

Like it is special effects for the time, practical special effects.

SPEAKER_04:

Apex filmmaking.

SPEAKER_07:

I mean, not fun for the people on set.

SPEAKER_04:

No, no, people got abused, but Ellen Burst maimed a couple times. Um Freakan slapped a priest.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh my god. So we were doing our live unboxing of the indie uh the our um every month we do an indie author spotlight. We did a live unboxing this past week or this past month with Emily. My friend Emily was with me because Greg was out of town. And I was telling her, I was like, Yeah, like, did you know Freakan like he he was like very abusive as a director? And and Emily was like, Yeah, I think a lot of directors, and I was like, No, he like punched a priest started laughing, and I was laughing too, but I was like, I'm serious, yeah. He really it was a real priest, too.

SPEAKER_04:

It was a real priest, he wasn't getting the performance out of him he wanted, so he slapped him.

SPEAKER_07:

And he and it was perfect, and it was used in the sh in the final they used.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep.

SPEAKER_07:

Sometimes you gotta make sausage, yeah. That's correct. Yeah, you don't want to know how the sausage is made, you gotta get out of the kitchen. You can't take the heat. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

The only other thing I'd add to my list is I unabashedly love all things alien. So it's a huge. It starts with Ridley Scott's alien, you know, back in 1979, and even the bad movies are still delicious to me. I love them all.

SPEAKER_07:

For me, I think I mean I would say the Exorcist for the book, too. The book is phenomenal as well. I think, yeah, I think the Exorcist is the apex of horror. I I can't my favorite is Nightmare on Elm Street, but that's just because that's got like a special place in my heart. Do you know I've never watched it? Oh my god, we need to do a movie night then. Sold. I need to re-watch it. I haven't watched it in a long time. I this is how fucked up I am. I used to put on the nightmare on Elm Street to fall asleep too. It was like one of the movies that I just watched so many times. It's like literally, yeah, it's like my comfort movie. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I know every single line in that movie.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, um ironic that you uh chose the movie where falling asleep is the thing.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, I know. That'll get you. I don't know why it just it just stuck to me, and I was like, I just love this movie, and I needed sound to fall asleep too, and it just was Freddie Krueger. Yeah, I think what I've done. It was Ross Galentina.

SPEAKER_09:

Something I've realized from doing this podcast and and uh is that I have a really strong bias against movies earlier than the 2000s, and I'm wrong. Oh yeah, that's I mean The Exorcist, I would have agreed with you hands down, anyways. I also read the book as a young, like I don't know how old I was, like 12. That was too young. Um, but yeah, excellent book. But I I refuse to watch anything, George Romero and Nightmare on Elm Street, same thing. I'm like, that's old. I refuse, and I've learned that I am wrong. Oh yeah. This never happens. Yeah, yeah. Enjoy it, Dan. I'm c I'm wrong. I'm saying it on air. I am enjoying it.

SPEAKER_05:

This is delicious.

SPEAKER_07:

There's definitely there's some biases about like we were talking last night about um like how a lot of Americans don't like to watch foreign films with like subtitles on them, or they didn't used to. Now everybody watches things with captions on them.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

But um, we were trying to watch a movie last night, a French movie, and every version of it on every streaming service was dubbed. And I was so annoyed. I was like, I cannot watch anything dubbed. I just can't do it.

SPEAKER_04:

But then we got happy through the movie and it was subtitled, and they were still speaking French. So it was like the captioning people got fired maybe halfway through post-production.

SPEAKER_09:

They were like, this is exhausting. Let's just you know what's worse is when they have like because I need the captions on and I need the dubbing because I can't I can't pay that level of attention unless it is the pinnacle of movies. I can't do it. My brain will not let me. So I can't be like looking at the screen and reading only. But they're never the same. That's what upsets me. Yeah, is the audio dub and the caption dub is not the same, or not the translation caption is not the same. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

I never watch things dubbed if I can avoid it. Last night I couldn't avoid it. But I can't, I can't, I hate dub because the voice doesn't match the person. That irritates me.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, like you're watching somebody that looks like they should have like a nasally voice, and it's like we have to go fight the bad guy now.

SPEAKER_07:

Or even just like uh the little things like the mouth is still moving and the voice is not like that irritates the shit out of me.

SPEAKER_04:

That's my favorite was like, you know, Beverly Hills cop with Eddie Murphy. Eddie Murphy has a very distinctive voice, pronunciation, and laugh. And when they would, you know, at some point in the 90s, they took Beverly Hills Cop and they dubbed it and took out all the swear words so they could put it on cable, and they chose like the whitest, I can remember. And I wouldn't watch it just to laugh my ass off. But it would be like, you know, you'd be like, get the fuck out of here, and it would be like this really like Hey, get out of here. Nope. Like, hey, why don't you leave? Horrible, you know.

SPEAKER_07:

Hey, you bozo, get out of here.

SPEAKER_05:

You know what movie I watched that I absolutely loved the made-for-tv version of it because of the dubs over the um swear words was Pineapple Express. Oh, okay. I wish I could remember everything, but they they would uh they would uh replace motherfucker with Melon Farmer. And it was hilarious. Like they they got really creative with the dubs. It was unfortunate. It was amazing. I want to watch it again now.

SPEAKER_07:

This is a total aside, and I'm sorry, editing this podcast is gonna suck ass.

SPEAKER_05:

But it's not staying in.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, we're not bringing up Beverly Hills Cop. Have you ever seen the movie Beverly Hills Ninja? No, Chris Farley?

SPEAKER_05:

No, my opinion. Once a very long time ago, and I don't remember anything.

SPEAKER_07:

Okay, well, basically it was like Chris Farley is this white ninja, and he's a he's a fat oaf, clumsy oaf, and he's not a ninja at all, but he thinks he is. And he would just show up in a room and say, Here I am, Sally Jones, because the other main girl, her name was Sally Jones. My name is Sarah Jones. And my brother used to pop out of any room and go, Here I am, Sarah Jones. David, of course. Anyway, that was just the thigh that I thought was funny.

SPEAKER_09:

Now I know what I'm gonna do the next time I if I receive you in person, I'm gonna like make sure that pop out. Yeah, just do a cartwheel into a room.

SPEAKER_06:

It won't be a cartwheel.

SPEAKER_09:

It'll be a really bad um what's the baby cartwheel where you just sort of like roll over your head? I don't know. That'll somersault. Yeah, I'll I'll somersault into the room.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh we'll we'll we'll come to Vermont one day. We'll stand outside of a craft brewery that we will not drink at. No, we'll drink there, they won't. We'll stand in the parking lot and you can just yell at her.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, and I'll just be eating Ben and Jerry's drinking beer.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

That's perfect.

SPEAKER_05:

I I gotta go back to the craft beer thing. There is this um like brew pub that is in Brattleboro, I want to say, and their whole thing is sour beer. And like that's like the the name of the place is like something about sour beer, uh, some kind of pun. And I'm like, do we want this? Are there people going here for an unpleasant experience?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, right. It's like, hey, why don't you just drink a glass of vinegar and call it a day?

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, that's how I feel about beer completely. I don't understand it at all. Oh yeah. I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_05:

Anyways, I I had to go back there because I I'm upset about it.

SPEAKER_09:

Hey, forgiven.

SPEAKER_04:

Maybe this is the a lot of divisive things in the beer world.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah. I think this is the moment to transition to our book.

SPEAKER_04:

I think it's let's do that. I have one last thing though, okay? I no no, because this this this really cracked me up. We watched Zombie on Tubi a couple weeks ago.

SPEAKER_07:

Like Zombie 2.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, yeah. So um the other movies that were recommended after this, I found some other zombie-related movies, and I was curious if you guys had seen these because they just stood out to me. So the first one was The Coed and the Zombie Stripper. Are you familiar?

SPEAKER_05:

No. I've I've seen it advertised on Tubi.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh yes.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

Four MILFs versus Zombies.

SPEAKER_09:

Also saw that advertised on Tubi, but have not watched.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, that was a WTF moment for sure.

SPEAKER_04:

These all were like what WTFs for me when I saw them. I was like, I just forgot to.

SPEAKER_07:

The next ones I feel like sounded really actually cinematically.

SPEAKER_04:

The last one is amazing. It's called Zombie Ass. I knew it. Colon, Toilet of the Dead. Yeah, I knew Colonel Classic. As you see, I really want to watch it just out of stupidity.

SPEAKER_05:

When we first started our podcast, we promised that we might consider watching it. Then we watched the trailer and we were like, absolutely fucking not.

SPEAKER_07:

Can you repeat the title one more time?

SPEAKER_04:

Fair enough. Zombie ass, Toilet of the Dead.

SPEAKER_07:

And it's about zombie poop.

SPEAKER_04:

I have no idea.

SPEAKER_07:

Watch it.

SPEAKER_04:

We're gonna we're gonna have to watch the trailer now.

SPEAKER_09:

I'm gonna have to watch the movie.

SPEAKER_05:

The trail the trailer's very upsetting.

SPEAKER_09:

Again, maybe this is another um movie watch party mashup where we can like suffer together through this. Because I I don't know. It's I just thinking about the trailer upsets me.

SPEAKER_07:

So I would need some I'd need moral support. I love upsetting.

SPEAKER_05:

I'm gonna I'm gonna paint a picture for you, and this is gonna get you ready to watch this trailer because I feel like you can't just go in cold turkey.

SPEAKER_07:

I'm rearing and ready to go.

SPEAKER_05:

I'm glad you said that because here's here's what to expect. I'm gonna rearin' zombies on their hands and feet, uh-huh, not crawling, but like walking on their hands and feet backwards towards you with the intention of shitting diarrhea all over you to turn you into one projectile.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes. So they're like like little crab walking diarrhea cannons. Exactly. Oh I don't know.

SPEAKER_07:

I think that there's something that's beautiful about that that I think we can explore.

SPEAKER_04:

You are you are ill. You need help.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, let us let us know if we if if we need to rethink Zombie's Toilet of the Dead. I think it could be.

SPEAKER_04:

All right, I'll I'll stop derailing the conversation. Let's move on to some warm bodies.

SPEAKER_07:

Okay, so let's get into the book, Warm Bodies. Let's it's about time, right?

SPEAKER_04:

It's let's move into it. Is that what we're doing?

SPEAKER_07:

Did you do a recap? That's what we're here for, I believe.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay. I don't know. We we might have a sub pod we've been creating the last 40 minutes. I think there's something good there. Oh, I should have read this book.

SPEAKER_07:

Don't worry, we'll fill you in.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay. Yeah. I'll fake it. We're gonna make it really good for you by the end.

SPEAKER_07:

Fake it till you make it, Dan.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I'll just fake it.

SPEAKER_07:

Okay, great. Do you have a recap?

SPEAKER_04:

The world has gone to shit, and a zombie contagion has ravaged society, leaving only the living, the undead, and the bonies to wander the planet. R, or is it, is a member of the undead population who enjoys the simple life, staring at a wall with his good friend M, listening to old records in his airplane home, riding escalators and eating brains. But one day, while out searching for human happy meals, R meets a girl named Julie, and his entire idea of what constitutes an afterlife is changed. Isaac Marion's novel Warm Bodies follows R, Julie, and a mispic collection of the living and undead as they fall in love, listen to Sinatra, eat Thai food, evade the authorities, and ask the age-old question Is change truly possible? And if so, at what cost?

SPEAKER_09:

Hmm. That was a great recap, Greg. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I'm cleared up a little bit. Dan, I got your back. I I know everything I need to know to get through this episode. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Thai food, Sinatra, escalated. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

What's it called? The Spark Notes.

SPEAKER_04:

Cliff's notes.

SPEAKER_07:

Cliff's notes, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

There you go. Okay. Where do you want where do we want to start this conversation then?

SPEAKER_09:

I want to know about these Coven cocktails that y'all do for books that you're reading.

SPEAKER_07:

Yes. So for every book that we read, we do a Coven cocktail and we do a Coven mocktail for our sober sinners because you don't have to poison yourself to have fun. Um but some of us like to poison ourselves and that's fine too. So for the Coven Cocktails, we decided early on, all four of us, that we would do cold bloodies in warm bodies. It was just too clever to pass up. So we're all drinking Bloody Mary's today, I think. Is that right?

SPEAKER_09:

Bloody Maria over here, thanks to your suggestion. Me too.

SPEAKER_07:

With or Mezcal makes it even smokier. But then I I made a mocktail option and I called it Zom B Mine Mocktail. You know, like the little bee mine like Valentine's Day heart.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

And then for the for the cocktail outside of the cold bloodies, I did Julie's contraband Greyhound. Because you might remember Julie took some mini vodka from the 747 that was R's home and made Greyhounds at the Juice Bar where R actually gets drunk and is stumbling down the street at some point in the book.

SPEAKER_09:

And this is in a sober society. You're not supposed to get drunk.

SPEAKER_07:

You're not supposed to do that. So it's contraband. So of course it had to be included.

SPEAKER_09:

It was a perfect one, and if I had had the ingredients, I would have made it. I actually think I'm going to try Julie's contraband greyhound sometime.

SPEAKER_07:

Not a lot of people have just grapefruit juice sitting around if you don't you're not a bartender.

SPEAKER_05:

Do you think it's good or a greyhound? Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, I've had a greyhound, they're great.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay.

SPEAKER_07:

I enjoy them.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, because you could do grapefruit, you could do pink grapefruit. You know, you could kind of mix it up. There's other kinds of grapefruit. Ruby red? Sure. Well, there's I think so. Yes. What other colors of grapefruit are there?

SPEAKER_07:

Golden grapefruit. I'm I might be lying, honestly.

SPEAKER_04:

Goldschlager grapefruit.

unknown:

Goldschlager.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, goldschlager is great. Fuck. That sounds gross. Grapefizer. That sounds the most repugnant. Okay, so let's get into the writing style and tone of this book. Let's get serious. I don't know if we're capable of that. What's that?

SPEAKER_09:

I don't know if we're capable of being serious. This is not the podcast for serious, but we're gonna power through anyways.

SPEAKER_07:

I have to say this book, the prose of it reminded me of reading Mickey Seven. It's a book we read a couple books ago. It was very, very similar, but there's like this dreaminess and this dark, dry, subdued sense of humor that I really dug. Yeah, I yeah, I would agree.

SPEAKER_09:

My problem was I was listening to the audiobook, and I was like, this this narrator is deliberately talking slowly like a zombie. And I was like, I was kind of taking it, but actually I had it at 60% speed.

SPEAKER_01:

So I thought it was part of the tone of the audio book in about halfway through.

SPEAKER_05:

Wow, that's right. For for weeks, you're like, I really like how the narrator is just like really slowing in down. I'm like, yeah, I guess I guess yeah, I guess he's doing that. Yeah. Yeah. So I always read with my ears because the only time that I have to read is when I'm driving a dump truck.

SPEAKER_07:

Um that's right.

SPEAKER_05:

They frown upon holding a book on your steering wheel and reading while you're driving. Um have you seen how most people drive.

SPEAKER_07:

It's a stupid question, Dan.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

What about the dump truck dump? Is it is trash? Is it trash?

SPEAKER_05:

It could be. It could be. Actually, funny that you ask that question because a lot of the trucks that my boss, um, who's a bit cheap, uh, that he bought, he bought all these dump trucks from uh from an auction. And they'd taken all the decals and logos off from the previous owner of the truck, but you can still make out the words on the side of one of uh a few of them that say municipal waste. And I and whenever whenever he asked me about those dump trucks, I'm like, I'm not driving one of your fucking green Mac garbage trucks ever again. And he's like, they're not dark garbage trucks. I'm like, they say municipal waste on them. Don't tell me they're not garbage trucks.

SPEAKER_07:

But uh I dump sand, rocks, garbage trucks for municipal waste would dump probably not just trash, but like bodies. It's a lot of there's a lot of mob activity with municipal waste.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, that's true. Uh Tony Soprano uh was a garbage man.

SPEAKER_07:

You were just telling me. My mom was the secretary for municipal waste Detroit. Really? And she was like, it was the mob.

SPEAKER_05:

So you're so your mom's your mom's connected.

SPEAKER_07:

Somewhat. If you ask her, yes. If you ask me, no.

SPEAKER_05:

There were no dots.

SPEAKER_07:

That's true. No, but she did get like designer purses and stuff from her boss.

SPEAKER_05:

She was connected. Put together the dots here. Designer, yeah. Yeah, coming home with brand new designer purses, saying that she's not part of the mob. The name of her boss.

SPEAKER_04:

Don't stop. Sorry. Okay. All right, I'm done. Too much. Oversharing. You're gonna get it.

SPEAKER_09:

Greg, what did you think about the style and tone?

SPEAKER_04:

I well, I was gonna piggyback on Sarah's thinking in that. I loved the humor in this book a lot, and it felt like there's kind of like two levels to it. There's sort of the madcap zany vibe, almost slapsticky that happens from time to time, like very weekend at Bernie's type humor.

SPEAKER_06:

Yep. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04:

Um, and then there's also like this deadpan observational humor, uh, which I probably enjoyed a little bit more, but just the way R sees things, the way he comments on them uh throughout the entire book was just infinitely enjoyable to me. And it gives the book a unique perspective and a unique voice that I didn't expect it to have. So it like Sarah was mentioning Mickey 7, which is all from Mickey's perspective, and it's kind of the same observational type humor to kind of bring that all together. Um it's it's just it's it's a really fun, lighthearted, humorous read, and I dug the hell out of it for that.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. I I I also really like the the the writing style and everything. Um like my favorite type of stories aren't always first person, and as far as zombie stories goes, I don't really always enjoy from the point of view of the zombie. Um but because of the way that this was written, I found it really entertaining because it was funny and insightful and heartfelt in moments, even though the main character is literally uh walking corpse.

SPEAKER_07:

So just uh you saying that, have you read other books that are from the perspective of the zombie?

SPEAKER_05:

Um I I'm not recalling names right now of them because my brain doesn't work anymore.

SPEAKER_06:

This isn't a pop quiz. Like, listen, enough.

SPEAKER_05:

Uh but yeah, there's there are a few of them out there. Um Okay. And I mostly I've I've heard a lot of like uh like works in progress uh that you know people people will tell me they're works in progress sometimes. And when it's uh from the point of view of a zombie, I've I'll admit that I'm not totally excited about it. Um but I you know this this is proving that you can take that idea, and even though I wouldn't normally think that that would be the point of view that I would want because I'm looking for something else in the zombie apocalypse, um, I still enjoyed it because it was well written.

SPEAKER_07:

Aaron Powell Well, and I think a lot of like the point of view of the zombie for him was was metaphorical, like it's moving through like depression in that sense of like existing but not living, which we could we can get to a little bit more, yeah, a little bit more later.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, it definitely makes sense why why it's why it's written in the way that it's written, uh which is why I would never say that it needs to be changed. But I I do think that this type of story, like I I probably would have picked it up a lot longer ago if it was from the perspective of survivors.

SPEAKER_09:

It shows a bias, right? Like it's the it's the kind of thing you're looking for. Yeah, it is a bias.

SPEAKER_07:

But that's also I feel like more common for zombie stories is that they're told for the point of view of the survivors.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, it's true. Um, but I'm basically Leah.

SPEAKER_07:

I think you said that you had a lot of notes about world building.

SPEAKER_09:

I did because I was obsessed with the Zombie Society, which you could only get from the point of view, like from ours point of view. Um I think you did it better, Greg. Can you can you say his name again?

SPEAKER_04:

It's tough to not make him sound like a pirate. That's the hardest. Right.

SPEAKER_09:

Baby Jones. Um it's a thin line. It is, but it's worth it because it's a great, it's a great name. I was very upset when they started calling him Archie. I was like, that's not correct. That's not his name. I'm sure it's not his name.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, he was also upset about that.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah. Yeah. Archie. But I loved the Zombie Society uh exactly for the metaphorical reasons you were just talking about around depression, because it was like it felt like a broad societal depression where these zombies were just like mimicking human behaviors, like living human behaviors. Uh, like the fact that they were getting married, they were assigning children to each other, they had rudimentary friendships, but they were all dead. Uh you know, the fascinated me.

SPEAKER_07:

The whole part of like the whole marriage scene I found really funny just because it was so deadpan, like I mean, literally deadpan of just and then they were married. Like that's it.

SPEAKER_05:

Isn't it because the conveyor belt stopped?

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

And I mean that's that's a commentary in itself how so many people get together. It's just like they were just on the conveyor belt at the same time and it stopped at the right time, and now you're married.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, and like they handed you a couple kids and you're right, and then you take it a step further, and it's like when you have kids, it's like I feel for so many of my friends who have kids, it's like their lives as people kind of do stop when they start to have kids, and their lives are completely consumed by the kids and what's important, and obviously the kids become the most important thing at that point, but they sort of then stagnate at that point, you know. So I I think it works on a lot of levels to your point, Dan. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

It's interesting as a couple talking to another couple about this too. Like, are are you guys married? We are. We're married. You guys are married. You are, we're not married, but you guys don't have kids, right?

SPEAKER_09:

No, we are we are intentionally child free. Yeah, so are we. We're dinks.

SPEAKER_06:

What does dinks mean?

SPEAKER_09:

Double income, no kids. Although currently we're uh kids. We are not a dink. We're back to sinks.

unknown:

Sinks.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh, that's hilarious. Uh, but but so so are we. We're like intentionally child-free as a couple. And it's interesting to talk to I mean, especially woman-to-woman, Leah, that sense where you know you kind of get that feedback as you get older, people being like, you're gonna want kids someday, you're gonna regret it, you should really think about it. And you kind of have to like beat down that feedback for a while until you just get past it.

SPEAKER_09:

But yeah, I've reached the age, Sarah, at 41, where like people aren't asking me when I'm gonna have children anymore, which is great.

SPEAKER_07:

You're just like, oh bummer. Yeah, I'm 45, so I feel like it's coming. It's it's fine. Well, it's like I think I'm rounding that corner at 35 where people have stopped asking me. Like they're kind of like, I think you missed your window.

SPEAKER_05:

Either that or they're they're really amping up to be like, you're about to miss your window, so I'm gonna remind you a lot about it. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_07:

They're just like, I assume you've been trying and it hasn't been successful.

SPEAKER_09:

So don't want to ask. When my mom kept asking, I finally just looked at her and I said, 'Are you going to raise this thing because I'm not?' And that shut her up.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09:

That was the end of that conversation. But I think that was what fascinated me about the world building was this to me, it's like a super clear parallel with just going by society's dictates of like these are the steps you're supposed to go on. And like whether you feel anything about it, whether it makes you happy, whether there's any meaning there, like a lot of it is just people going up the escalator and then stopping with kids and never being in a position to ask whether that's okay. And the bonies, like the elders, the bonies are are like, um, no offense, grandma and grandpa, I know you're dead. But uh it's sometimes like elders who are really stuck in the traditions of like you have to be this way.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah. And I think too, it says something that the guy who wrote this book has lived such a non-conventional lifestyle that he is criticizing society from the outside, looking in, being like, What why do we do it like this? And I think as a couple of, in our own ways, non-conventional couples reading this book and talking about it, it's interesting to look at it societally and just go, like, you know what? I think this is true for a lot of people that they just they get married because they think that's what they're supposed to do, and then they have kids because that's just kind of the next step. And it's just kind of this numbed out, undead lifestyle.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Also, uh on the on the point of the boneys kind of being like the the elderly, uh, I want to point out that they also carry around cameras and take pictures of things and then show you the pictures.

SPEAKER_09:

That really entertained me too.

SPEAKER_05:

Like and that's I don't remember that.

SPEAKER_04:

I remember it. It's just it's it was such a weird thing.

SPEAKER_07:

I don't remember that at all. Yeah. But so that's that's just that parallel of people being like, see, here's my grandkid. It's like proof that you did it.

SPEAKER_09:

Even more rigid than that, they were taking pictures, uh, they took pictures of basically like the massacre, humans massacring zombies, and it was their way of saying, like, these are the enemy, Julie is the enemy, and just setting up that parallel.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_09:

And that there can't be any other way. Like, this is this is what it is, this is what we do. We hate humans. Also, you have to sort of like fake fuck each other and be assigned children. One boy, one girl. Yeah. Yeah. What did you all think of the airport as the the choice in terms of like being the primary home and world of the zombies?

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, I didn't really even think about that until you just said that, but it's interesting because that is like symbolically like a launching off point of like exploration, and they're just stuck there. That's an interesting point. I hadn't really thought about that.

SPEAKER_04:

I didn't really think about it much aside from just liking as I was reading through it, like I could put myself there, you know. Like I try I travel a decent amount for work and stuff. So I think about all the airports and all the places I go and sort of like how there is so much there in terms of it being its own society, you know, and but yet there's these pockets and the planes and the jetways and all this kind of stuff. And so I this is an incredibly simplistic view, but I just I loved it as a setting because it felt very visual and very um identifiable to me. And you know, and in particular, I just love with the bonies when they have the marriage. Ceremony. It's like R and his wife just kind of stumble into it, and it's like they're all just out on the tarmac somewhere, and they're just encircled by like the um the the the escalators or whatever, like the the um motorized staircases and stuff, and they're just encircled, and they're like, All right, we've got you, here you are, and now you're married. And it was just romantic. I mean, when we you know, if we ever do it, that's the way it's gonna be. It's just gonna be out of the tarmac.

SPEAKER_09:

Can we please come to that? Can I dress up like a bony? Sure. Can I officiate as a bony? I've officiated wetters. I'm inserting myself in this.

SPEAKER_07:

Uh no, if we get married, it's going to be an elopement, and I think it'll be us alone.

SPEAKER_09:

That's what we did. Yeah. You did? Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. During COVID, so that there was no no one could fight back about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Also, we didn't tell them until like a few weeks after.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh, that's we honestly, I think that's how we would probably do it too. Because I have a huge Irish Catholic family, and I wouldn't even want to talk about like, we're not doing a ceremony, we're not doing anything. It would be like, oh, we didn't tell you? Oh, yeah, no, we've been married. That happened already a while ago. Shit.

SPEAKER_09:

Sorry, I thought you knew. It makes taxes easier. We bought a house that year, and so we were like, we need to get this done.

SPEAKER_05:

So we don't so romantic.

SPEAKER_07:

So romantic.

SPEAKER_04:

It's an equation at that point. You're like, this is great. This works for us.

SPEAKER_07:

So something that I found really interesting too about the world building of this book was the secondhand living for the zombies. The way that the memories kind of explode through his consciousness after tasting the brains of the living, I thought was really well done.

SPEAKER_04:

I didn't I didn't see that coming. Like, I don't know. Like, and uh, you know, Dan and Lee, I kind of wanted to throw this at you guys, and Dan mentioned it a little bit earlier. Like, this is a very different type of zombie story, not only from being from ours perspective, but sort of how fast and loose and malleable the rules of the zombie world are, um, and and what Isaac Marion is doing with those rules. How did you guys sort of like, you know, as aficionados and with your encyclopedic knowledge of the zombie thing thing? That's good English. Zombie zombie of the zombie genre in the world. Like, how did you guys were you cool with it? Did it did it work for you? Did it not work for you? Were there too many incongruities with what you consider like the zombie space?

SPEAKER_05:

Um so uh you know, going back to what I was saying a long time ago, uh it feels like at this point, uh about like having like uh like a bias about what kind of story that I want to consume. And a lot of times I would I would be like what I would call like uh like a uh a purist, you know, like you have to have your Romero rules and they they have to be um accurate with what we agree zombies are, and that's what I want. But so many books are so different, so like you have to be very malleable with uh how you feel about the rules, as long as they don't violate them too badly.

SPEAKER_09:

As long as there are rules, if they if they've created rules and they stick to them and they're believable to me, then I'm okay with it. Like if I didn't feel that way, then I would have hated 28 years later, which a lot of people did because they're like this is too different.

SPEAKER_05:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_09:

I wasn't expecting this, and now I'm mad.

SPEAKER_05:

So um yeah. This one I you know we have like a uh a ranking of like how maybe not a ranking, but like a guide that tells us like how zombies can be classified from the uh the government um document uh con plan eighty eight eighty eight, which is the government's plan for dealing with a zombie outbreak. Is that a real thing? Is that real? Yes.

SPEAKER_07:

Really? Are you fucking kidding? Are you serious?

SPEAKER_05:

It is serious, and we did an episode about it.

SPEAKER_04:

Um it's way back there. Yeah, way way back. I will go find it because now I am so that's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_07:

I can't believe that's real.

SPEAKER_05:

So it's a real thing, and and and what it is, it's more of a training document for officers that are making a battle plan and they think that they're like, you know, it's kind of just fun to just talk about zombies. So, in that, there is a way to tell who your enemy is. Like if you're dealing with a uh uh a virally infected zombie, a fungal zombie. And in this case, I think the zombies that we're dealing with in warm bodies are uh supernatural in a sense, they're magical.

SPEAKER_07:

Um it seemed like it was a viral thing because he was talking about like he thought maybe saliva would pass it on, but then the saliva didn't because they shared the bite the beer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, because it he didn't he didn't um bite her with the intention of draining her life force.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, they talked about there's like some kind of a ceremony to turn someone, but it's very rare that people choose to turn someone into a zombie.

SPEAKER_05:

But also like the ways that it's affecting R and Julie um and all of the zombies around him, uh, it suggests that there's like something that can't be explained that's happening there. And it's and it's not necessarily like a virus that works on the rules of how a virus works, but rather something that's passed on from one person to another. And in the case of R, he is passing it on to other zombies as well without without making contact to them, just by uh experiencing new thoughts and feelings and himself up to human.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah. Yeah, you're right. So it it has this like flowery almost kind of Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

And the bonies are also kind of an example of that, too, because there's really nothing left of them that should make them mobile. Like they have like they have like some sinew and like some rotted muscle strands, but for the most part, they're mostly just bones. Yeah, they shouldn't be able to move, they should be collapsed on the ground. And yet somehow they're incredibly strong and fast.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, they clickety clack their way through. Yeah, the sounds they make, that was a great description.

SPEAKER_05:

They can uh they can climb walls like a spider.

SPEAKER_09:

I have a question for about the world building and like the magical aspect. I think the part that was harder for me to swallow was like I'm like, okay, this is a magical zombie per our agreed-upon zombie typology. Uh but I had a really hard time understanding at what point, like, as they're getting cured, quote unquote, they're still dead. So that confused me. The mechanism of death confused me in the book.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, and then even like at the end when I mean, not to jump ahead, but like when Julie and R kiss at the very end, and then Julie's eyes turn like yellow, and there's some kind of a transference that happens there that doesn't really get explained. But of course, this this is a series. There are several other books in this series. So I assume this gets explained in the next book.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. But which I am not a fan of.

SPEAKER_07:

Because you don't like to be left open. But it just like Mickey Seven. Mickey Seven ends the same way, like that open-ended.

SPEAKER_04:

No, it's it's completely different though, because and and allow me to be contrarian, if you will.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh, never, never like you.

SPEAKER_04:

Um like I I I think that everything needs to be self-contained in one story. And if you have another story to tell beyond that, that's okay. That can be a second book. But to like spend your whole book doing this kind of thing and then being like at the very end, you impart something new and the hope and the optimism that is found at the end of this book with um zombies uh evolving or devolving back to real people, whichever way you want to look at it, um, to then throw that nugget in there, but not explain it or give it a little more meat on the bones to us the reader, meat on the bonies.

SPEAKER_06:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Um it's it's not my favorite thing to do in a book. Like, don't like give me the entire story here. And then if you want to tell the next chapter of R and Julie, that could be the next book.

SPEAKER_06:

Yeah, I get what you're saying.

SPEAKER_04:

Solve all the riddles for me now that you've raised, and then if I like it, I'll buy in and I'll continue to move on. But I think so many authors get really entrenched in this idea of series and other things, and it's very common in the book space right now. So um not my favorite part of it, but um yeah. I don't know. Sorry, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_05:

That reminds me of a perfect example of uh of of the most egregious violator of said rules, this little unknown book uh that most people probably haven't heard of called The Lord of the Rings.

SPEAKER_06:

Okay, and tell me more about that.

SPEAKER_05:

I do agree for the most part. Like I see like the the world of sequels kind of in the same way that you would uh look at Star Wars. So like Star Wars, the first movie is its own encapsulated story. You can watch just that and be satisfied and it's over. Um but there is more because they didn't fully obviously they didn't fully solve the problem.

SPEAKER_07:

So And it's a chunk in the middle of a whole series, but you get enough from the whole from the first movie, from all three of the the original movies, you get enough from the whole movie. I see what you're saying. Like it makes perfect sense.

SPEAKER_05:

Like I see I see uh the first the first part of a of a trilogy as act one of that story. And then the second movie, Empire Strikes Back, is your second act, and it has to end on a down note because you're going into the third act in the third movie.

SPEAKER_07:

Even though it is a triumph, I felt like the Empire Strikes Back was a triumph.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, it left you wanting more.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, but with Warm Bodies, I felt like I think I agree with you, Greg, because I enjoyed the book, but then when it got to that point, it wasn't it didn't feel like they were telling me the stakes for why I should keep reading. Like if they had Oh, yeah. That's I think that's what was missing for me was like just what's what is I what am I going to be reading about next and do I want to know? Like if they'd set it up like this is the mystery of this new hybrid species, that's the mystery of fate. Yeah, then that might yeah, exactly. There's something a little maybe I needed to be hammered on the head with it. Maybe it was maybe it was more too subtle for me listening while I was gardening. I don't know.

SPEAKER_07:

I I mean I don't know. I really liked it. It made me interested to read the next book because I want to see what happens to Julie. I'm curious about the hybrid, like zombie slash living that she is now. But um that kind of if we're ready to move into character development, I do think that this book was a very character-driven story. Very much so. Especially, obviously, we get it from our's point of view. Something that I found very interesting was that, and and I'm not sure if this is a weakness of the of the book, and I I think it could be even. Um, but I found way more compelling R's relationship with Perry than R's relationship with Julie.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Yes. Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_07:

The most impactful relationship I felt in the book was that of R and Perry and his debating with Perry's consciousness while he savors his last memories. It just tripped me out completely. And that I I love that it's interesting how R doesn't even know if he's experiencing parts of Perry's consciousness that are actually there, or if it's just like his impression of Perry's memories. That whole thing was interesting to me.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, their dialogue back and forth, and then Perry sort of taking over the first person perspective and just sharing his point of view was really fascinating. Um, and I agree that was the most complex relationship of the book.

SPEAKER_07:

Totally. And I in a in a way, like it's a strength because it was very compelling. But in a way, it also is a weakness because it's like I don't feel that connected to Julie as I do to Perry in the book.

SPEAKER_09:

The nodding I'm doing.

SPEAKER_07:

Yes, right? Like, and I'm feeling like since it is a romance between R and Julie, I should have that kind of connection to Julie, and I don't as much. Yeah. But I do feel a strong connection to Perry.

SPEAKER_05:

I've I felt like there was a lot of um these kind of tropes when it came to R and Julie uh that were supposed to set up those emotional stakes, but uh much like many stories that use these tropes, um, it didn't it didn't really do that. Like, for example, they go to uh the motel.

SPEAKER_09:

One big bed.

SPEAKER_05:

The the one yeah, the one big bed trope. You know, that there's only one bed at the inn.

SPEAKER_06:

What do we do?

SPEAKER_05:

And like it's it didn't set up that scene, and that was like that was supposed to be their like close emotional moment and all that, and it was fine, but it wasn't quite like how Perry comes into his consciousness and uh and kind of like guides him through this existential nightmare that is sharing memories of somebody that you ate who was in the life of somebody who you're falling in love with.

SPEAKER_07:

That is an awesome that's amazing.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

The the intimacy of that, right? Too that like he's eating his brain and he really is experiencing, physically experiencing these memories, and they have this intimacy there that I feel like is missing in his relationship with Julie. And not to be super mushy, but to again be two couples reading this book and talking about it. I feel like we are both sets of couples that um it seems like all of us are very independent thinkers and very um strong individual people. So when we look for a partner, they have to meet us intellectually on the same level. And it seems like like you guys kind of have that relationship where it's like you get each other to that extent. And I think Greg and I are kind of there too. Like we just we get each other and we have a level of respect there that um I I think it makes it more difficult to relate to a story that's just like, oh, they're in love because you're telling me they're in love. They're in love because seeing any kind of intimacy between them, but yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_09:

It's also Stockholm syndrome-y, like Yeah. Why does Julie like R? Does and then I think to some degree, I'm like, maybe that is the function of the choices that uh Isaac Marion made, because the whole time I'm thinking, like, who are who is actually in this relationship? Because is Julie attracted to the parts of him that have become Perry? Is it related to R at all?

SPEAKER_07:

And on the other side of that, is R attracted to the things that Harry found attractive in Julie because he's only getting the experience, the secondhand experience of Perry's experiences.

SPEAKER_09:

It makes me think about um, you know, those stories where you have uh organ transfers and then suddenly you develop like a hobby that you never had before, and that the person that uh whose organ that came from also had that hobby. I felt like there's that's what it reminded me of.

SPEAKER_07:

Is that a real thing or is that something that's seen in fiction more?

SPEAKER_09:

I've I mean I've watched like firsthand reports of people saying this is a thing. I cannot say I've experienced it. So yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

All my organs are my own.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, same. Yeah, same. And I'll die on that hill. But there is something interesting there around like who are you? There's definitely an identity crisis happening.

SPEAKER_01:

Unless you die.

SPEAKER_02:

Actually, you don't know that. You don't know the few.

SPEAKER_07:

Again, we've lost her.

SPEAKER_09:

I didn't get it at all. I was too lost in my identity crisis.

SPEAKER_07:

He said he would die on that hill, but he but you don't know that because you might have an organ transplant before you die. So we'll see what happens. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05:

TBD. I'm against it, unless I need it. It's on my my license. You can take me up.

SPEAKER_07:

I have a I have a ex-step brother whose wife is an organ transplant surgeon. Wow. I should ask her if she knows any story.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, she's gonna know.

SPEAKER_07:

I would say sister-in-law to make it easy, but my family dynamic is way too complicated to just like oversimplify it like that. But anyway, no, it is it is very, very fascinating. And it again, it comes back to that whole like nature versus nurture part of identity of like how much of this is genetic and how much of this is like learned experiences. How much of this is very trauma for both of them.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Well, yeah, yeah, exactly. Trauma bonding as well.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, body keeps the score.

SPEAKER_07:

That's true. That's true. Have you read that? Yes. Yeah. You have? Yes. I haven't. I really need to. It's good if you've experienced being alive. I think anybody can read that book and I can't say that I have. I guess I don't know. Oh, you're more of an R. Maybe it is. Maybe I have to find out. Um, okay, let's talk about uh some of the other relationships in this book. We've talked a bit about R and Julie, we've talked about R and Perry. Uh, what about um R and M? I I think I think what's interesting about um R's relationship with M is that uh R makes this observation a couple times in the book where he says that he thinks of zombies as humans, but not people. And he doesn't think that other zombies are as introspective and as thoughtful as he is. But then again, he has this relationship. What's that?

SPEAKER_05:

That's what every writer feels.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, right, exactly. And I think that like, um, but his relationship with M though is like they share this sense of humor, they share this like they get each other, you know, and it seems like they have this deeper friendship that of course gets expanded throughout the book where like M becomes a part of the revolution and everything. Um, but M's only motivation to jump in and help them is that he's friends with pay with uh R.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09:

And that he's pervy, and I think he wants his own Julie. That's what I wrote about. I just put M dash.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, Slayer. He's bumping uglies with all of them.

SPEAKER_05:

And you know, on this topic of, you know, the the fact that he doesn't seem to have his own motivations for doing what he's doing. Um, I love how the two different societies are kind of mirrored from each other. So like you've got the airport, you've got the stadium, the stadium is uh filled with humans, the airport's filled with zombies. The zombies are just uh walking around living meaningless lives, marrying whoever the escalator stops them near. Um but also the humans in the stadium are kind of doing the same thing. Um they're not you know, especially when it's when we're talking about Julie's father and uh and M's mirror Nora, who has no motivations whatsoever, but seems to just want to help Julie. Oh, interesting endlessly for seemingly no reason.

SPEAKER_07:

This is like what you were talking about, Greg, about duality.

SPEAKER_04:

I s yeah, the duality side of it was interesting to me, but I also struggled like honestly with a lot of the character motivations here, and I expecting motivations from a zombie may be a high bar. Yeah, but um, you know, M sort of his motivations aside from just being a zombie friend felt soft and weak, and Nora, her motivations felt a little um, you know, just just non-existent to me and things like that. So I hear what you're saying, but I also thought it in this duality, sort of the mirroring like you're talking about, Dan, and the it's almost like the zombies and the the humans are living two different existences, and it's the zombies are almost like evolving and becoming a newer, better version of a society, potentially, and the humans have just sort of like stagnated and are almost evolving in a way. And I think at one point Julie makes a comment somewhere toward the beginning of the book, and she's like, I'm not really living. Yeah, you know, to literally put her thumb on the scale and say that and make it obvious to us. And the humans have sort of stopped, you know, like they're surviving versus their society, but they're not thriving, they're not living. And, you know, and and it it I there were a lot of those parallels throughout the book, especially like when you get with Grigio with Julie's dad. I mean, he is the least humanistic, least um likable character in the book. There's no humanity left in that guy by the end of the book. And it's interesting that he's a living person who should be full of humanity and trying to strive for better things in all these, but he's just so lifeless and monstrous. Gung-ho, you know, like the bonies. Yeah, right, exactly right. Yeah. Um, but I just I I found that an interesting parallel throughout the book, like that mirroring, those dualities and things as well. I kind of really enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_09:

Same. I felt like um I had a little bit of a different take, but I had the mirroring idea as well. But I what I was thinking was more that there were some characters that seemed to be interested in growth, transformation, trying things that were different, and then there were the bonies and the general Grigios that were like, no, we have had to sacrifice feeling, um, happiness, anything, just for pure survival.

SPEAKER_00:

This is just how it is.

SPEAKER_09:

And we're gonna make sure that you see that you have to do that too. Otherwise, you're not gonna survive. They just like have blinders on to anything else.

SPEAKER_05:

Uh just I just had a thought. Oh. Yeah. It's it's amazing when this happens. Um I need to celebrate it. So we were talking earlier about the airport being this uh the starting, jumping off point for adventure and like going places and like expanding your horizons. And the stadium is all walled in and it has a partially closed dome that uh R looks at w at one point and calls it the sky mouth. And they're living inside of a mouth where they're being consumed and everything's ending. I like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

And they're silent in the crowd. Well, I I no, but but that's an interesting thought too, because you think about like the finality of that, but this is actually the last like the place where the humans are finding salvation, the living are finding salvation. This is like the last place they can survive, but it's a a mouth, the finality of that swallowing of that.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, the the the light is is being is being choked off slowly.

SPEAKER_09:

I think both are ideologies at the end of the day. You have like the bony ideology and the general Grigio ideology, and they're trying to indoctrinate the young ones.

SPEAKER_07:

And then the Z or I'm sorry, the Z. No one is called Z. The R and the Julies are just like, why can't we all just get along? Yes. Just trying to find that middle ground. And it's also like it kind of speaks to that like ideological. I think, at least for me, I guess I can only speak for myself, but I think for a lot of people, like in college, when their their brain first kind of opens up to like, oh my god, it could just be so simple. Like it feels like it's that kind of that ideological sense of like, yeah, why couldn't we all just get along? But then there's also it comes back around to like how human nature just kind of fucks up every ideological lifestyle choice.

SPEAKER_04:

It's you're unfortunately. You get to something that I loved about this, and it's the end of the book, there's a quote. Uh well, it's not a quote, it's a line from both from two different characters, but it's the second to last page, and Julie says, Do you think we'll ever get back to the way things were? And our response, I hope not. And I think that's sort of the central idea of kind of all these ideas that we're kicking around here and we're playing with, is that you know, there are people who are thinking about evolving and moving forward and not being consumed by the past and trying to find a better way forward and accepting people and not demonizing them just because you're a zombie or you're a living person, it's not so black and white, it's not ones and zeros. Um, and there is no, there is no old way of anything, there is only a way forward. And open-mindedness is kind of the only way to make it and to keep going.

SPEAKER_07:

Well, and I think like, again, only speaking for myself, I think that when I was in college and I was taking my first like sociology classes and you know, psychology classes and understanding just how big and how small our world was at the same time, I think I also had a very black and white way of thinking of like, oh, like give peace a chance. Like we can all just get along. And then uh as I got older, I got a bit a lot more pessimistic. And I think where I am now is hopefully a good blend of the two, where it's like right now with the fascism that we have going on in our country, bad.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Oh, is it? Hopefully, understatement of the millennium.

SPEAKER_07:

Hopefully, this is and this is where my optimism is still there. If we if we get a chance to have someone else in office after Trump, you can cut as much of this as you want to. I don't care. But if we get a chance to have another person in office, the only good thing I could see coming of this is the breaking down of the systems that we had in place already that were corrupt. Like the Food and Drug Administration has been corrupt forever. The pharmaceutical companies have been corrupt forever. Like there's certain things that we needed to kind of break down and like rebuild. It's just the problem is that we we're rebuilding it in the wrong direction. And so hopefully maybe there will be like some kind of a balance that comes at the end of this, but that's the only optim, that's the the drops of optimism I have left.

SPEAKER_09:

I love that because I wrote, um, where is it? I says, I said, do we believe that this is true? That can entrenched conflicts be solved by two people falling in love? L-O-L. Yeah, lol. Like no. I want to believe, uh, but I I'm similar to you. I I have like tempered hope, which is just that I think that liberation is an ongoing struggle and it's not ever going to be perfect in our lifetime. But if we give up, that it's just gonna be worse. That's my that's my most hopeful statement I can make right now.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Also, I I want to say that um I'm glad that you said all that you said right now, because uh that's pretty much what sums up the 35-minute angry rant that I cut out of today's episode.

SPEAKER_09:

Much more articulately than our definitely.

SPEAKER_05:

Well my god, I'm so honored.

SPEAKER_07:

Thank you. I thought you guys were gonna be like, okay, this is a little off topic, but cut all of that.

SPEAKER_04:

I want to link the dribble that she just said of your episodes, because that sounds fantastic. I want that diatribe. I need that.

SPEAKER_07:

It probably sounds just like our normal afterwork conversation.

SPEAKER_09:

Definitely. It needs to be behind some kind of special wall because I'm looking for a job right now.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_05:

And and Leah doesn't need my manifesto out there. No.

SPEAKER_07:

However, if it if the worst comes to worst, maybe all of us can start a compound. Sold.

SPEAKER_09:

Let's do it. Yeah. Maybe. What are you talking about? Maybe, Sarah. I'm just saying. Maybe. Are we gonna make it in an airport or a stadium?

SPEAKER_07:

Let's do an airport. That just feels more hopeful to me. All right, let me ride the escalator.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh, I just need a tumbler of whiskey, and I could ride an escalator all day long. That sounds beautiful right now.

SPEAKER_05:

Actually, I'd kind of you know what? Let's do that.

SPEAKER_07:

Let's do that, and then we'll how about this? We'll all get married in a quadruple.

SPEAKER_09:

You know what? It's the modern age. I'm okay with this. Yeah, that's fine. I don't know if legally they'll let us think. Can we invite Joe and Uli to join and to make it a sex toplet? Of course.

SPEAKER_07:

Of course. Who else who else wants to do? They can bring Weird Al and uh John Stamos. I saw she just hung out with John Stamos past week with the Beach Boys. Um, okay, so let's talk about some deeper thoughts. There's a couple quotes that really stood out to me that I'd love to talk about. One of them was I stand on the steps and ascend like a soul into heaven, that sugary dream of our childhoods, now a tasteless joke. I love that quote because just the idea of like a sugary taste, like a you know, optimistic, positive thing, and it's now tasteless entirely because he's on the other side of death. Um, maybe that's just part of like being raised Catholic, where like heaven is like a big deal. I don't know. But um, I just that really stood out to me.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I'm gonna recite this every time I go up an escalator now.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, that's so powerful. Um, another line that I really loved is he said, Once you've arrived at the end of the world, it hardly matters which route you took. And I love that. It makes me wonder if thoughtful.

SPEAKER_09:

The airport is also a little bit of a purgatory place.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, right. It does. It feels like that. And it and and if you think about the symbolism of an airport, right? It's like the in-between place between you getting to your destination. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh yeah. Airports are kind of like purgatory. Every time I'm in one, that's what I feel. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

And it is.

SPEAKER_04:

Can we rewind? I can give that as an answer earlier when you asked, because that's way more smart and educated than I sounded.

SPEAKER_07:

Then asking what?

SPEAKER_04:

When when uh when Leah asked me about that question earlier about the airport or asked us about it.

SPEAKER_07:

You're like, well, it's purgatory because it's this way more insightful than I'm kidding. Yeah, okay, you can have that.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Uh the last line that I have to, this is my favorite line, I think, in the entire book.

SPEAKER_04:

Incorrect.

SPEAKER_07:

No, correct.

SPEAKER_04:

I think this is gonna be wrong.

SPEAKER_07:

It's correct. My favorite line is I long for exclamation marks, but I'm drowning in ellipses.

SPEAKER_09:

That was beautiful.

SPEAKER_07:

Well, I mean, it's lyrical.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah. Such a poetic zombie, truly.

SPEAKER_07:

Truly.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. It's one of the sneaky good things about this book is actually the the the writing of it, it's the lyrical prose good and the thoughts and that don't sound in cr like it doesn't sound incredibly deep, but then you think about it, you're like, Oh, there's a shit ton of depth there.

SPEAKER_06:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And he's got so many in every single chapter. It kind of blew me away with this depth, and I didn't see that coming.

SPEAKER_07:

Well, and like uh for me personally, I feel like that's been like a a feeling I can relate to that. Like I long for exclamation marks, like I want some excitement, but I'm drowning in ellipses of just like, okay, what now? Like I'm waiting to see what happens. Yeah, we're in the in-between. Powerful quote.

SPEAKER_05:

And I I really appreciate that that depth, uh, the depth and prose while also talking about uh two naked zombies in a broom closet slapping their bodies together like poultry.

SPEAKER_07:

That was that duality, if you will.

SPEAKER_04:

I was told it was gonna be a lot more necrophilia discussion in this pod, which is why I came here to not over yet.

SPEAKER_07:

I think we need to let's it's not over until we're behind on the quota right now. Okay, just sorry, let me jump out, let me throw out a couple more ideas that I really enjoyed. One, I'd I'd be really interested to hear what Dan and Leah think about this being the zombie aficionados. I think that it is a fascinating idea in this book explaining why the zombies crave brains. Because we always accept with zombie lore that they crave brains. We know that they do. We don't think about why they do. And in this book, it's like something they do to feel alive for a moment, to feel less dead.

SPEAKER_09:

They're like voyeurs, or it's like watching TV.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, or doing drugs.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, right. And it it kind of like gives them that like depth of experience that they are longing for and missing.

SPEAKER_00:

And a euphoria.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, and I think that that is really interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

I also think uh on a totally different note, it's it's interesting what offends are socially. So Julie makes this distinction at one point that the living are human, and this offends him because he says, Well, he's dead, but he's still a human. You know, he's he's dead, but he's a human. Um, he also doesn't like being referred to as a corpse, that that is something that socially offends him. And I think just like from a purely socially scientific point of view, it's fascinating the things that he finds to be offensive that you just wouldn't really think about, I guess, unless you were coming from that point of view. They go, Well, yeah, I guess I wouldn't want to be thought of as a corpse.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

I guess I wouldn't want to be thought of as non-human if I was just dead.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, the the corpses are the bodies that are laying on the ground that can't move anymore.

SPEAKER_09:

He's the living and they're the living impaired, which is uh a term in from the flesh TV series. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Well, and and arguably, you know, impaired could be an in a sense of term as well. Like it could be alternative life.

SPEAKER_09:

I do think that he was making a point around uh living divergent.

SPEAKER_07:

Living divergent.

SPEAKER_09:

I love that. I love that. But I I do agree with you that he was making a really clear point around how we dehumanize each other and people who are different, and we decide what is like what is um the most civilized, what is the most alive, most human, and that's actually a very individual experience.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah. And that all that just was fascinating to me, I thought.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I mean, zombies in general across all mediums typically are the literal definition of othering.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Um because you're there they're always a group of people. They they never have individuality, they never have their own motivations other than uh you know they they they would only have their own motivation if they were the only zombie in the room and they wanted to eat you. Um, that would be all of their motivation. Um and this and this is different because we get to see things from his point of view.

SPEAKER_04:

I love that. That's I hadn't really considered that, but that you know, when I think about all the things in, you know, of the zombie things that I've watched and everything like that, that's uh a hundred percent on point.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, that's that's why I love Day of the Dead, is because of Bub uh and that he's a trainable zombie and it it it puts into question this idea that they're these like ideal blank surfaces that have no feelings and no experience that just kill.

SPEAKER_04:

I just watched that like two weeks ago because I listened to another one of your pods and you guys were talking about that, and I was like, I had seen it, so I jumped on and I watched it that afternoon and I loved it. So good. I love it too. I did not see that one coming, but like that idea of them training them and everything else, and then the actions and how that movie ends and everything. I was like, it that's that's a fucking great zombie movie.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, yeah. It's my favorite Romero film.

SPEAKER_04:

Thank you for introducing me to that one.

SPEAKER_09:

Oh, our pleasure. It it for me it is my favorite, which I know is not common. Most people cite Dawn of the Dead or Night of the Living Dead or something else. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

I I I think I mentioned it in the episode. Like I uh didn't like it when I was younger because it didn't, you know what? It didn't it didn't uh scratch the itch that I was looking for. It didn't fill all of the check boxes that I have for what I want to uh be stimulated by. Um kind of like a book about uh a zombie from his point of view in that in that same sense. Right. But watching it again and like having like a full open experience to it, I saw it for what it was that like my younger brain couldn't process and uh so so much more enjoyed it because of that.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, we've been talking a lot about lately, like you know, things rise to meet you where you are at in life. And that changes over time, like you're saying with with that particular movie. Like it changes and evolves with where you are now as opposed to where you were as a teenager. And I I can't say it's unique to horror, but I think that's like really good horror is that that kind of storytelling that evolves and changes and does truly change with you as you go. And it's like you can watch it when you're younger or maybe not quite as as introspective about things and be like, oh, I see it and it's fun and it it scratches an itch in one place. But then when you grow older and you have society and you have you know cultural ideas and you have government that you're now fearing and worrying and all these kinds of things, and then you watch that same movie and you're like, holy shit. It almost feels weirdly prophetic, you know? And it's it's just it's a fascinating thing that all these things kind of keep changing and always rise to meet you where you are, and the something that you didn't like might now be insanely profound, and that's so cool.

SPEAKER_07:

Have you ever seen that meme of um the joker saying we live in a society?

SPEAKER_09:

No. No, but I need it. Never mind, cut that out.

SPEAKER_05:

No, I want to know about this meme now. But to send it to us after.

SPEAKER_09:

Were there other deep thoughts, Sarah, you wanted to share or other quotes?

SPEAKER_07:

I don't besides that meme. Um we jump into what didn't work.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, yeah, give that to us clean though, so we can cut since you wanted to but up, but up.

SPEAKER_07:

So this is cool, but let's talk about what didn't work.

unknown:

How clean is that?

SPEAKER_07:

Do you want to try again?

SPEAKER_05:

Nope, that's AN. Yeah, I think that's the cut, and then we just go with that one. All right.

SPEAKER_04:

All right, home listeners, enjoy the randomness that we just cut out that you are not privy to.

SPEAKER_07:

Super cool. What didn't work?

SPEAKER_04:

I think for me personally, I'll just jump uh into the deep end here. Sure. There are a ton of sort of narrative inconsistencies that kind of plagued me throughout this book.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Um, the liberal abuse of the laws of a post-apocalyptic world, if we're really kind of going deep here. Sure. You know, there's randomly some still food that's around that people can still consume and eat, in particular, Thai food somehow.

SPEAKER_07:

People are somehow abiding by the no alcohol rule. Like that would ever happen. There's no there's no fucking way.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, they didn't, to be fair.

SPEAKER_07:

Well, well, Julie didn't, but uh, she feels like the like rebel that's flying under the she's like the me in the story that would be like, hey, I found some fucking I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_05:

I think more people are are drinking in the no alcohol society than they're anytime something's banned, we're doing it, right? They're just keep they're just being really secretive about it. Like there's a reason why they're going to a sports. Yeah. Yeah. You buy the juice, you put your bathtub gin in, and then you don't tell anybody about it. That's the rules.

SPEAKER_07:

Exactly. Isn't there like prison sploosh that like no? Prisoners make their own kind of toilet wine.

SPEAKER_09:

Toilet wine, yeah. Oh, I thought you were referring to jazz.

SPEAKER_07:

Have you ever read the book holes? I don't need to.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm just I'm still disturbed by the fact you went to prison sploosh as a character. Is sploosh is sploosh?

SPEAKER_07:

Wait, is sploosh a word for? I guess there's sploos.

SPEAKER_09:

I've like SPL.

SPEAKER_07:

I didn't mean it like I didn't mean it like semen.

SPEAKER_05:

Spoosh is kind of like a an expression. Like I've splooshed. Like if somebody is like they say something inappropriate and it's vaguely sexual, you're like, oh sploosh.

SPEAKER_07:

Okay, so I didn't mean it sexually. I meant it like prison wine. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_05:

Which is not what it's called.

SPEAKER_07:

Okay. Well, I don't know. It probably depends on the prison.

SPEAKER_05:

You're right.

SPEAKER_04:

Different prisons have different prison wines. I have no, I am crying with laughter. Um just in general.

SPEAKER_07:

It probably depends on the prison system that you're in, that it could possibly be called sploosh.

SPEAKER_05:

Different vintages.

SPEAKER_07:

Probably some prisons that call it sploosh. We don't know. We haven't been to every prison. All I'm saying is that have we been to any prisons?

SPEAKER_08:

You need to tell us something, fun, about you two? No, I've never been to prison.

SPEAKER_05:

That was a long pause.

SPEAKER_04:

Um do we have to do that?

SPEAKER_07:

I thought splooch was the name of prison line. Okay. Not everyone knows everything, dude.

SPEAKER_09:

Do you all did you all think the Romeo and Juliet thing worked? Did you like it? I've never seen that.

SPEAKER_04:

It felt heavy-handed.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Um it took me way too long to figure it out.

SPEAKER_07:

Wait, wait, was that was sploosh related?

SPEAKER_05:

No, I was hard cutting.

SPEAKER_07:

I don't know what's happening.

SPEAKER_04:

There is uh a solid undercurrent in this book and a parallel of this book to the story of Romeo and Juliet.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh.

SPEAKER_04:

So you Julie yet. You have Romeo Romeo. Yeah. Mm Marcutio. And pointed out earlier. Oh my god. M is definitely not Mercutio.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh, you guys, oh my god, you guys all got deep with this. I had no idea. No, I I truly had no, I never made this connection at all.

SPEAKER_05:

They come from two families that are at war with each other.

SPEAKER_07:

Well, hardly.

SPEAKER_09:

They don't know, they don't know ours. But they didn't. I was waiting for them to both die at the end. And so I was a little bit like, I wanted the gritty end.

SPEAKER_07:

Well, in a way, they both came to life at the end.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Wow. I had no, I didn't know there was a comparison between Romeo and Juliet. Why are you looking at me like it was obvious? I don't know. Was it obvious?

SPEAKER_03:

It was to me, but it's just me.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah. So so you're saying everyone else, it was obvious to them.

SPEAKER_05:

I mean, it took me half the book to get there, but yeah, I figured it out.

SPEAKER_07:

Okay. It took me to this very moment.

SPEAKER_09:

To be fair, Sarah, I don't think I would have. Dan pointed it out to me. He was like, you know that that balcony scene? And I was like, oh. And then I I was still reading. When um R breaks into the I want to keep calling it a stampede for some reason, the stadium. And she's up in her balcony doing her ver her like audio journal.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh yeah. And he's like watching her. Yeah. And then he calls to her. When she's wherefore art thou in there's another thing.

SPEAKER_04:

That tape recorder would not have survived the fall, the crash, the recycling, none of it.

SPEAKER_07:

Maybe it was a zoom.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

It would have. Those are durable.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

I've dropped mine a lot.

SPEAKER_04:

The zoom podcasters that we also popularly use.

SPEAKER_07:

And I used a zoom on my last podcast, and we I would record in different locations. I would go to haunted places with comedians. Ooh. And I I dropped that thing a lot. It worked fine.

SPEAKER_09:

Is that podcast still out there, Sarah? Can we listen to it?

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, you can. I don't record on it anymore, but it's called Laughing in the Dark with Sarah Jones.

SPEAKER_09:

Gonna check it out. That sounds fun. Comedians in Haunted Places. Yeah, that sounds like a brilliant idea.

SPEAKER_07:

Thank you very much. It was a lot of fun. Bring it back. Uh someday. Someday, man.

SPEAKER_05:

Um, you know what didn't work for me?

SPEAKER_07:

Yep.

SPEAKER_05:

Uh I I really didn't I didn't like the two-dimensionalness of any character that wasn't um or uh R, sorry.

SPEAKER_04:

R. I'm there with you. I really struggled with Julian Nora in particular, as well as the characters. That really there's just there's not a lot going on there.

SPEAKER_07:

Not a lot of depth there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09:

I want to believe it's elsewhere, like learning that there's the prequel and then the ser the sequels makes me think that there might be more going on. But in this book, it felt like I think it technically passes the Bechtdill test. I know they do talk about like survival, but then it always segues to a man with the Yeah, no, you're right.

SPEAKER_04:

That's that would be interesting to compare it with it. It would be interesting to put it up against the test.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, it you're right though, that the the female characters are very two-dimensional because to me, the characters with the most dimension are R and Perry. Yeah. Um, and to the other side of that though, I love the way that this is written, but I think it's confusing that R is able to articulate so clearly the things that he's thinking and observing, but he can't speak or remember his name or like read. Yeah. How like there's the a strange dichotomy happening there.

SPEAKER_05:

My my thought on that was that maybe this he's like recounting it from a later point where he's after he's already evolved.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Like he's maybe he eats his own brain.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh meta.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Did I just spoil the whole series?

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, you ruined it. I hope you did. Oh, is that what happens in Romeo and Juliet? He eats his own brain. Yeah, I haven't seen that. Oh, okay, because I haven't read that that one, so maybe that's what I was just missing.

SPEAKER_05:

Just just like in um uh Silence of the Lambs. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh, I'm sorry. Are you talking about Hannibal?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Like, oh, that smells delicious. Can I have a piece? Up cool. Uh we are huge Silence of the Lambs fans, by the way. That is like one of my favorite movies of all time. Another favorite book of all time.

SPEAKER_02:

And a TV show Hannibal is amazing. One of the best television shows, maybe ever. I have questions.

SPEAKER_09:

I have questions too.

SPEAKER_07:

You want to go first, Leah?

SPEAKER_09:

Again, my question is not a question. It just says, let's talk about zombie sex. Ooh, should we? Because we haven't. Is it necrophilia if it's two undead people that aren't actually they're just slapping together like poultry?

SPEAKER_07:

Bump and ugly. Poultry. Bump and uglies. I love it.

SPEAKER_05:

I think maybe it is. Um, because I think in order for it to be necrophilia, it has to be that you're intentionally um having sex with a corpse because it is a corpse.

SPEAKER_09:

Is ju then is Julia necrophiliaist?

SPEAKER_05:

Yes. But if necrophile? Yeah, yeah, it is a necrophile, yeah. But if she didn't know that R was undead, um She does know. Then it wouldn't count as necrophilia.

SPEAKER_09:

Every time she says she wants to kiss him, I'm confused. I'm like, I ew. He stinks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

He's rotting.

SPEAKER_09:

That's a lot to look past.

SPEAKER_05:

I imagine he smells like you know, spoiled milk.

SPEAKER_07:

I imagine he smells disgusting.

SPEAKER_05:

He had some body spray. He put axe body spray on, so anyone would smell like I don't know that he'd smell better if you put axe on. But he'd smell like axe body spray.

SPEAKER_07:

He'd smell like an Abercrombie and Fitch. He wouldn't smell like corpse. That's a different situation.

SPEAKER_05:

Like when he walks in the room, he you'd still be like, wow, somebody is very fragrant in here.

SPEAKER_07:

Uh you guys remember how when at the mall you used to walk by Abercrombie and Fitch and there'd be someone like spraying the like cologne. Do you think they still do that? Oh, I don't know.

SPEAKER_05:

Are there malls anymore? I never went inside one because um Oh, you didn't?

SPEAKER_07:

Have you? Do you know what I'm talking about? It was like a secret place. Is this a generational difference?

SPEAKER_04:

I mean, I I lived through the 90s, those were my formative years, so I definitely stumbled into an Abercrombie to buy some overpriced flannels back in the day.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah. You remember how they'd have like they'd have like topless guys being like, What's up?

SPEAKER_05:

That's why I didn't go in alone. Because they were like policing the door to make sure that you couldn't go in if you weren't shirtless. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, you had to be cool to get in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09:

I never was cool enough. I just I just also low rise jeans were in at the time, and uh that did not work with my dump truck that we discussed yesterday.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh, you want to know something funny? Actually, guess guess what I was freshman year of high school. What? Vegan. What? Yes, ma'am. I was vegan for the first two years of high school, which really meant I hardly ate anything. So I was very thin. Because I didn't they didn't have as many vegan options in 2004 as they do now.

SPEAKER_05:

Sounds like a terrible experience.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, I transitioned in a 2015, and it was bad back then. I can't even imagine 2004. Now it's like a cornucopia of vegan shit.

SPEAKER_07:

Now there's so many different kinds of milk.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Too many. Soy is just stick with the soy. No, we're almond milk drinkers in this household, but I digress.

SPEAKER_09:

I'm not gonna judge you, even though I kind of hond milk.

SPEAKER_07:

Oat milk is my almond milk is the best one. Okay.

SPEAKER_09:

Squeeze together like two almonds, and then it's just water and something called keragenin.

SPEAKER_07:

Like what is they bump the uglies?

SPEAKER_05:

You gotta bump the almonds together. And then you make milk.

SPEAKER_07:

They you have to squeeze the almond teets.

SPEAKER_09:

Uh is R vegan because he stops eating Julie, like he doesn't want to eat people anymore.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, I guess that's a good point. Like he kind of has to have some self-restraint on eating human. He's a vegetarian at the very least.

SPEAKER_04:

See, that's a great thing to bring up in the second book. That's something that can be unearthed in round two.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

I like that idea.

SPEAKER_05:

Does he get hungry? Does he even need to eat? We don't know.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, that's a that's a great question, though. Yeah, is he dead? So he doesn't need to eat. He kind of stops and he says like the craving slowers and slowers. Again, great language. Uh it slows and he's capable of just not consuming anymore. So what does do they even need to eat at all? Is it just uh like a lizard brain function where they're like, as a zombie, you have to just uh eat humans, but you can work past that.

SPEAKER_05:

I mean Perry tells him that he doesn't need to uh eat people. He does that part. Yeah, it's it's late in the book, but um he comes when he's when he's uh fighting his craving after killing a security guard. Um Perry comes in and he's like, Yeah, you don't you don't have to eat, you know that, right?

SPEAKER_07:

Perry does. Interesting.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, Perry's just Jiminy Cricket.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, he is.

SPEAKER_05:

He literally is, yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Well, and speaking of Perry, there's another part that I I I feel like I mentioned to you guys on the phone earlier, but um Perry takes R and and has R bring Julie his manuscript for a a story called Red Teeth. I wonder if this manuscript was about zombies, and I wonder if that'll come up later. Because red teeth makes me think of eating flesh and blood, red teeth.

SPEAKER_05:

Or drinking Kool-Aid.

SPEAKER_09:

Bloody Mary. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Um I have a question. So early in the book, the idea of eternal wear is mentioned. Yes. So in a perfect world where you're zombified, what clothes would you be stuck wearing for the rest of your life?

SPEAKER_09:

In a perfect world, like I get to this is not just I get played randomly.

SPEAKER_04:

Like, hey, I can suit up and then I'm gonna and then I'm gonna be eaten and and transition into my zombified person. So you can pick what you wear. What is it gonna be?

SPEAKER_09:

Easy answer. I'm wearing my zombie crown and I'm in some like really ridiculous robe that I I have many ridiculous robes that I pass off as clothes.

SPEAKER_00:

Really? Robes? That's a unique one.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, there's a video of me twirling on Instagram and exactly the outfit that I want to be wearing. Although I might stumble over it as a zombie. I have to cut it off. Give me a shorter version.

SPEAKER_04:

I think there's a great underlying idea there though, in that wearing a crown and wearing a flowing robe of any kind would immediately exalt you into like the upper echelon of the zombie world, and people would just look at you and be like, She's our god.

SPEAKER_07:

She may be a god of some sort.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. She's the queen of zombies.

SPEAKER_07:

Mine would easily be dance pants, a t-shirt, and a hoodie, which actually is what I wear every single day of my life. So it's also the most likely.

SPEAKER_00:

Comfy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, super comfy. Hoodies are great for storing brain. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. It's got to have pockets, you know, like like some big You got a pocket.

SPEAKER_07:

You're in basically pajamas, comfy pajamas that look cute. You could they pass off for day wear.

SPEAKER_09:

Do you have a favorite hoodie that you feel like is like the do you have like a hoodie with like a saying on it or something that would be really fun to run into a zombie with?

SPEAKER_07:

I don't know. I have a lot of hoodies. I think my favorite hoodie is probably my Powell's bookstore hoodie.

SPEAKER_00:

That's a good thing.

SPEAKER_07:

It's a bookstore in Portland, Oregon. Um no, I don't really have a favorite hoodie. What would you wear, Greg?

SPEAKER_04:

It would be some kind of comfortable jean, a pair of chucks, and uh a Pink Floyd t-shirt.

SPEAKER_07:

That would be my specifically Pink Floyd.

SPEAKER_04:

Specifically Pink Floyd. And a hoodie.

SPEAKER_07:

A hoodie, yeah.

SPEAKER_09:

Like a zipper hoodie? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, like a full zip. Yeah. I've got a really old one that has too many holes and is just sad and pathetic now that I still love. And I I bought it, I don't know, like 20 years ago, but I just can't let it go.

SPEAKER_07:

Aren't those the best? Like you know you look like a homeless person when you wear them, but you're just like, this is the most comfortable like hoodie that I have, and I don't care.

SPEAKER_09:

I want to wear it to work every day, but I can't. Hoodies should be like the modern suit for work.

SPEAKER_07:

They kinda they kinda are. I feel like our generation is moving things into that that kind of graded realm.

SPEAKER_04:

There's an interesting like um male fashion space right now where they're developing sport coats with hoodies built into them. Oh, uh-huh. Celebrities are wearing them. And I I was at the store a little while ago and I almost bought one of them.

SPEAKER_07:

You're like, thanks, James Franco.

SPEAKER_04:

That's a great thing.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, there should be no hard clothes. And if you're a zombie, especially, like you the your clothes should be soft. What would you wear, Dan? Terrible.

SPEAKER_05:

You know, I've I'm I'm thinking about this because like if I can choose anything, I kind of want to be terrifying.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_07:

So I'm thinking like I feel like doing that like back and forth flap as a man would be the most scary thing as a zombie.

SPEAKER_04:

Just that I know we talked about this being a two-pod series, but uh, but Dan might not be interested in doing another pod with us after saying that the idea of Dan naked is scary. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Well, I mean 28 years later slongs.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

The idea of any man naked running around doing that back and forth out of the shower dance that all men do.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Man should never do it all men do it.

SPEAKER_07:

I haven't I've not seen you do it yet, surprisingly, but I'm sure you do it when I'm not around.

SPEAKER_09:

I'm not aware of Dan making this either. That I'm gonna have to spy on him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Maybe these are just my ex-boyfriends. You know, they they do that. That if I had a dick for one day, oh I would do spin it around like a helicopter, yeah. Back and forth, and then it slaps your thighs on both sides.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah. I had a dream once where I had a dick, and like in the dream, I was like, wow, I've got a dick, I'm gonna do everything. And I did. It was great. Did you do the back and forth dance? I did. And everything else. Everything else somebody can I wrote my name in the sand in this dream. I was on the beach, it was great.

SPEAKER_05:

Wow. Cool. You really lived a whole lot of.

SPEAKER_09:

I wish I had a dream I had a dick.

SPEAKER_05:

Maybe you will know. All right, let's talk about my outfit.

SPEAKER_08:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

What would your outfit be?

SPEAKER_05:

Okay. Um, I'm imagining like something a little bit mad max. So like leather, leather straps from a sex store.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh.

SPEAKER_05:

Um, because that's what the Mad Max villains always wore.

SPEAKER_07:

Um steampunk.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Some kind of like crazy, like shiny helmet.

SPEAKER_07:

Okay. To protect your head. That's fine.

SPEAKER_05:

Protect my head. Yeah. Gotta protect the head. Um I'd have a leather jacket with like really sharp spikes sticking out of it. Or a t-shirt that said free hugs.

SPEAKER_07:

And then pants list, so you could do the dance. Yes.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. And I I think I would have like a cloak made of chains that would just drag behind me and you'd just hear the chains coming.

SPEAKER_07:

We are absolutely zombie royalty, you and me.

SPEAKER_04:

You really are. I would follow you as an undead to the the end of the undead world. That's a high compliment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

That was really cool.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Wish my answer. I would I'm just some slacker in a corner wearing a pink Floyd t-shirt, like a loser.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, I'm just literally in my normal day wear. But you can blend into the crowd, right? Like, unfortunately, they're gonna see us coming. Yeah. You can you can maybe fake it until you're close enough to get right.

SPEAKER_07:

When people are like, what would you do in the zombie apocalypse? I'm like, oh, I'd surrender immediately. I'd be like pointing at my neck, like, do it. Yeah, it's getting over with, you coward.

SPEAKER_05:

You just reach out the front door, like, bite my hand.

SPEAKER_07:

I don't give a fuck. I I I don't want to survive this.

SPEAKER_09:

I used to be like that until Dan convinced me that maybe it's worth it for years of podcasting about it.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay, so here's my question. If you were giving in to being a zombie, sure. Um, how like how do you choose to go out? How do you choose to like get bitten? Quick.

SPEAKER_07:

Whatever's quick. I'd be like, go for the jugular.

SPEAKER_09:

So you want to die, like die and come back instead of like get a fever and then become a zombie?

SPEAKER_07:

I want to feel as little as possible. Here's the deal. My motivation is quite low. Like, I am not trying to be a hero in this situation. I want to die as quick as possible, feel nothing, and have no responsibility.

SPEAKER_09:

I'm gonna just second that answer. That sounds great.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, you know what I mean? Like it just it's just the path of least resistance, truly.

SPEAKER_04:

I think I'm gonna fight, but uh like not enough fight that people think that I need to be disemboweled. You know, like day of the dead where they're just kind of like ripping. Don't make a meal out of me. They're like, oh, let's play around with the zinards.

SPEAKER_09:

It would mess up your Pink Floyd shirt. That's not okay.

SPEAKER_04:

Right. I gotta protect the shirt.

SPEAKER_07:

You don't want to go for a zombie that is already like satisfied and just going for seconds. You want to go for a starving zombie that's like you don't want someone to like half-ass the job of eating you. That sucks.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, I agree. You know, and I'm actually taking this back. Now that I think about it, it's actually best to get bit and then get away because otherwise you're just gonna be fully consumed by potentially just one zombie or a full horde before you reanimate. Yeah. Yeah, that's what you gotta guard against.

SPEAKER_07:

The question is, are you conscious when you reanimate? Oh, we don't know that.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh we don't know this. We don't know. You'll you'll find out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Just like all death. How to read more bodies part two.

SPEAKER_05:

Stay tuned. I'd want as much of me intact as possible, so I'd probably give them like a piece of the forearm on the left side, left forearm. You know, I got my hands left, I can grab people. Um, I'm not gonna be dragging my innards all over the place. I'm gonna be a full one piece body with legs and arms. Um, and I might even, you know, pass off as being alive for a little while. That'll give me not in that outfit. Not in that outfit, no.

SPEAKER_07:

No, not in your free hugs outfit.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, but you know what? I'm gonna be shambling pretty quick though.

SPEAKER_09:

I have to say, I think I'm going to, with your permission, I'd like to draw us all uh this winter when I it's cold in our zombie best. I think this could be a great little doodle.

SPEAKER_07:

That would be fun. We'd frame that.

SPEAKER_09:

You have to send me a picture of you two in your favorite outfits.

SPEAKER_07:

Okay.

SPEAKER_09:

I love it.

SPEAKER_07:

You have to draw as flattering.

SPEAKER_09:

I'll try you like chibis, and you're gonna be satisfied.

SPEAKER_07:

Great. Great. Um, should we jump into is it ass? Is it time?

SPEAKER_04:

Is it ass? Is it ass. Um, so this is uh fun little thing that we do with every book we read, and we try to gauge our scale of like what we rate the book on versus what kind of the popular prevailing feelings amongst the interwebs are. So uh we scrounge through Goodreads and we find some fun reviews, and uh we kind of give the general consensus of what people are saying out there. So on Goodreads, this book gets a 3.91 stars out of five. And there are almost 110,000 ratings for this book. Wow. Wow. Um, so one of the quality five star reviews I found says the words printed on each copy of Warm Bodies are turned to a vast perf are tuned to a vast perfection greater than the sky itself. Itself. Oh. Isaac Marion, I give you 10 million standing ovations. I declare you to be a master of words, an enchanter of souls, a rainbow at the end of a hurricane.

SPEAKER_07:

Okay, come on. Come on.

SPEAKER_04:

This is a love letter. Dear God and all the deities that exist. Mr. Marion is such a truly inexplicably amazing writer.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh, I hate this guy. I hate him. Is this Isaac Marion's mom or something? Yeah, this is Isaac's mom. For sure.

SPEAKER_04:

His publicist.

SPEAKER_07:

This is too far. That's too far.

SPEAKER_04:

It's a bit much. It's way much. I loved it because it was just so over the top.

SPEAKER_07:

I'm gonna I'm puking.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. All right. Three stars.

SPEAKER_07:

Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

Marion's prose is beautiful and breathtaking at times, but he describes his world in gory details. It's often bloody, smelly, and disgusting.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

But it's also very sweet, gentle, and simply adorable. If you think you can handle zombies carrying pieces of brains in their pocket and other zombies trying to have sex but not quite succeeding, you should really read this book.

SPEAKER_07:

Those are the things okay, but I agree, except for the if you think you can handle, like how vanilla are these readers?

SPEAKER_09:

Is that they're like, I don't know if I can handle brains in pockets. You haven't met my mother. She can't watch the uh jungle book, the movie. It's too scary for her. So this would be too much.

SPEAKER_07:

I guess Mowgli can be a little bit over the top. I guess the snake.

SPEAKER_09:

It was the snake that upset her. Yeah, she didn't like the snake. Oh, the head is I don't know how we're related because I can watch all these things, but she can't.

SPEAKER_07:

The jungle book?

SPEAKER_09:

She can't. She can't watch it. It's too scary.

SPEAKER_07:

I loved the jungle book as a kid.

SPEAKER_09:

I thought it was good too, but I had to comfort my mother after we watched it.

SPEAKER_07:

Thank you. You know that song?

SPEAKER_04:

Sarah's determined to bring our podcast into a singing podcast.

SPEAKER_07:

I like to sing on every podcast.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I think it's like me.

SPEAKER_04:

And even as I glare at her across from the table, she just does not stop. She just keeps going and going.

SPEAKER_07:

I'm just guided by my heart. I can't tell you more.

SPEAKER_04:

I feel that.

SPEAKER_09:

I think it's good to have the freedom to sing. And yes, I sing at the end of every episode, and Dan hates me for it. Romantic.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09:

Leah, are we soulmates? I think we are. This this quadruplet sex teplet, we have to invite Joe and Uli this. Of course. I think it's meant to be. I think it's meant to be. Yeah. Dan, or just Dan and Greg could leave. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

No, no, we need to have Greg stay. I'm kidding. Oh, oh!

SPEAKER_05:

Dan, you're out. I'm gonna play video games.

SPEAKER_07:

No, we need to have Greg and Dan stay.

SPEAKER_05:

Dan's playing video games. I'm hanging out with him.

SPEAKER_04:

No. Break up the PS5. No singing in the Xbox.

SPEAKER_07:

No, but I promise I'll sing to you.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh again, we'll be in the corner playing Xbox and PlayStation.

SPEAKER_02:

It's perfect, and we'll make up songs. I love that. That's a good idea.

SPEAKER_06:

Okay, you uh uh read us the one-star one.

SPEAKER_04:

One star review. It was the worst book I've read in my whole life. Oh. Zombie sex, come on. And the F-bomb on every single page, nine exclamation points. Wow.

SPEAKER_02:

Nine, you counted. Oh, of course.

SPEAKER_04:

Because it's it it it just really gets to the heart of the I didn't notice that many F-bombs.

SPEAKER_09:

I say an F-bomb in every sentence, so Me too.

SPEAKER_07:

I say fuck a lot. So maybe I just didn't even notice.

SPEAKER_04:

The language the writer used was confusing and hard to follow. And trust me, I'm no slacker when it comes to reading.

SPEAKER_09:

Oh you know what? I don't trust this person at all.

SPEAKER_07:

This person is a company weird. I know how to read. I feel underdressed.

SPEAKER_04:

Listen, Dr. Seuss, I got him nailed down.

SPEAKER_07:

Trust me, I have many leather-bound books.

SPEAKER_05:

You know, people who know how to read don't need to tell you that they know how to read.

SPEAKER_07:

Correct. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, like what's the saying of like if you have to talk about it, you don't have much to talk about.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh R is married. Come on, how do freaking zombies marry? Yeah. Explain it. Freaking zombies.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

This is the kind of person no a zombie.

SPEAKER_08:

What?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. M is a zombie douche who's porn and has zombie sex.

SPEAKER_08:

Of course.

SPEAKER_04:

You're right. This book should have an M for mature sticker on the front.

SPEAKER_07:

Totally.

SPEAKER_04:

The writer's entitled to write whatever he pleases. I just wish he could have warned me.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, it was very crude. This love story.

SPEAKER_09:

I mean, it's 2020. When did what year was this review from? Did you write it down?

SPEAKER_04:

Uh I did not write down the review. The year.

SPEAKER_09:

Let's assume it's on the age of the internet because it's on the internet. There you can read content warnings. Let's assume it's from a Mormon. It has to be.

SPEAKER_04:

I like to make fun of people who just egregiously enumerate every single trigger warning. And sometimes the trigger warnings are so ridiculous and stupid. It's like technology is used in this book. You know what it reminds me of? Fucking Luddite? What are we doing here?

SPEAKER_07:

Remember when we read Jurassic Park? And one of the negative reviews was like, I read this to my son before bat, and it was horrifying.

SPEAKER_02:

What were you doing? What kind of parent are you?

SPEAKER_07:

It's Jurassic Park. What did you think was gonna happen?

SPEAKER_05:

I thought it was a nice story about dinosaurs.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, dinosaurs happen and things go poorly. What did you think was gonna happen? Oh god, who is reading a zombie book expecting it to just be very PC? This needs to be M for mature because of the porn.

SPEAKER_09:

What porn? I know that the M at one point met Lar, they is it M or R that says that M like likes to eat women because it's like porn to like eat their brains. I don't remember. But that's as far as we get. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, I don't I like I know that M is like, oh bad news for the ladies. Like he's like the ladies' man of the zombies. No. But it's it's ironic and funny because they're literally just bumping uglies against each other like moths to a flame. Like it's it's it being offended at this is hilarious to me.

SPEAKER_09:

Yes, agree. I love that you all do this review segment. That's amazing. Yeah. Well, then let's talk about our final reviews then.

SPEAKER_04:

Yep. How are we all feeling here at the end of Warm Bodies the Book? Well, we rate things out of Zeds, which is basically just not stars.

SPEAKER_09:

It's stars, but I call them Zeds. Yeah. Uh Canadian. And yep. I'm gonna give it a solid seven Zeds for me. I really enjoyed it. Um, is this out of 10? Yeah, for me it's out of ten. I like the nuance of ten versus five. Oh shit. We go out of five. Sarah, what do you think a Zed represents?

SPEAKER_07:

A Z, of course, is a zero. In Canada, they have they have hockey pucks, which they refer to as Zeds. Depending on the depending on the depends on the region in Canada that you're coming from.

SPEAKER_04:

Sure, of course.

SPEAKER_09:

Aren't you basically across the border from Canada where you live?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, we could be to Canada in 20. So in the case, that's why she knows all this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

In French, a Zed is a hockey puck.

SPEAKER_00:

We. Alright.

SPEAKER_07:

We. You got it.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

All right, cool. So one out of ten hockey pucks. What do you give this?

SPEAKER_07:

I gave it four out of five. So I guess I give it eight out of ten Z.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay.

SPEAKER_07:

Um, it worked for me on a lot of levels. I liked the romance. I like that Perry was such a complicated character. I like the nebulous relationship between Perry and R. I liked the humor. I loved the horror and the heartbreak. I think that it was a good blend of all of them. There was a little bit missing for me in terms of character development. And that's the only place where I docked some points. But overall, I gave it out of five. I get it four four stars, so eight out of ten. I still don't know what a Zed is. I assume it's like a Tim Hortons tidbit.

SPEAKER_09:

A Zed bit? I'm never gonna tell. I actually really appreciate your interpretations.

SPEAKER_07:

I think it's it's a tidbit. Isn't that what the mini donor calls is?

SPEAKER_09:

Tim Tim Hortons because Tim Hortons a Timbit, yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Timbits, that's right.

SPEAKER_09:

We have Tim Hortons, and they are referred to as Zeds. Zeds, yeah. There's a special Zed flavor.

SPEAKER_07:

We have we have Tim Hortons. I think that Detroit is the only American city that has Tim Hortons.

SPEAKER_09:

You are incorrect. It's also in Florida where all the snowbirds go. Yeah. And there's some in upstate New York.

SPEAKER_02:

All over upstate New York. They're really I've seen them in Ohio. Canada's colonizing the United States, did you know? But we don't count Ohio.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh, well, Ohio doesn't count.

SPEAKER_02:

No, Ohio's not a real state.

SPEAKER_07:

But um, that's crazy to know if they were in Florida. That surprises me. But yeah, Tim Hortons, because I remember when I lived on the West Coast, I went to college on the West Coast, and it ironically, in a Spanish class, our Spanish teacher was showing us all these different um chains around the world that were also in the US, but no one on the West Coast recognized them. And they were all these kind of different, like piggly wiggly and like all this stuff. And it's like, oh my God, isn't this interesting? Just to show us the example of culture and how how widespread culture is, even in our own country. And she showed Tim Hortons, or in our it just around the world. She showed Tim Hortons, she goes, Well, this is only in Canada. This is not in the US. And I was like, That's incorrect. It is in the US. She was like, Oh no, this is just in Canada. And I was like, No, I'm from Detroit, Michigan, ma'am. Ma'am. Yeah, I got Tim Splain me. You knew. Don't Tim Splain to me, senora.

SPEAKER_05:

And then she was like, Well, Detroit's actually in Canada.

SPEAKER_09:

I mean, you were right across the road from Windsor, or the not the road, the river.

SPEAKER_07:

She's like, listen, I haven't been further west path Colorado.

SPEAKER_09:

I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. But she's spreading misinformation in this day and age, she was lying to our entire class. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Her thoughts are dangerous.

SPEAKER_08:

Dan, how many Zeds are you gonna go?

SPEAKER_05:

You know, I think I I think I agree with you on the seven Zeds, Leah. Um, I liked I like this as a book. Uh if I was judging it just based on being a zombie book, I would score it lower. Because I don't I don't like it as a zombie book as much. I think it's fine. But as a book, I thought it was really enjoyable. Interesting.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, then I have to know as a zombie book, what would you rate it? Just for fun. Like three.

SPEAKER_09:

Out of ten? Whoa, that's harsh.

SPEAKER_05:

It is. I don't agree. You know, I I think it kind of balances in the middle because I it is a good book.

SPEAKER_07:

It wasn't very vicious for a zombie book.

SPEAKER_05:

As a z as a zombie story. Just the story. If you took all the elements and you described to me the story of this zombie book, I'd be like, that doesn't sound like a very good zombie story. But if I read the book, which I did, promise I read it. Sure you did. Sure you did. Um then I'd be like, yeah, it will it was good. I enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_09:

I didn't realize you had such a purist approach. I yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

I'm a zombie evangelical.

SPEAKER_09:

Oh no.

SPEAKER_05:

I don't want one of those in this house.

SPEAKER_07:

Gregor, what would you rate it out of 10 Z?

SPEAKER_04:

I'm gonna I was at a three out of five, so I'm gonna I'm gonna go one Zed under Dan and Lee and give it a six.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

I struggled, and we didn't really talk about this, it doesn't matter. I can encapsulate it right here. I struggled with the last third of this book. It felt kind of slow and meandering and uh and it felt a little inert at times to me. And so I just I enjoyed the beginning, I loved R, I loved the humor, but I kind of struggled with like literally the last 50, 60, 70 page. Well, it's only like 200 and so odd. So probably about the last 60 pages I struggled with kind of fighting through.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, slow, meandering, unsteady legs. Yeah, it's it's almost like it was shambling to the finish line.

SPEAKER_07:

Which arguably a zombie would be doing.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I think maybe that was on purpose. This is art.

SPEAKER_09:

Maybe for me, I didn't experience that because at that point I had actually got it to the one point, like the one speed of what it should be. So you speed up the pace felt better.

SPEAKER_02:

This thing is just clipping right along.

SPEAKER_07:

Wow, he's really just kind of clipping along. Yeah, that's exactly all right. Well, amazing. I mean, okay, so next time we're gonna discuss the film.

SPEAKER_04:

We are. We're gonna come back with a little bit of some uh one more round of dating games so that Dan and I can redeem yourself, hopefully. Redeem us.

SPEAKER_02:

I can't wait to be embarrassed. We need no redeem.

SPEAKER_07:

I I so Lee and I were joking about this. That at first we were like, these guys are fucked. And then we were like, watch, they're gonna know us so much better than we know them. Like, we you're so confident. We might be overconfident to the point where like we think we know our men really well. Our men might know us way better than we think they do.

SPEAKER_09:

Only time will tell.

SPEAKER_07:

You men are sneaky, like you notice things about us that I don't realize you notice because you're not as forthcoming with the impressions that you have of me.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm not as forthcoming with my words.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, and I am. I tell you every second of the day how much I love you. Same. No, you don't.

SPEAKER_09:

Annoyed by it, but it's okay. I can feel the love. Well, this has been really fun. This has been so fun.

SPEAKER_04:

It's been awesome. So we will come back and do it again next week. Dan and Leah, thank you so much. You guys rock. Check out the Zombie Book Club Podcast, please. Thank you, everybody.

SPEAKER_09:

They are and check out Wicked Words Book Club and Podcast. I was gonna say, I think it's whichever way you're coming from, welcome. And look at how cool these other people are, and maybe we really should just be a quad quadruplet.

SPEAKER_07:

You know what? Maybe everybody listening and us should all have a compound.

SPEAKER_09:

I'm don't I'm down. That's all I've ever wanted, Sarah.

SPEAKER_07:

No masters. The only difference between us and a cult is that there's no gods, no masters. What about me and my crown?

SPEAKER_09:

I want to be a cult leader. And we need firepower. We can't do that. We have some guns.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I do too.

SPEAKER_07:

No, my god. It's not gonna work. It never works.

SPEAKER_03:

We just need to be able to protect ourselves.

SPEAKER_07:

We just need some Nikes and some purple blankets, so it'll be fine. No.

SPEAKER_03:

The fart blankets.

SPEAKER_02:

You said definitely some fart blankets. Oh, that's for the next episode.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh, why do I have no self-control? Like, I can't I have no shame.

SPEAKER_09:

It's what makes you wonderful. Don't ever change. It's it's makes it all work. Okay.

SPEAKER_07:

Well, much love to y'all. I'm looking forward to the watch party. And in the meantime, stay wicked. Stay wicked.

SPEAKER_08:

Might sound crazy, but the end is nigh, baby. Bye bye bye. Don't die. Uh bye bye. Don't die. Yeah. Bye bye, everybody. Bye.

SPEAKER_00:

Bye.

SPEAKER_08:

Oh. Bye bye.

People on this episode

Contributor

Dan

Host
Contributor

Leah

Host