Today I’m reviewing Warm Bodies by John Marrs!
Here’s the blurb.
From the multimillion-copy bestselling author comes a chilling tale about Brenda: they watched her, judged her, and talked. They should have left her alone.
Brenda lives quietly in a picture-perfect English village. She looks after her grandchildren, restores old furniture, and keeps herself to herself. She’s the sort of neighbour people feel comfortable judging.
And judge they do. Because villages notice everything. The shopping. The visitors. The hours kept behind closed doors. And when the local WhatsApp group begins to turn its attention to Brenda, curiosity hardens into suspicion, and gossip becomes a sport.
As scrutiny tightens, Brenda finds herself navigating busybodies, moral crusaders and a community that believes it knows best. What they don’t know is that Brenda has spent a lifetime solving problems discreetly.
Methodically. Permanently.
And she is very good at it.
The village may come to regret not minding its own business.
Review
Warm Bodies follows Brenda and her family. They live in a quiet little village, she keeps herself to herself and passes the hours looking after her family and working..
The fun thing is her job isn’t just any normal job.. Let’s just say she handles things for others and she’s making a killing at it!
What we soon learn is that the village has their own little group chat and they like to gossip. They have strong opinions on Brenda, you think you know why, Brenda is all about her family, it’s not that she wouldn’t engage with events and such happening in the village, she really just doesn’t have the time.. But is that the real reason these women dislike her?
Soon, as Brenda continues her work activities the village pays more and more attention, multiple deliveries arrive, she spends long hours in her shed restoring old furniture and wild stories start to be created as the gossip heats up.
Brenda does have one friend and she shares her concerns a little when the police and social services show up on her doorstep thanks to these gossip sharing women. Why are they so vindictive? There’s a ringleader and the more things progress the more you see there’s something more going on than we know.
As the synopsis suggests “The village may come to regret not minding its own business”.
Warm Bodies is a fun little short story at 107 pages. while a quick read it’s packed full, not rushed in the slightest and you really see how well the author managed to develop the characters and the plot so smoothly.
I loved the little twist in the tale as the real reason behind the hatred towards Brenda becomes clear and the lengths someone would go to make her life miserable.
A super clever tale that really makes me yearn for more, I could easily enjoy this one again and again.
The perfect quick read! 5/5 stars.
To find out more head to Goodreads or Amazon.
