Sidekick Showcase [61] - Who Says Romance is Dead

Sidekick Showcase, previously known as Sidekick Saturday, is a weekly bookish meme, hosted here by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! I will post my Sidekicks on Saturday, then whichever day during the week that you would like to post yours, you can put your link in on my page. Just do the following:

• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fits in the week's topic
• Share a picture (if you can) and information about the character
• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in
• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick
• The day of your post, put your link in below and grab the code for your post so you can see the others that post their's throughout the week as well

For the month of February, we're gonna go down the romance path and select characters that are romantic or just plain hot. Let's celebrate our book boyfriends and the protagonist's love interests.

If you haven't stopped by my Blogaversary Giveaway, Please Do!

My choice is Julie Grigio

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Ha! Ok so don't laugh at me but with me. I know you were all expecting a hunky guy. In all honesty, I have a few ideas for the month planned out, but ran into a small problem when I got sucked into the story of the guy that I wanted to feature this week. So when I looked up 3 hours later, with no picture started, and no blog post in action....well, I realized he was going to have to wait until a later day. You won't be sorry though, I promise.

I'd like to talk about Julie though. In a zombie book, really the last thing I'm expecting is romance. The lead in this book is obviously a male. R is such a great protagonist, and he needs a pretty amazing love interest for this story to work. I met Julie in the beginning of the story in a warehouse invaded by zombies looking for some tasty brains. R is a little different from other zombies and feels a moment of compassion so he saves her, covers her in zombie blood, and brings her to hide in a 747 plane until the other zombies forget about her. Really the story sounds so strange spelled out that way, but it pans out to eating crazy frozen meals, conversations (with a whole lot more words on her part and internal dialogue on his part) full of sarcasm and witty remarks, driving around an airport, and a passion for life from both of the characters. It's such a great adventurous read, and she's a fantastic and strong character that has been through a ton of tragedy.

Quotes:

"My mom used to say that's why we have memory. And the opposite of memory - hope. So things that are gone can still matter. So we can build off our pasts and make futures." She twirls the leaf in front of her face, back and forth. "Mom said life only makes any sense if we can see time how God does. Past, present and future all at once."

I allow myself to look at Julie. She sees my tears and tries to wipe one away. "So what's the future?" I ask, not flinching as her fingers brush my eye. "I can see the past and the present, but what's the future?"

"Well . . . ," she says with a broken laugh. "I guess that's the tricky part. The past is made out of facts . . . I guess the future is just hope."

"Or fear."

"No." She shakes her head firmly and sticks the leaf in my hair. "Hope.”

---

“And yet ...

But what if ...

I want to do something impossible. Something astounding and unheard of. I want to scrub the moss off the Space Shuttle and fly Julie to the moon and colonise it, or float a capsized cruise ship to some distant island where no one will protest us, or just harness the magic that brings me into the brains of the Living and use it to bring Julie into mine, because it's warm in here, it's quiet and lovely, and in here we aren't an absurd juxtaposition, we are perfect.”

---

“I look into Julie's face. Not just at it, but into it. Every pore, every freckle, every faint gossamer hair. And then the layers beneath them. The flesh and bones, the blood and brain, all the way down to the unknowable energy that swirls in her core, the life force, the soul, the fiery will that makes her more than meat, coursing through every cell and binding them together in millions to form her. Who is she, this girl? What is she? She is everything. Her body contains the history of life, remembered in chemicals. Her mind contains the history of the universe, remembered in pain, in joy and sadness, hate and hope and bad habits, every thought of God, past-present-future, remembered, felt, and hoped for all at once.”

---

“As she dampens my shirt with sadness and snot, I realize I'm about to do another thing I've never done before. I suck in air and attempt to sing. “You're . . . sensational . . . ,” I croak, struggling for a trace of Frank's melody. “Sensational . . . that's all.”
There's a pause, and then something shifts in Julie's demeanor. I realize she's laughing.
“Oh wow,” she giggles, and looks up at me, her eyes still glistening above a grin. “That was beautiful, R, really. You and Zombie Sinatra should record Duets III.”
I cough. “Didn't get . . . warm-up.”

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