Everything Austen Challenge, Book Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Copyright 2009
Quirk Books
319 pages
ISBN: 978-1-59474-334-4
Fiction
Synopsis: Millions of people have read Jane Austen's most beloved classic romance, Pride and Prejudice but none have read the love story of two of the most beloved characters in literature quite like this! As the story begins, a mysterious plague has torn through England and the countryside of Meryton. The dead and those who are infected have developed a taste for flesh and...well...brains! We all know that Elizabeth Bennet is a feisty, rather outspoken heroine but what we learn is that instead of practicing the delicate arts associated with being a lady she is well practiced in the fine arts of kung fu and other zombie killing methods. With the arrival of haughty Mr. Darcy...chaos ensues and so begins the dance between Darcy and Elizabeth and a few hundred unmentionables.
My Review: First let me start by saying if you are a Jane Austen purist...you do NOT want to read this book, but I shouldn't need to warn you, the title has probably already scared you away. Also this might not be the book for you if you have a sensitive stomach, there's a ton of "bonecrunching zombie mayhem." But if you love humor, action, romance, and above all the characters of the original Pride and Prejudice this is a book to read. I also recommend it to those men out there who may have not wanted to read a "girly" book like Pride and Prejudice, this has the same basic story as P&P but instead of playing the pianoforte in the parlor, the girls are kicking zombie butt in the garden.
I'm pretty open minded about retelling classics and you will definitely need that with this book. All I have to say is that there are no mincing of words in this book! For example, when Darcy meets Elizabeth at Rosings Park and confronts her with his feelings...well the parlor mantle piece takes a direct hit! At times it felt as if zombies were thrown in as an afterthought and it didn't really flow from chapter to chapter throughout but I still liked it. The dry humor was fun. I have Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters in my TBR pile so I should be reading that soon and including a review as a bonus for the Everything Austen Challenge, hopefully it's as entertaining as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
To learn more about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies please visit:
http://irreference.com/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies/
Please stop by and see Stephanie (@ Stephanie's Written Word) the host of the Everything Austen Challenge and check out the awesome posts to see what others are doing for their part in the challenge!!!
*I received my copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies through Bookmooch, a book swapping site.*
Congrats on another accomplishment in your Everything Austen Challenge! You're doing great! :)
ReplyDelete~ Lori
I enjoyed this one very much...I think you just have to treat it as straight humor (and know that's what's going to happen going in). Glad you liked it too! I still need to get to Sea Monsters! Good luck with the rest of your challenge list!
ReplyDeleteLike you, I consider myself pretty open-minded when it comes to Austen retellings - so the idea of this doesn't bother me as I know it does some, it cracks me up really. However, since I'm not big on zombies the chances I'll get to this are slim to none...thanks for the great review though!
ReplyDeleteI love all things Austen and considered myself pretty open minded considering I've read some pretty "not literal" renditions and sequels but this... I couldn't finish it. I'm not big into zombies, though I have seen a few movies, so that may be part of it - but the review you gave also included a huge clue. The writing just wasn't that great. Sometimes it seemed like quotes from the original were being used and then it jerked into this whole other level that was totally different (and not nearly as good in my opinion).
ReplyDeleteAlthough I can understand the whole tongue in cheek idea, I just love the book so much (it's my very fav) I have a hard time seeing it hacked up like that. Specially just for the sake of a joke. I found out more about the author and that didn't help my opinion of the book any. I ended up getting rid of it.
All things Austen are really popular right now and I think he's riding that wave and since people buy it, these books won't go away any time soon. Which may make a lot of people happy. :o)
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters has a different author so I'm hoping that it runs a bit more smoothly than this did. But that being said I still liked it! Thank you for stopping by Lee!
ReplyDeletexoxo~ Renee