Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: A book review

Author: Seth Grahame-Smith

Genre: Twisted classic..?

Summary: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”

So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield. Can Elizabeth vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you’d actually want to read.

My Review: Well I don't agree with that last part. P&P has never had trouble drawing in an audience and I don't think it's going to stop nowadays. Either way P&P&Z was made, and the big question is this: has it ruined a masterpiece of literature or has it increased it's audience and added something more. I'd have to say in regards to question number one: no, no it hasn't. I mean it's so unbelievably camp and overly grotesque you're too busy laughing at the utter ridiculousness of it all that there's no room to get mad at it being in P&P. Has it increased it's audience...I'm not sure really I'll have to look that up. Has it added anything. Oh definitely not. It's far to silly to seems like some sort of social commentary. It's not a particularly clever parody in my opinion. It's just sorta...there, and it sparked a creation of other such there reboots of classic novels like "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters" "Vampire Little Women" and "Alice in Zombieland."

I think it could have benefited from being more "zombie" and less "Pride and Prejudice" particularly near the end. Some more drastic changes would've been nice as well, and this incarnation of Elizabeth seemed widely schizophrenic, because one minute she was the wild zombie slayer for the added text bits, and then she was back to original text Elizabeth who has a proper emotional breakdown over Lydia's disappearance. I mean the breakdown is understandable in the original, it just seems outta place with this new Elizabeth. Again I think it would have been more enjoyable completely re-written instead of being mostly Austen with Zombies thrown in.

Content: Some rawther inappropriate innuendo's that seemed out of place and uncalled for.

-_-; I am not amused. Violence, gore, gross stuff. Zombies for crying out loud.

Rating: 2 stars out of 5

Recommend: For people who have ever read Austen and thought "it could be more zombified". ^_^