Pride & Prejudice & Zombies

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies

By Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Quirk Books

ISBN: 978-1-59474-334-4

5 stars

I will start this off by saying that Pride & Prejudice is one of my favorite books so I felt a bit predisposed to liking this book even before I finished the first page. Really, who cannot love a brooding Darcy who slays zombies while trying to court Elizabeth Bennett in his rather unorthodox way?

The book follows along the same lines as the original with a few new details regarding swords, training, and the newly minted dead.

It all begins with a new arrival in Netherfield Park. The Bennett’s are, needless to say, very interested in the newcomers as they don’t see many in the county and, well, with all the zombies running about, people have cut back on their travel. Of course the proper introductions are made and Mrs. Bennett, in a conniving move to get her daughter Jane close to the newly arrived and very much single, Mr. Bingley, she sends her to pay a visit. Jane gets caught in the rain and becomes sick necessitating a stay at the house. Elizabeth, fearing the worst for her sister, trudges over fighting zombies and inclement weather to see her. She gets her first real look at Darcy during this visit and finds him abhorrent.

Days and weeks follow, balls come and go, visits are paid, trips made and Darcy keeps falling further down on Elizabeth’s likability scale. She must admit his skill for killing the reanimated is legendary but she cannot bring herself to like him. Unfortunately for Elizabeth, she does have to spend time in his circle of friends and acquaintances, making life annoying for her, at least as far as he is concerned.

It is only after she finds out he has helped immensely with a great family mishap and possible embarrassment that her opinion of Darcy changes. However, after having already vehemently denied his proposal of marriage, Elizabeth is not sure anything would still be possible between them.

As Austen fans know, there is much more to this story that I am providing here. It is certainly more than a boy meets girl love story and one that keeps readers engaged to the very end with some amazing characters. It’s witty, smart, and endearing. Each time I finish the book I can’t wait to read it again. I have to admit that Pride & Prejudice & Zombies may be have made it onto my must re-read list of favorites.

Why? It’s fun. I adore the original for the wonderful love story that it is and the new one brings freshness (with the exception of the addition of zombies and rotting corpses) to the story. It’s an amusing take on a classic. I found the blood and gore talk nominal, (although you are talking about zombies here so beheadings are to be expected) but there is a lot of talk about vomit that I could have done without, but all in all, a good read. And for those strident fans of the original, Darcy is still proud and Elizabeth is still prejudice.