Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Title: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Author: Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Page Count: 321
Rating: B
Keywords: Zombies, Humor, Gore, Love, Reimagined
Genre: Young Adult, Reimagined Classic
Younger Readers: Innuendoes are present throughout and some language. If you are capable of handling a joke about balls then you will likely be fine with this book. There are references to savage beating but not described in detail and one must remember that this is, in fact,  a book about zombies.

Synopsis from Goodreads:

“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:

I would like to begin by saying that Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen is one of my all time favorite books and I love the movies as well. So, yes. I am biased.

Be aware that this is different from the movie. I saw the movie first and enjoyed it quite a bit. Once I started reading this book I quickly realized that the narrative was much more similar to the original book by Jane Austen than the movie I had watched just a few days prior. Despite this, it was still a fun read that I did not have too much difficulty getting through. I did read it slower than normal. However, this was much more likely due to being busy at school rather than this being a bad book.

This was funnier than I had expected. The humor is not necessarily blaringly obvious. It is subtle and if you're not careful you could easily miss it. I was in no way prepared to hear Mr. Darcy utter a balls joke. I will admit that my started laugh was nowhere near graceful. It was more like a snort. Humor that catches you off guard can be the best.

The addition of ninjas was absolutely perfect. I am not entirely sure what it is, but whenever there are ninjas in a story it instantly becomes much better.

I like when characters can be wrong and accept that they were wrong. This is one of the reasons I love Pride & Prejudice. Elizabeth and Darcy are both proud people that it seems will never make it work. And yet they do. It is a gradual love story that defies odds. No instalove in sight. Pride & Prejudice was the original romantic comedy and has had readers coming back for over two hundred years.

This adaptation was fun. If you hate Jane Austen, the maybe stay away from this one. If you're looking for something really fast paced I would also wait. However, if you're a Jane Austen fan and want a humorous, endearing read then I would check this one out!


P.S. If you do read this, take note of Charlotte. How does no one notice what is going on with her?! How??????