Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Austen lovers, beware! If you are of the frighteningly humorless variety of your species who thinks that your goddess is sacrosanct, detest Matthew MaFayden for even attempting to try on Mr. Darcy's...er...I mean Colin Firth's...role, and have a shrine to the aforementioned Darcy (or Messrs. Knightley, Wentworth, Ferras or Brandon) in your closet then this book is not for you. However if you can appreciate a bit of fun and satire, as Austen herself certainly could, you'll enjoy this surreal remake of a classic.
Seth Grahame-Smith has basically left the bulk of the plot revolving around the Bennet family intact with one minor deviation: legions of the undead wreaking havoc on Hertfordshire. The Bennet sisters have been trained by their father and in the Orient in combat and are some of the fiercest slayers in England. Thankfully Grahame-Smith left the social commentary and comedy of manners left in so although it is the primary objective of Mr. Bennet to keep his daughters alive, it is still very much the primary objective of their mother to get them married.
The real humor of the story is the long passages, taken verbatim from Austen's original, seasoned with random zombie attacks and oriental fighting. The opening lines for example, "It is a fact universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains." This list goes on! The early ball at Netherfield takes place with little change, except for the undead who seize and feast on those guests who unfortunately happened to be standing near the windows before being dispatched by the Bennets. When Darcy proposes to Elizabeth she returns not only an impassioned refusal, but a roundhouse kick to the face for destroying (as she believes) the happiness of her sister Jane. Lady Catherine de Bourgh is accompanied everywhere by her ninja bodyguards and gets into a duel with Elizabeth to keep her away from her nephew Darcy. And while those ardent Austen fans may be foaming at the mouth with rage to read this list of blasphemies, I think even they would join me in a hearty sense of satisfaction to hear that Darcy breaks the legs of the infamous Wickham for his rakish behavior.
Zombies may seem a bit much but the plot of Pride and Prejudice has already been done, redone, spawned series about the Darcy's future children, delved far deeper than necessary into their sex life, and redone again so in some ways it's refreshing to read a book that's an entire pun on the plot to begin with. If you read this book expecting great literature like the original, you will be disappointed (or incandescent with rage if your of that particular variety...) but if you take it as what it is, a riotous romp of whimsy, you'll spend the entire book laughing. Definitely a quick read to...er...sink your teeth into.
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