pride and prejudice and zombies. jane austen and seth grahame-smith.

this book has been on my bookshelves for a couple of years. i attempted to read it before but couldn't focus because my mind was constantly wondering how much of jane's original work was in it. (i hadn't read "pride and prejudice" at the time). so i put the book down and picked it up after i read the original. (ps there are some spoilers in this post.)

initially, i was impressed with grahame-smith's giving zombies killings and burnings as the reason for the militia being stationed in meryton. austen had them there just for kitty and lydia's amusement and i guess to introduce the wicked wickham.

when reading the original, i couldn't stomach wickham and lydia's return to netherfield after their marriage. lydia was so obnoxious and wickham a phony. i absolutely hated lydia; showing off her ring, taking jane's spot, and talks of helping her sisters marry (i will start a list of characters i dislike and lydia will be number 1). we all knew wickham was a sleazeball cos he had a gambling problem, but lydia was horrible simply by nature. i was upset with austen for not giving them an unhappy ending (i mean darcy did need a labor of love and sorting out lydia and wickham was a challenge). and i guess wickham having to spend the rest of his life with lydia is punishment enough. but i needed more . . .

so i absolutely loved it when grahame-smith had darcy give wickham a good ass whooping in his version. in my eyes justice (or karma) was served when wickham ending up an impotent cripple and lydia having to spend the rest of her life with him. those twos got the ending their horrible scandal deserved.

i also enjoyed the showdown between lady catherine and elizabeth. though i would have been happier if she "finished her", to steal a phrase from mortal kombat. but lady catherine did get her just desserts in austen's version.

at first i didn't like the charlotte-turns-into-a-zombie storyline. it was too far fetch that no one noticed her change. however her marriage to mr. collins made sense given her illness and his oblivion to life would have caused him not to notice. so given that text, her illness made sense. though it was sad she had to die.

i will say that i could have done without all of the ball and intercourse jokes. i mean it was clever cos they were words austen used but grahame-smith gave them their modern slang definitions. but it was out of place, i was too frat-boy humor for my tastes.

it was a fun read. and a nice twist on everyone's beloved classic. so check it out, but don't expect too much. it is still a great work but that is because he didn't butcher austen's story and kept majority of the story intact.

ps i would love to see a movie adaptation but then colin firth may be too old to be karate-chopping zombies.