Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

As I am sure anyone who knows me or reads my blogs has figured out by now that I am fascinated by zombies. They freak me out a bit, some people fear the dark, spiders, monsters, but me….zombies. If something freaks me out…I run head long into it, so I read zombie books, go to zombie movies, plan for the zombie apocalypse (don’t laugh, you will just wish you knew where I live when it happens)

So when I was browsing on-line one day, I can across a sample of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Being a zombie fan, I got excited, emailed a few friends. And I download the first chapter and read it in a PDF format. I do this with a lot of books, cuz let’s face it, if you are not sucked in to a story within the first chapter or so, you are going to have to force yourself to read it.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is based on the Jane Austen 1813 classic Pride and Prejudice….not to much surprise there right :-). If follows basically the same plot with just the odd zombie, or should I say, unmentionables through into the mix. The book is redone by Seth Grahame-Smith, but you really can’t give him too much credit, because as I said, he just through in a zombie here or there and changed a couple of thing around.

He placed to book in a reality where England has been stricken with these unmentionables and the Bennet daughters (Elizabeth and her 4 sisters) protect the country side from the zombies because they were trained in the “deadly arts”. Mrs. Bennet is determined to find her daughter’s husbands and get them married, and once they are married they are relieved of their duty of protecting their home. As in the original, Jane falls for Mr. Bingley and Elizabeth, who only focuses on destroying all zombies, hates and then falls deeply in love with Mr. Bingleys long time friend Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth first meets Mr. Darcy at a ball held by Mr. Bingelys were they are attacked by the undead and the Bennet girls have to fight them off.

Elizabeth actually despises Mr. Darcy because he originally plotted to keep her sister and Mr. Bingley apart even though it was clear that they were in love. He then believes ruthless lies about Mr. Darcy from a soldier she befriended Mr. Wickham.

Elizabeth’s best friend, Charlotte, marries Elizabeth’s Uncle and moves away shortly after being bitten by an unmentionable. Elizabeth become of the love for her friend, decides not to kill her on the spot. Elizabeth goes to visit her dear friend and on the way back while stay a while with her aunt and uncle. While there she learns that her younger sister Lydia had been kidnapped or eloped with Mr. Wickham and that he had no plans to marry her. This would bring great shame to her family name. While at her aunts and uncles, she again meets Mr. Darcy and explains to him the honest truth of her loathing him, while he confesses to loving her.

To fall back into the good graces of Elizabeth after learning why she disliked him, he tracked down and forced Mr. Wickham to marry Lydia, reunited Mr. Bingley and Jane and reviled the truth behind why Mr. Wickham told such evil lies about him. Elizabeth is embarrassed when she learns the truth of who Mr. Darcy is and she falls in love with him and they live happily ever after.

I love zombie books, but this one is a waste of time, I saw such hype about it coming out and in the end I just felt like I re-read Pride and Prejudice. If a friend has the book or something, sure read it, but don’t go waste your money on it. It took me forever to finish it, and I read books quick, and my best friend just got bored, put it down and never picked it back up. I had to force myself to continue reading it….and I read a good 4-5 books in between. It was not the best pick of the bunch and there are much better zombie books out there!