As an avid Jane Austen lover and, when I'm not a wuss, a fan of zombie lore, I was really excited about a book I had heard so many good things about. I was open to my beloved book being torn to pieces for some excitement and Regency in the Zombie Era. The concept of a book surrounding this time period with the slight addition of zombies is really funny. The execution is lazy, racist, and rather disturbing.

Let me begin by saying that while "Oriental" may be a common term of the age, its continued use (along with other slurs for disabled individuals, among others) was the least of the books problems in that area. There was no real reason for all the training in physicality that everyone who was anyone had came from Japan and China, other than the author feeling the need to slip in some ninjas? Which seems excessive when you already have a book about zombies. There are other routes of fighting they could have engaged in. It's almost as if the book is saying that if you don't have Kung Fu, you can't fight in hand-to-hand combat (perhaps they should check out a few episodes of Spike's Deadliest Warriors), which is absurd.

Not to mention the double-edged sword of having constant, and I mean constant, mentions of the Bennett sisters being whipped with a wet bamboo stick during their training (in China and at the house) among other violent images against women (and to be fair, Mr. Wickham), leads me to believe the guy writing this has a bit of fetish. It's completely unnecessary as is the complete 180 on Elizabeth's character.

Translating Elizabeth's sharp wit to her fighting skills? Sure! Making her into a homicidal sociopath who literally bites into a person's heart, not so much.

There were about four sex jokes slipped in as "flirting" (and had they been funny or fit the changed tone, I might have laughed), but none of the sensibilities of the time had actually changed. Georgianna's situation remains the same, Lydia also is in danger of losing her "honor" in a vastly changed land where women can be bodyguards against the undead and fighting skills are looked upon as a talent, rather than an embarrassment, which doesn't really follow.

A thoughtful parody with this concept would have been endlessly funny and could have expanded on a beloved work in a way that maybe a wider audience could enjoy. Instead this book is derivative, offensive, and plain lazy when it comes to building on the source material for its goal. It tries to be Monty Python, but falls somewhere in the Scary Movie 5 range of parodies.

On another, rather aggravating note, the "author" clearly didn't understand Pride and Prejudice at all. While lauded as a "romance" P&P is a social commentary and the situation forced on women at the time creates a large difference in terms of how the plot develops. Not to mention adding paragraphs about Mr. Bennett not caring for his wife is ridiculous and makes me wonder how much attention the author paid to the original book.

So overall, hugely disappointed. The idea has merit and could have been funny if any kind of effort had been added to it, but as it is I have no idea why this book was so well reviewed other than the novelty of its concept -- or people really don't care about how messed up all the cultural appropriation and violence against women was.