Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, #1) in Around the Year in 52 Books

Oct 13, 2015 RebeccaErGlad MegetGlad rated it did not like it

Again, I feel I must write a review before I've even finished the book.

I apologize for bad writing. Very frustrated.

1. What's with the violence? Just because everybody har combat training due to the large amount of zombies running around, it doesn't mean that society necessarily would become more based upon violence against the still alive citizens.

2. Too much of the work with characterizing is laid upon the Austin source material. Elizabeth seems like the same old Lizzy, but Grahame-Smith has Again, I feel I must write a review before I've even finished the book.

I apologize for bad writing. Very frustrated.

1. What's with the violence? Just because everybody har combat training due to the large amount of zombies running around, it doesn't mean that society necessarily would become more based upon violence against the still alive citizens.

2. Too much of the work with characterizing is laid upon the Austin source material. Elizabeth seems like the same old Lizzy, but Grahame-Smith has clumsily added a violent bloodthirst that seems completely out of character. Also, there seems to be no reason for this bloodlust. It just kind of is. Why? It makes no sense.

3. What's with the vomit and the ball-jokes? Characters are continually vomiting for no apparent reason other that the authors apparent child-like fascination with the concept. Ooooh! Vomiting! And the ball-jokes have the same problem. They seem completely out of character for Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy.

4. What's with the sporadical rudeness? In un-zombie-related parts of the book, G-S has rewritten the original text, making the characters more crass and rude, thus dispensing with a lot of the charm of the original book.

All in all, this book suffers from af very bad mesh of the zombies and the original book. I loved the idea, but I think it was unwise to rewrite an Austin novel. In stead, in my opinion, if G-S possesses the talent, he should have created an original story, a pastiche that everyone recognized as Austen-esque, and thereby avoided the bad bridging between the characters as Austen envisioned them, and the blood-thirsy, heart-eating people G-S writes about (I was about to write "conjures up", but nothing is conjured up in this book but bad taste).

Don't get me wrong: I love the idea, and think it could've worked quite well – it was just badly done. This book gives a bad name to all the weird and screwy premises out there, and it's a shame. I love zombies, I love Austen, but here the zombie universe isn't developed enough, and the Austen parts have been rewritten and lost most of their famous Austen-wit in the process.

I don't even know why I am finishing this book. Maybe I won't.

Still going to watch the movie, though...

Couldn't finish. Waste of life. Read 87%. ...more

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Sep 10, 2013 Book Concierge rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: library, concierge, strong-women, 19th-century, audio, action, british

Playaway audio performed by Katherine Kellgren
3.5***

Mr and Mrs Bennet are parents to five girls who must marry well because Mr Bennet’s estate is entailed to a distant male relative. When wealthy and single Charles Bingley takes the nearby Netherfield Park estate, Mrs Bennet immediately begins plotting to have her girls cross his path, in the hopes that he will marry one of them. He falls for the eldest Bennet girl, Jane. His good friend Fitzwilliam Darcy is also introduced to the girls, but whe Playaway audio performed by Katherine Kellgren
3.5***

Mr and Mrs Bennet are parents to five girls who must marry well because Mr Bennet’s estate is entailed to a distant male relative. When wealthy and single Charles Bingley takes the nearby Netherfield Park estate, Mrs Bennet immediately begins plotting to have her girls cross his path, in the hopes that he will marry one of them. He falls for the eldest Bennet girl, Jane. His good friend Fitzwilliam Darcy is also introduced to the girls, but when he blatantly refuses to dance with Elizabeth Bennet at a ball where “gentlemen are scarce and more than one lady is without a partner” he is seen as arrogant and prideful. Still, there is something about Elizabeth’s “fine eyes” … not to mention her acknowledged accomplishments as a zombie fighter!

This book fulfilled a challenge in a Good Reads group to read from a genre that I normally avoid. I am SOooo not into zombies that I figured this one would fill the bill. I wasn’t expecting much – in fact, I expected to have to force my way through it. But I was pleasantly surprised by this take-off on Jane Austen’s classic Regency Romance.

Grahame-Smith was smart to use many of Miss Austen’s own words and dialogue. I have a feeling that readers who have never read Austen’s original might actually be inspired to seek it out after enjoying this farce. I sure hope so. Readers who have enjoyed the original classic will surely recognize Austen’s brilliance. Most of the references to the “plagued individual” or “unmentionables” are pretty nicely woven into the plot. There are a few longer scenes that really forced me out of the period, but even these are pretty entertaining. I’m thinking especially of Elizabeth demonstrating her prowess against Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s expert ninjas … and later showing her exceptional finger strength with a hand stand that converts to a one-hand stand, and finally a one-finger stand. Bravo, Lizzy!

Katherine Kellgren does a great job on the audio. Her pacing is good and she has sufficient skill with voices to differentiate most of the characters (although Jane & Elizabeth do sound much alike). I loved how she voiced Charlotte Lucas! As is my usual practice with audio books, I also had a copy of the text on hand, in this case the deluxe hardcover edition. It includes some very interesting illustrations; some are very entertaining (Lizzy kicking Darcy in the face following his impassioned proposal), but many are way too ghoulish and gory for me (my imagination was MUCH less bloody and graphic).
...more

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Dec 11, 2011 Wendy rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy

P&P&Z is very much a one-note joke that's funny for a few pages, and wears out completely less than halfway through the book. SEE Elizabeth Bennett! Decapitate the Undead! With a katana! The story itself is still Pride & Prejudice, told mostly in Austen's original language, and Mr. Grahme-Smith's interjections of "zombie mayhem" are obvious both in the decline of the writing as with the increase of silly violence. The one place this actually worked well for me was when Darcy surprises Elizabeth ...more

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Jun 24, 2009 Nicki rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2009, jane-austen, horror

Oh dear... I wanted to like this, I really did, but in my opinion it just didn't work. The 'zombiefication' was too clumsy. I hated the way some bits were left exactly as the original and some bits were so, so different. It felt like the author didn't quite know how to proceed so just slipped in zombie sections every now and again. He really needed to be more consistent and either rewrite the whole book as a pure laugh (it would have been so much more fun if Lady Catherine was the zombie leader! ...more

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Feb 21, 2010 Karan rated it it was ok

Shelves: book-club

I found it boring. There were some funny moments - but they were few and far between.

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Jun 03, 2009 Jacqueline rated it it was amazing

I've read Pride and Prejudice twice, I think. So far, I think it's hilarious - exactly the same book, but with a zombie background story that seems to have been overlooked in the original... ...more

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Dec 01, 2010 Baroness Ekat rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I listened to the audio book rather than read it. I enjoyed the audio version a great deal and if I can find the prequel and sequel on audio I might listen to them as well.

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