Well, the title says it all, doesn’t it? Pride & Prejudice & Zombies is Jane Austen’s classic novel tossed with zombies. I would definitely recommend it to open minded Jane Austen fans (I would think it would make more sense if you read the zombie-less version first), but that’s not to say that only Jane Austen fans should read it.
The world as the Bennets know has already been plagued with the undead for many years, and Mr. Bennet has gone through great pains to ensure that his daughters are “brides of death” with severe Shaolin discipline and training. While Mr. Bennet is perfectly content with this arrangement, Mrs. Bennett simply wants to see her daughters as brides. Minus the death.
Seth-Grahame Smith maintains Austen’s voice and stays true to practically all the dialogue, except when he throws in ninja fights and hordes of undead. And for the most part, it works. At first it’s fairly obvious that Grahame-Smith has stitched dialogue onto Austen’s, but as the book progresses, it becomes more seamless. After all, it’s not meant to be foisted as a “higher level” of literature–it’s about zombies!
However fun and lighthearted the book may be, there were a few things that I do have to complain about.
First, I am fairly certain Elizabeth is a sociopath. While she has been schooled in martial arts, she doesn’t seem to have much of a conscience. At one point upon first meeting Darcy she considers beheading him, and a later scene she spars with Lady Catherine’s ninjas (I thought sparring meant NOT killing?) and disembowels a ninja and STRANGLES him with his own colon. She goes even further to take a bite out of a still beating heart she has pulled out of another ninja. WHHAAAA?? I would think, given that the current “plague” makes zombies eat people, that it would be pretty suspicious, or at least looked down upon to be feasting on human flesh.
Finally, my last little nitpick–one of the added “prejudices” between the Bennets and upper crust Mr. Darcy/Lady Catherine is that the Bennets are schooled in the Shaolin way in China, rather than in Japan. This is mentioned several times as a source of disagreement, yet the Bennets have a DOJO. Yes, a japanese dojo. I don’t know where Shaolin monks are supposed to train, but I sure as hell know it’s not a japanese dojo. This particular mashing of two very different cultures really irritated me–it leads to ignorance. Not all Asians are the same, Mr. Smith! I would think a group of beta readers or at least an editor would have caught that one.
Minor things aside, Pride & Prejudice & Zombies is a fun ride through England (with Satan’s Army). The characters have new twists that make them all the more exciting–the elderly dowager Lady Catherine is one of the best known female zombie-killers to date, Charlotte succumbs to Mr. Collins’ charms due to herself succumbing to the plague, and Mr. Wickham has new grievances against Mr. Darcy.
