Booktober – Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Day 13 of Blogtober and we’re back to Niamh’s last #Booktober book, get ready for a modern eerie parody twist on one of my favourite classics. It’s time for ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’. I first came across this story when the movie of the same name and based on the book came out in 2016; I adored the movie and felt it was about time I sat down and read the book. For the length of this review, I want you all to keep in mind Jane Austen’s story ‘Pride & Prejudice’ but also take only the characters and not the overall story. Why you might ask.  Just trust me for now it will make sense as the review continues. 

‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ by Seth Grahame-Smith. Is a parody novel that came out in 2009. It is a mashup of Jane Austen’s classic ‘Pride and Prejudice’ with the inclusion of modern Zombie Lore. Grahame-Smith lists Austen as a co author of this story. In terms of this book, it proves like so many other books that the book is ALWAYS better than the movie! At only 316 pages it is a quick read in my opinion or a sort of light reading for others over a few days.

The story is set in the 18th century when a Zombie Plague has hit England! Our wonderful Miss Elizabeth and her four sisters, under the watchful eye of their father, have been trained in Martial Arts and weapon training and are the perfect trained Zombie killers. While the sister’s fight to save their country and kill as many zombies as possible, Mrs. Bennett is on the hunt for wealthy husbands of high status for her daughters. This hunt for husbands by Mrs. Bennett leads to the first scene that those who are familiar with Pride and Prejudice will know, the local ball where we meet Charles Bingley and Fitzwilliam Darcy. As per the usual story, Jane and Bingley form a connection but, in this story, it is during a Zombie attack during the ball. Fitzwilliam Darcy is a famous and noted zombie killer in this version. 

The overall story is the same that Austen told in her classic story but all of the action sequence between the overall storyline is met with Zombie attacks and the ever looming Zombie Apocalypse. The biggest difference between the original and this parody version is how much more spunk and personalities some of the female characters have! Also instead of just a summary at the end of the book, about all the fine matches Mr. and Mrs. Bennett’s daughters have made, it is replaced with Elizabeth and Darcy’s wedding before the Zombie Apocalypse. 

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a sucker for Elizabeth Bennett, Mr. Darcy and many of the timeless characters found in Pride and Prejudice; what I adored about the adding of Zombies and this story being a parody is that the author made the characters’ personalities pop more and it felt like they were coming to life off of the pages into your mind. I would urge anyone who enjoys a parody to read this book. It leaves other fun parodies in the dust including Nightlight: A Parody and The Hunger Games: A Parody. I would give this book a solid 4 out of 5 stars which is unheard of from me in recent months to any of my new reading material! 

If you enjoy Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as much as I did and you need more… fear not! There is a second book called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After. The is also a prequel Dawn of the Dreadfuls. Both are on my list to read but, from doing a quick google search, they both look promising! Especially with the synopsis stating that Darcy is bitten by a Dreadful! The suspense is killing me already!