I originally picked up this book on a whim. I didn't really expect it to be very good at all, seeing as how it's just an adaptation of the classic Jane Austen novel with zombies added in. I figured the adaptation would be a one joke book whose joke would most likely get old pretty quickly, but I was quick to learn that my assumption on this matter was wrong. One could even say . . . dead wrong.
Sorry, I won't attempt any more zombie humor in this review.
Anyways, Pride & Prejudice & Zombies is actually suprisingly good. Yes, on a base level it still is technically just the original Pride & Prejudice story with zombies thrown in, but it's a lot more than that too. For those of you who were never forced to read Pride & Prejudice in high school, let me quickly summarize the original story. The book was written as a fictional first hand account of life in Victorian England by a young lady named Elizabeth Bennett. Elizabeth is the second eldest daughter of a poor member of the upper class. Her mother is obsessed with marrying off all five of her daughters off to wealthy men so that she won't have to worry about them anymore as she's paranoid that they'll all end up on the street. A rich gentleman named Mr. Bingley moves in nearby and Elizabeth's older sister Jane takes a fancy to him. They begin courting and Elizabeth is introduced to a Mr. Darcy, who is a friend of Mr. Bingley's. Darcy is a bit of a prick though and Elizabeth takes an instant disliking to him.
It should be noted here that Elizabeth Bennett is a very strong female character. She's not really taken with flights of fancy and isn't exactly keen having her whole life revolve around whom she'll be married to. She's intelligent, witty, attractive and very strong willed. As the story goes on, Bingley and Jane seem to be doing great and are well on their way towards marriage when Bingley suddenly moves back to London (which is a good ways away). Through the course of the book, Elizabeth finds out that Darcy had a hand in making sure that the marriage didn't happen. Elizabeth and Darcy run across each other a few times, during which time Darcy professes his love for her. Knowing that his actions have hurt her sister though, Elizabeth refuses and kind of tears Darcy a new one for being a douche. He storms off upset at this and proceeds to write a letter to Elizabeth in which he explains the reasons for his actions and how he had only acted to protect his friend Bingley as he had thought Jane had no interest in him. He also explains a few other things regarding his bad relationship with one Mr. Wickham who happens to be a friend of Elizabeth.
A short while later, one of Elizabeth's younger sisters runs off with this Mr. Wickham. This sort of act disgraces the family and the whole Bennett household is highly distraught. Eventually though, through the swift actions of Mr. Darcy, Wickham is forced to Marry Elizabeth's sister (thus preserving the family's honor) and Mr. Bingley and Jane are reunited and quickly marry as well. Thus, having been convinced of Mr. Darcy's good character and noble intentions from the beginning, Elizabeth agrees to marry Mr. Darcy and they live happily ever after, the end.
Mind you, this is a very brief plot summary. If you want a better one, go here.
In Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, that same story is still very much at the heart of the book. All of the same characters are still there, the same major events take place the way they should and in the end things still come to a close as they originally did. It's how the story unfolds though that is remarkably different. This adaptation was written by a man named Seth Grahame-Smith, and he didn't just throw random scenes of zombies appearing out of nowhere into the original Jane Austen text. No, he went about completely changing the world in which the story takes place. According to the new novel, the original zombie plague appeared about 50 years before the book begins. Therefore, the world that Elizabeth and her sisters grow up into is vastly different than the one from the original novel. This is a world torn apart by zombie attacks. The world has managed to stay together (for the most part) and society hasn't been destroyed. It has however been drastically altered due to 50 years of ongoing battles with undead hordes.
In this war torn world, it has become popular in British society to have your children sent away to the orient at an early age to become masters of martial arts so that they may better fight and kill zombies when they are adults. It is a matter of honor and dignity in this world to be known as a capable zombie slayer. Elizabeth's father decides that just because he has daughters instead of sons is no reason not to make his children capable warriors, so Elizabeth and her four sisters are all sent to China to train with Tibetan monks. They endure years of brutal training and at the time that the book begins, both Elizabeth and Jane are highly skilled warriors. The younger three sisters are capable fighters as well, but they are still training under the tutelage of their older siblings.
In this book, Elizabeth is a warrior through and through. She's an incredibly skilled swordsman who lives by a very strict warrior code of ethics. She's deadly with most forms of firearms as well as blades and is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant too. Think of her like Buffy The Vampire Slayer in Victorian England. These sorts of changes are seen throughout the whole world in which this book takes place. England itself has been highly influenced by oriental culture to the point of seeing a blending of both British and Asian philosophies being used by most of the major characters in the story. The zombie attacks are frequent, but for the most part are small events in the story. Larger attacks elsewhere are alluded to though, including the entire city of Manchester falling to the undead hordes. The whole city of London has been transformed to a fortress-like environment with large castle walls that surround the entire area.
By making the zombies not just a plot device or cheap jokes, but actually a setting in which the story takes place, Grahame-Smith does an amazing job of blending in the zombie action with the original story of Pride & Prejudice. At no time in the book did the zombie attacks seem out of place. Yes, the way a lot of the zombie moments are handled are humorous, but that humor is entirely intentional. This book isn't just a parody of Pride & Prejudice, it also pokes fun at the entire philosophical culture of Victorian England. It's a bit of historical social commentary, and even though it is done with tongue firmly planted in cheek, it is still incredibly effective at pointing out the some of the ridiculous tendencies of early 19th century England.
Grahame-Smith has also done an incredibly admirable job of making his new prose blend seamlessly with Austen's original work. The book still sounds and reads very much as if Ms. Austen had written it herself. The book is also accompanied by a small number of absolutely hilarious illustrations, the type of which anyone who has ever read some of these classic novels will instantly recognize.
Oh, and you know how I mentioned the heavy influence of Asian culture in this book? You realize, of course that such a heavy influence can only lead to one thing. Ninjas. Yes, that's right, this book has ninjas as well as zombies. I don't want to give away too much about them, but suffice it to say that having them in there just made the book that much cooler.
If you've been avoiding this book because you thought it was stupid or that the premise sounded silly, please rethink this. This is a great and highly entertaining book that can be enjoyed by both Jane Austen fans and zombie fans. Hell, even people who just like a good romance story or humorous tale will find something to like here. The new warrior status of Elizabeth Bennet makes her a great female role model for the 21st century. She's strong, smart, sexy and capable in more ways than most leading female characters that you'll find in other modern books (I'm looking at you Bella Swan). This book comes highly recommended with the official Geek-tastic seal of approval.
Final Grade: 4.5 Stars out of 5
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