Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is the title of this rather bizarre book. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I came across it the other day. Mixing zombies with the classic Jane Austen regency period novel is mad enough, but then I read a few pages and realized the heroine in this novel is a highly trained martial artist who spends her time slaying the zombies that over-run Britain! Genius! I thought and promptly bought the book to read.
The first thing that struck me about the novel was how well written it actually is. I was expecting some terribly put together piece of trash with lots of pointless violence and gore (no bad thing either!) but it stays true to the plot and still manages to make the social observations that Austen made in the original, even down to the period language.
Written by Seth Graham-Smith, the novel tells of the same Elizabeth Bennet who runs around with Darcy slaying the Zombies that have over-run the land, or “unmentionables” as they are known in the novel. Elizabeth, a woman of modest means, learned her martial arts skills from a Master Liu in China who taught her high-kicking skills and how to handle a Katana sword (which she uses to slice and dice obviously). Darcy and the rest of the aristocracy apparently trained in Japan, being of more affluent means. The result of everyone being highly trained martial artists is the frequent sparring sessions between them all, such as the one between Elizabeth and Darcy when he proposes to her, resulting in the following line: “One of her kicks found its mark, and Darcy was sent into the mantelpiece with such force as to shatter its edge.”
Besides all that the novel is full of very funny double entendres, regular references to Darcy’s musket balls, zombie slayings, ninjas and the overall rom-com elements that keep it all hanging together.
If you like horror and martial arts and don’t mind leaving your brain in the drawer for a while then you will most likely enjoy this novel for what it is. I certainly did and I tip my hat, Regency style, to Mr. Graham-Smith for coming up with such an original idea. My only regret is that I didn’t think of it first!
