Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – OH MY!

Wanna make out?

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a nerd in possession of an illness must go on a Jane Austen bender.

At least it does for this nerd.

For someone who fancies themselves a writer (or an aspiring one at least) I don’t write nearly enough about books. Which is strange considering the rate in which I devour them.

I don’t know what it is but whenever I get sick (I’m just about recovered from the second illness in a row) I become obsessed with something and hunt down every form of it that I can. About half the time it’s Jane Austen.

What can I say? I’m a chick.

So it was this last time around. I watched every version of Pride and Prejudice I own (1980, 1995, and 2005 twice), Sense & Sensibility, Emma, Becoming Jane, Lost in Austen…I even watched Vanity Fair hoping it would be Austen-esque (it wasn’t, it was awful in spite of all the great actors in it). And I finally got around to reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Girls! The Pentagram of Death!

I don’t know about you but I always have a stack of books as tall as I am that I need to read.  I go through them pretty quickly but I’m constantly adding to it so the pile never really shrinks. And I just can’t bring myself to use the Kindle. I love the smell and the look and the feel of books too much. I have a BookMate and that’s good enough for me. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has been in that pile for years now. Probably longer than any other book. I didn’t pick it up for two reasons. The first being that when I got it I was on another Austen bender and had just reread the OG P&P, Darcy’s Story and Mr. Darcy, Vampyre and I was kind of Austened out. The second reason is that it has zombies. And y’all know that my biggest fear is zombies.

And the Violator.

And Fire Marshall Bill.

But mostly zombies.

But every time I went to the pile my eyes would inevitably land on the Seth Grahame-Smith redux. I knew it would be good; I’d read and fell in love with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (which I HIGHLY recommend). So on a (totally inevitable) whim I grabbed it from the pile last week.

To my very pleasant surprise I not only loved it but it didn’t scare me. No nightmares, no heart palpitations, no slamming it shut. I even studied the pictures with glee! Though I’ll probably never look at cauliflower the same way again… but mostly I laughed. A lot.

Mmmmmm….cauliflower brains……

Of all Jane Austen’s characters, I’ve always related the most to Elizabeth Bennet. She’s stubborn, witty, and says things that are borderline inappropriate. I would really like to believe that, in the event of a zombie apocalypse, I would rise to the occasion as a zombie slayer like the Lizzy in this version (albeit without the slow zombification of my BFF). Imagining her kicking Darcy in the face had me in stitches for a good 5 minutes at least. Seeing Lady Catherine de Bourgh make her do one-fingered handstands and fight ninjas was epic. Even the detail of modifying the questions printed at the end was hysterical.

Take that you woeful wooer!

And now the truth. I feel like I’m going to end up in literary hell for saying this, but I actually enjoyed it more than the original.

There. I said it.

Now please excuse me while I go and administer the seven cuts of shame.

***

“And to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.”

I do, Mr. Darcy! I do!

On to Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters!


Comments

  1. I keep looking at it, picking it up, and putting it back. Not buying it. Now maybe I finally will.

    1. If you’re a Jane Austen fan in the slightest I’m confident that you’ll like it 🙂

  2. Ha! I may download it on my kindle, just because you said you don’t use one. I do love the semll and feel of books – there’s a second-hand bookstore just down the hill from me and walking around there is a magical experience (It’s cramped, packed with shelves and BOOOOOOKS EVERYWHERE, and filled with that awesome musty, churchy smell of much loved paper. Brilliant.) But the kindle is a marvel. I have a Kindle Fire, and I have the app on my phone, and I love the fact I can read a book on my phone, then get home and pick up the kindle and “bing!” it’s at the same place I just stopped reading. IT IS MAGIC! And yesterday Mrs Dim and I found a book we wanted online and clicked once…it was in my kindle just seconds later! Sooo much better than waiting days for the postman.

    Thanks, loved the post.

    1. LOL, yeah, I have one I just don’t use it. The time I tried it it strained my eyes a bit so I’m a little wary of picking it up again but maybe I’ll give it another shot.

  3. Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter took me completely by surprise. I was expecting to read it and just laugh it off as the worst $5 I ever spent but to my surprise it has become one of my favorites. I press it on to all my friends and they roll their eyes until they give it back with a SH** eating grin thanking me. For those that have not read it, pick it up but as a suggestion, don’t read the final pages. I feel like it leaves the story more Plausible.
    With this in mind, I think Ill stop on the ride home for Pride Prejudice and zombies. Thanks Trace

    1. That book is awesome. I can’t wait for the movie. I hope that they don’t botch it.

      1. I tell everyone I see to read it LOL. I’m a bit obsessed with it actually. High hopes for the movie! Have either of you read “Unholy Night”? I’m debating whether or not to pick it up.

        1. I haven’t actually. It looks like it could be cool. I’ve seen it on amazon and wondered if I should order it as well, but I’m tied up in the A Song of Ice and Fire series for now.

  4. I really don’t like Jane Austen very well, but I love zombies. I’ve been meaning to give this book a go ever since reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. If you liked this version more than the original, that actually gives me hope.

    1. I think you’ll enjoy it 🙂 It’s definitely written in the Jane Austen style but I LOL’d so many times while reading it.

  5. […] emphasize how much I didn’t like this movie. I almost can’t believe the script was written by my beloved SGS.  I’m kind of at a loss to be perfectly honest.  I saw this with someone who has not read the […]

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