Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Maria's Book Nook - Pride & Prejudice & Zombies - Buzzworthy Book Review

Thanks to FSB Associates I received a review copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Dawn of the Dreadfuls. 

I had not read the first part of series called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, this is the prequel.

Book Description from FSB Media's Site:
Journey Back to Regency England -- Land of the Undead!

Readers will witness the birth of a heroine in Dawn of the Dreadfuls -- a thrilling prequel set four years before the horrific events of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. As our story opens, the Bennet sisters are enjoying a peaceful life in the English countryside. They idle away the days reading, gardening, and daydreaming about future husbands -- until a funeral at the local parish goes strangely and horribly awry.

Suddenly corpses are springing from the soft earth -- and only one family can stop them. As the bodies pile up, we watch Elizabeth Bennet evolve from a naive young teenager into a savage slayer of the undead. Along the way, two men vie for her affections: Master Hawksworth is the powerful warrior who trains her to kill, while thoughtful Dr. Keckilpenny seeks to conquer the walking dead using science instead of strength. Will either man win the prize of Elizabeth's heart? Complete with romance, action, comedy, and an army of shambling corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls will have Jane Austen rolling in her grave -- and just might inspire her to crawl out of it!


From Amazon's Product Description:

Product Description

With more than one million copies in print, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was the surprise publishing phenomenon of 2009. A best seller on three continents, PPZ has been translated into 21 languages and optioned to become a major motion picture.

In this terrifying and hilarious prequel, we witness the genesis of the zombie plague in early-nineteenth-century England. We watch Elizabeth Bennet evolve from a naïve young teenager into a savage slayer of the undead. We laugh as she begins her first clumsy training with nunchucks and katana swords and cry when her first blush with romance goes tragically awry. Written by acclaimed novelist (and Edgar Award nominee) Steve Hockensmith, Dawn of the Dreadfuls invites Austen fans to step back into Regency England, Land of the Undead!

In A Nutshell: I may be the only person of my generation to have not read or watched any of the Pride and Prejudice books and movies.  This book made me wish that I had. I am a BIG fan of Fan Fiction and read a lot of it, mostly online. It is so fun to take something you know like Twilight and read fan versions of it. Pride and Prejudiece and Zombies was funny for me. Picturing the sisters in their colonial dresses holding nunchucks just cracked me up.

The story starts with a funeral, a reanimation and Mr. Bennett asking his girls to slay a man. Wickedly fun! Obviously the Dreadfuls are back and Mr. Bennett needs his daughters to be ready! He summons his former "Master" to train the girls to be killing machines. My mental visions cracked me up more than the story at times. 


The descriptions of the Dreadfuls were detailed enough for this former horror fan to be enticed to pick up again. 

My husband kept turning the book over so that my 4 year old wouldn't see the cover which I love! The undead girl is just plain creepy.

Personally, I think taking a piece of such classic literature and tweaking it is genius.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Dawn of the Dreadfuls.  will hit the shelves on March 23rd!

This pop culture phenomenon of fan fiction is here to stay. So grab one of the books from Irreference and revisit one of the beloved classics with Zombies or in this case Dreadfuls because they mustn't mention the Zed word.  Also, read it now before the movie! Yes, there will be a movie starring Natalie Portman as Elizabeth Bennett. Awesome! I recommend Gerard Butler Mr. Darcy and Minnie Driver as Ms. Bennett (I wanted to ring her neck). There is no release date yet but I will keep you updated.

3 comments:

  1. I bet this whole series just makes English teachers CRAZY with outrage! I hope my library has these books :)

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  2. I read Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, so when FSB emailed me about this book I declined. Now I'm rueful.
    Based on my previous read, I hated that book. So I didn't want to suffer through this one.
    Since reading a few reviews, I realized this may be a decent read after all. So I lost out.

    Good review!

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  3. I think I would take the stand that Renee mentioned English teachers would... This is just WRONG. Taking such pure literature and turning it into this is not right. Oh, well, I am a purist at heart, I guess, plus I'm not a fan of Zombie or living dead type stories - like you didn't know that! :-)

    ReplyDelete

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