Some may claim that the reason why an Austen fan will not like this book is because it is supposedly committing sacrilege upon one of Austen's best books. Actually that is not the case. The reason is that this book is clunky, clumsy and just downright bad. When this book came out, while some of my Austen loving friends scoffed in derision, I laughed and was actually excited to read what I believed was going to be hilarious fun. I love Austen, I love a good horror book/movie and zombies fascinate me. So what went wrong? Well Seth Grahame Smith basically took most of Austen's dialogue, threw in a few random bits about zombies feasting on human flesh and that basically was it. I kept waiting to read more Grahame-Smith but most of what I got was reworked Austen, violence and random zombies. Maybe this would have worked as a made for TV Saturday afternoon special but as a book it stunk and had almost no redeeming qualities. The intelligence and wit that characterizes Pride and Prejudice are largely absent here, mostly lost in the mire and muck of zombie gore. And all the humor that this was supposed to have...rarely or never happened. I can't imagine reading this again or even punishing anyone by recommending it to them. I hope this is no one's introduction to Austen because this is really not a great way to meet her. Unfortunately, this was my introduction to Grahame-Smith and if this is a sign of his material, I doubt that I will be reading him again. ( )

Felt like I was reading fanfic after a certain point. ( )

"It's a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in posession of brains must be in want of more brains."

Elizabeth Bennet is a servant of His Majesty the King and sworn protector of Hertfordshire when it comes to despatching Unmentionables. She also happens to be one of five girls in a family with an extremely irritating mother. Her sisters are flighty and spend most of their time thinking about soldiers. Lizzy spends her spare time killing zombies but when a new tenant moves into Netherfield, things start to get complicated.

The story made me want to know more about this world and how zombies came to ravage England. There are hints peppered throughout the book that the 'plague' started a generation earlier and that London is now a walled fortress. I also liked how Grahame-Smith changed aspects of the plot to fit in with the new zombie storyline. Unfortunately my expectations for this book were blown out of proportion. I thought that the combination of Jane Austen and zombies was a win-win situation but I found myself hung up on the original book.

I found it almost impossible to reconcile the Lizzy Bennett of Austen's book and the interpretation by Grahame-Smith. There are scenes with the original thoughts and dialogue and then there are scenes where Lizzy is having not only violent but sexual thoughts. At one point she thinks about chopping off Lydia's head and during another mentions loving Darcy's trousers clinging to hsi My understanding of Regency England and the refined manners of the upper and middle classes does not jive with this interpretation. I know it's supposed to be a fun beach read but I think the fact that I've read "Pride and Prejudice" won't let me forget what actually happened. It's more of a modern take but I like Austen to be Austen.

I also found it quite easy to distinguish the two writing styles despite Grahame-Smith's best efforts. His additions to the book felt indelicate at times because of the violence and veiled sexuality. Also, several parts seemed to have been summarized in favour of action. ( )

Better in theory than in practice. Better as a made-for-tv movie, direct-to-video movie, television miniseries, short story, graphic novel.. pretty much any form but the form it's currently in. It's too long, unfunny, unrealistic, gross, tedious, and its greatest sin -- boring!For more detailed thoughts on this zombie travesty, by me, who hasn't read Pride and Prejudice, and by two friends, who have, you can find them on http://www.flaminggeeks.com/tripletak... ( )

This book is exactly what the title suggests. Some parts of the book are intact and then zombie scenes thrown in. Much of the dialog is also changed to incorporate that Britain has been overrun by zombies for the last 50 years or so.

The good stuff about this book is that parts are hilarious. The pictures in the book are also very hilarious. Sometimes I was chuckling loudly at the craziness of the whole thing. Somehow Grahame-Smith managed to do zombies in a very Victorian way. It is awesome that there are now fight scenes and zombies and ninjas! Yes, I said ninjas. The ninjas and the Bennet's combat training sometimes give the book a bit of a kungfu taste at points. So I liked that too.

Now for the bad stuff. I found the beginning of the book, with zombies, to be just as long and tedious to get through as it was without zombies. Also, since I already knew what happened in the end (kind of) the story just wasn't as interresting the second time through. I also have a stylistic quip. A big part of what makes "Pride and Prejudice" awesome is how all the characters use their subtle wording as weapons. Well, a lot of that is lost when instead of being clever about how something is said, Lizzie whips out her katana and slices her "enemies" head off. I mean it is funny but the story looses a lot of it's intelligence too...if you know what I mean.

Overall this was an okay book; it gets an extra star just for being a very novel and interesting idea. I would read it mostly if you like zombies and you like "Pride and Prejudice". If you don't like one or the other very much I think you will have trouble getting through it. ( )