Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After

Steve Hockensmith, 2011, Quirk Books

When Fitzwilliam Darcy is nipped by a rampaging Dreadful, his bride, Elizabeth Bennet, knows that the only proper course of action is to behead him. But when she learns of a miracle cure being developed in London, she will stop at nothing for one last chance to save the man she loves - even if it means playing into the hands of Darcy's hateful and calculating aunt, Lady Catherine!

If you've enjoyed the first two books in the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies series, you'll certainly enjoy this third (and supposedly final) installment, penned by the author of the second book, Dawn of the Dreadfuls. As with Dawn, Dreadfully Ever After recounts the continuing adventures of the zombie-killing Bennet sisters in a manner that perfectly captures the tone of Austen's original text, albeit with an at-times OTT satirical edge (which isn't a criticism, by the way). Hockensmith goes all-out to give the series a worthy send-off, delivering a fast-paced plot filled with intrigue, action, gore, and masses of zombie- and ninja-related action. The familiar themes of class and social expectations are revisited, with additional issues of race, feminism and politics examined in rather more detail than in the previous books. The characters, as always, are pure Austen - zombie-killing aside - with much of the humour derived from setting such folk against the backdrop of a zombie-infested England. In short, Dreadfully Ever After is an extremely fun read, and one I'd recommend to anyone who doesn't take their zomfic too seriously.

It's safe to say that, in the literary mash-up subgenere created by the original Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, this trilogy stands head-and-brains above all other such titles, and is well worth reading, regardless of how one may feel about mash-ups in general.

News: Art of the Mash-Up Competition

In the lead-up to the release of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After, Quirk Books have announced the following exciting competition.

Eric Smith reports:
'Recently, some of the Quirk team took a trip to New York City to meet with our friends at the Bridgeman Art Library. For those of you unfamiliar with Bridgeman, they’re the world’s leading source of fine art and historical images available for reproduction… and we’ve worked with them on all of our Quirk Classics titles, including Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, Dawn of the Dreadfuls, Android Karenina, and the upcoming Dreadfully Ever After.

'We've teamed up with Bridgeman to present the Art of the Mash-up Design Competition. To celebrate the March 22nd release of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After, we’re giving Quirk fans and designers the opportunity to craft their own mash-up book covers for a chance at fabulous prizes.

'The contest is inspired by the iconic cover from our 2009 New York Times best-selling book Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. That cover features a zombified version of the once-genteel portrait of Marcia B. Fox, which our designer Doogie Horner acquired from Bridgeman Art Library. Horner transformed the original artwork by repainting portions and merging the changes in Photoshop. The resulting mashed-up image was voted Amazon’s Best Book Cover of the Year in 2009. You can check out all the before and after images of the five Classics, here on Bridgeman’s website.

'The prizes are pretty fantastic. The grand-prize package, includes entrance to the HOW Design Conference in Chicago and a feature in GD USA Magazine! Our favorites will be featured in a First Friday gallery show at Brave New Worlds in Philadelphia. For more information and to enter, visit http://www.bridgemanart.com/competitions.'

This competition closes March 11th, so aspiring artists should get in Quirk quick!

Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Jane Austen & Seth Graham-Smith, Quirk Books, 2009


A mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton - and the dead are returning to life! Yet another distraction for feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennett, whose attentions are already fully taxed by her dislike for the arrogant (yet irresistable) Mr. Darcy, and her desire to overcome the social prejudices of her peers. Oh, and those dratted ninjas that Lady Catherine keeps sending to attack her...

Even if you're not a fan of zombies (or Jane Austen) it's likely that you'd be aware of the publishing phenomenon that is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Following some fairly minor pre-release publicity back in Feb this year, this novel - which is nothing more (or less) than Austen's original work with a zombie subplot and some 'tweaked' scenes and dialogue thrown in - was immediately picked up for international distribution and optioned for a movie adaptation, all well before the title had even hit bookshelves. Of course, it could be argued (correctly, I'd imagine) that the hysteria surrounding 'Pride' has more to do with the popularity of Austen than with the popularity of zombies: nonetheless, I've never before seen so much promotion amongst the usually horror-phobic mainstream media and bookselling industry for any publication involving the living dead.

2009: Year of the Zombie, man!

But I digress...

So, hype and publicity aside, is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies actually any good?

Well, yes, it is. It's fair to say that the book works more because of the extreme novelty of the Austen/zombie mash up than because of any added literary merit the inclusion of zombies might bring, but this doesn't make the ride any less enjoyable. There's actually surprisingly little change to the original text - okay, so the Bennett sisters are now zombie-killing martial-arts experts, and the lower classes have a careless habit of getting their brains eaten - but what changes have been made are very obviously and effectively played for laughs. There's even a 'Reader's Discussion Guide' at the back of the book, filled with useful book club conversation-starters such as: 'Vomit plays an important role in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies...Do the authors mean for this regurgitation to symbolize something greater, or is it a cheap device to get laughs?'

I suspect that those who are truly serious about either Austen or zombies or - not impossibly - both may think twice before picking up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but I'd certainly urge them to do so. Austen fans should find great enjoyment in identifying where the narrative in this book diverges from the original, and zombie fans will undoubtedly enjoy...erm...the zombies. And the gore.

A great, fun, classic tale of modern manners. Now with added zombie mayhem.

(Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is distributed locally by Random House Australia)

Review: I Am Scrooge / Dawn of the Dreadfuls

I Am Scrooge, Adam Roberts, 2009, Gollancz

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies 2: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, Steve Hockensmith, 2010, Quirk Books


Okay, I know what you're thinking: 'Hasn't that damned Zombie/Classic Literature Mash-Up subgenre run its course yet?' And it's a fair question. Like zombies themselves, zomlit novels just keep popping up all over the place, and - it must be said - some of them are truly dreadful (and not in good way, and yes, I am looking at you, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim!).


For those not yet thoroughly sick of this trend, however, it's heartening to know that there are some decent titles out there - well-written and genuinely entertaining, with decent plots and characters; not merely Original Text with zombies thrown into the mix. Two of the best I've read recently have been Pride & Prejudice & Zombies 2: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, and I Am Scrooge.

I truly didn't expect to enjoy PPZ2; if ever there was a wholly 'novelty' novel, the original PPZ was it, and the idea of a sequel (or, in this case, prequel) just smacked of needless commercialism. Much to my surprise, however, it's actually a pretty damn good book, largely due to author Hockensmith not having to structure his plot and dialogue around existing text. The tale revolves around the induction of the famed Bennett sisters into the deadly arts that will see them through the coming zombie uprising; indeed, the zombies of the piece play second fiddle to the sisters' martial arts training, and there's very little undead action until a good two-thirds of the the way through the book - which again may contribute to, rather than detract from, a readers' enjoyment. The tone of the piece is self-consciously, and mostly successfully, humorous. Great fun, and definitely worth reading if you even vaguely enjoyed the original PPZ.

If you're one of the many zomfans who thinks that Shaun of the Dead is the pinnacle of zombie cinema, then I Am Scrooge by Adam (A. R. R. R. R.) Roberts is definitely for you. Taking the original opening line - and the iconic character of Ebeneezer Scrooge - from Dickens' A Christmas Carol as its starting point, the novel immediately spins off into a bizarre, extremely gory, and laugh-out-loud funny tale involving ghosts, time travel, alternate realities, steampunk technologies, and (of course) a zombie apocalypse, with cameo appearances by Queen Victoria, H. G. Wells, Charles Dickens, and a certain 'Jolly Jack'. Basically, it's completely nuts. Comedy is obviously a subjective thing, but there truly is something in here for everyone, and I defy anyone to read this without at least cracking a smile.