REVIEW of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Jane Austen and Steve Hockensmith
Just as Seth Grahame-Smith did with the original Pride and Prejudice now Steve Hockensmith has done with a prequel – Adding zombies perfectly into the world of Jane Austen and making it readable. (Sorry classic literature readers while I am a horror lover I can enjoy a classic – Jane just does not do it for me. Never has, never will.)
Taking place 4 years prior to the events in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies we are able to watch as the outbreak truly begins to happen. The tale begins during a funeral and you can just picture what happens in a novel about zombies that start in such a setting. Quickly we are shown that the Bennet’s are not like many of the other families in the land as the father wants his two daughters to be safe. While the mother stresses to leave things as is the father insists they are prepared to take care of themselves and hires in a master of the martial arts to train his daughters. It’s a scandal in the works. Women learning martial arts in the early part of the nineteenth century England? Unheard of! The two young girls were practically banned from public life as they were no longer invited to social events or small functions.
While our main focus is of course once again on Elizabeth Bennett (it’s based on Pride and Prejudice, how could it not be?) As a bonus we have two new characters that stand out which absolutely helped make this novel just as entertaining as the last one. In fact I wouldn’t mind seeing a book dedicated to the first of the two characters that I’m going to bring up – Dr. Keckilpenny. The good Doctor is attempting to do research on the zombies that have been covering the land and any fan of zombie movies will groan when he is on the page but still want to read more. He is also one of the suitors of Elizabeth so does pop up quite a bit. The second is Captain Cannon who no longer has any limbs. In fact to make up for this he has two soldiers he uses to ac as his own limbs! Elizabeth does have a second suitor as well, the martial artist, Master Hawksworth, who helped to train the Bennet’s in martial arts.
Overall it’s a fun story and a great lead in to the world as explained in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. While I enjoyed the first novel more (probably due to it being an original idea at the time) I felt that this one was a much easier read. I’m pretty sure that the majority of the readers out there will enjoy reading this one over Seth’s so if you are planning to pick one up – go with this one!
Available for pre-order at Amazon
