Title: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Author: Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Genre:  Parody, Satire
Publisher: Quirk Publishing
Source: Purchased
Parental Warning: none

“The second unmentionable was a lady, and much longer dead than her companion.  She rushed at Elizabeth, her clawed fingers swaying clumsily about.  Elizabeth lifted her skirt, disregarding modesty, and delivered a swift kick to the creature’s head, which exploded in a cloud of brittle skin and bone.  She, too, fell and was no more.”

Summary:
After a plague befalls England many of the population are infected and become the walking undead.  As a result the women of the countryside are asked to take on a more active role in protecting hearth and home.  It is because of this call to duty that Elisabeth and her sisters are trained in the are of weaponry and martial arts.  In short, they are ninjas tasked with beheading the unmentionables.

As an aside to this we also have the traditional story lines of the romantic entanglements of Lizzie and Darcy, Jane and Mr. Bingley, Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins as well as much of the other major plot points.  All of which, are also interspersed with a zombie and ninja presence.  Even Lady Catherine Deburgh gets her swords on. All of which comes to an usual but expected end.

Opinion:
Not the classic retelling of Pride and Prejudice one would expect, especially given the title, this book met that expectation ten fold.  The original prose interspersed with an undead sub plot and spicier behavior this is not the Bennett family you remember.  I admit, it took me awhile to get into this story but once I did I found it humorous and entertaining.  The absolute absurdity of the Bennett girls being ninjas, the fact that they battle zombies, and a host of other departures from the original prose turned this classic romance into an action adventure in the blink of an eye.

Clearly not a story for everyone (particularly, I imagine, Austen purists) but if you’re looking for an off-beat familiar story this book just might be up your alley.  Give it a try, at the very least you’ll get a good chuckle at some of the odd scenarios characters find themselves in.