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Reviews tagging 'Gore'
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Deluxe Heirloom Edition by Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith
13 reviews
ricksilva's review against another edition
dark
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This has my all-time favorite about-the-author blurb: "Jane Austen is the author of Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and other masterpieces of English literature. Seth Grahame-Smith once took a class in English literature. He lives in Los Angeles."
Testing the time-honored theory (I first heard it from late-night bad movie host Elvira, Mistress of the Dark) that everything is better with zombies or ninjas (and yes, this book has both), Seth Grahame-Smith inserts a zombie plague into Pride and Prejudice only to discover that it doesn't actually change the plot all that much.
And therein is really the true joke of this mash-up. There are zombies, and Elizabeth and her sisters are Shaolin-trained martial artists, but really, nothing much changes in the classic love story between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy.
In fact, so much of the original text remains that I found this a nice refreshing of the details of the original, which I read a few weeks ago.
There is a lot of tongue-in-cheek ridiculousness in the small details of the plague of zombies (or, more politely, "unmentionables"), not to mention the rivalry between Chinese and Japanese martial arts traditions, all handled with a kind of intentional offhand superficiality. The whole thing felt like the author is not trying all that hard, and again, this is part of the joke.
And it's a moderately amusing joke with a few very good moments and a few bits that felt like they were just tacked on because there was a quota of zombie scenes per original scenes that needed to be met.
Don't skip the couple of pages of Readers Discussion Guide at the end. This was a pretty clever little extra.
Testing the time-honored theory (I first heard it from late-night bad movie host Elvira, Mistress of the Dark) that everything is better with zombies or ninjas (and yes, this book has both), Seth Grahame-Smith inserts a zombie plague into Pride and Prejudice only to discover that it doesn't actually change the plot all that much.
And therein is really the true joke of this mash-up. There are zombies, and Elizabeth and her sisters are Shaolin-trained martial artists, but really, nothing much changes in the classic love story between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy.
In fact, so much of the original text remains that I found this a nice refreshing of the details of the original, which I read a few weeks ago.
There is a lot of tongue-in-cheek ridiculousness in the small details of the plague of zombies (or, more politely, "unmentionables"), not to mention the rivalry between Chinese and Japanese martial arts traditions, all handled with a kind of intentional offhand superficiality. The whole thing felt like the author is not trying all that hard, and again, this is part of the joke.
And it's a moderately amusing joke with a few very good moments and a few bits that felt like they were just tacked on because there was a quota of zombie scenes per original scenes that needed to be met.
Don't skip the couple of pages of Readers Discussion Guide at the end. This was a pretty clever little extra.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore
nutm3g's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I read this for a book club and had high hopes for it since I enjoyed the original novel as well as the film adaption of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. This is one of those rare cases where the movie is far better than the book, which hurts me to say. While I know this is a comedic horror retelling of a classic, I assumed the characters' motives and beliefs would stay in line with that of the original, but it really strayed in that aspect. There were a lot of things that occurred that left you thinking "what?" with little to no explanation. The zombies almost seemed haphazardly slapped into the story at times, and the fight scenes were brief with little to no action or believability (which to be fair the book is comedy centric). The several mentions of self-harm ("atonement" in the book) and casualness in which a suicide is brushed over left me feeling uneasy. If asked, I would not recommend this book to anyone and instead tell them to stick to the movie.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Terminal illness, Excrement, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, and Classism
Minor: Rape and Sexual assault
thecasualbooknerd's review
Though I enjoyed the Bennet sisters being legendary warriors, I could not deal with the fat-shaming anymore.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Fatphobia