Customer Reviews

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls (Quirk Classics)

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When you remove the novelty from a novelty novel, you end up with something akin to "Dawn of the Dreadfuls." Mind you, there is nothing particularly wrong with Steve Hockensmith's prequel to the surprise hit of last year, "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies"--it just seems somewhat unnecessary. I will defend "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" as an ingenious experiment, but its foremost success was to meld actual Jane Austen text with a story of the undead. This is what made the experience unique and daring. Seth Grahame-Smith challenged modern readers, and horror readers at that, to revisit (or in many cases, visit for the first time) Austen's prose in an audacious new way.

As a stand alone volume, "Dawn of the Dreadfuls" is a perfectly readable, enjoyable and pleasant little book. Charting the journey of the Bennet family in the years prior to "P&P&Z," we see the rise of the unmentionables within the sleepy little countryside and the call to arms of the Bennet daughters. From frivolous schoolgirls to lethal warriors, "Dreadfuls" plays as more of a family saga. Headstrong Elizabeth is still at the forefront, but all the characters get their due. Since "Dreadfuls" isn't tied to a particular format as "P&P&Z" was, the opportunity for more zombie mayhem and bloodshed presents itself. The spectacularly staged grand finale is even reminiscent of an upscale "Night of the Living Dead."

Hockensmith does try for the tone of Austen, especially in the romantic dalliances, but not the language. Funny and irreverent as it may be (and that's a good thing), it just lacks the novelty and cleverness factor of its predecessor. In broad strokes, he stays true to the idea of the characters if not their specifics. With the deviations of behavior and this rather gruesome back-story, however, you can't really accept "Dreadfuls" as a true prequel. The two novels don't really mesh as well as one would hope. Linking them together seems more of a financial decision than an artistic one--but that's just the cynic in me talking. All in all, though, I had fun with "Dawn of the Dreadfuls," it just doesn't compel me to fight for it in the way Grahame-Smith's attempt has. And a quick mention on the graphics--as with "P&P&Z," the cover and inner illustrations are top notch!

Let's start off with some reviewer honesty, here. I've never been fond of Zombie stories, or movies. C'mon, who could be afraid of something that walks with the efficiency of a two-toed sloth, while shedding body parts. More than once, I've shouted, 'don't scream---just run.' Now Vampires, my favorite creatures of the night, they're a different story. You can't run from them---and they can be so darn seductive, too. Not so with gooey, smelly, Zombies. Ugh!

Now you know why I've avoided Seth Grahame-Smith's work, to which 'Dawn of the Dreadfuls' is the prequel. Then destiny unfolded and Hockensmith's work was a Vine offering. My curiosity was piqued by the brilliant cover art. I hesitantly made the selection with limited expectations. Zombie's aside, I wasn't quite sure how I'd feel about anyone messing with Ms. Austen's masterpiece, P&P. I was prepared to be the worst critic.

I'm here to confess that, 'Dawn of the Dreadfuls,' was some of the most fun my free-child has had, in a long time. It was nothing like I expected. From the moment that dear Mr. Ford becomes an animated cadaver, at his own funeral, the action starts and there is scarcely a dull moment.

All of the characters are well developed and delightful, but the Bennett girls steal the show, particularly Lizzy. The girls experience many of the societal ills witnessed in P&P---that of a patriarchal society with strict social and moral boundaries. As in P&P, the girls were content to spend countless hours primping, daydreaming and searching for the perfect suitor. Of course, Mrs. Bennett is in typical form, pushing them toward higher social status. Then suddenly, their lives change. They have to put down the embroidery needles, stop preening, and pick up weapons, much to the chagrin of the town locals. Nope, war was NOT a woman's place!

The serene English countryside becomes cluttered with the undead, as the reader is introduced to a host of secondary characters cleverly driving the plot. The dialogue is witty and charming, with some romance and nail-biting moments; some with an accompanying illustration. There are several unexpected twists and turns with the ending culminating in a bloody crescendo. Everyone doesn't get out alive, and, some not all in one piece, so it didn't cop for a saccharine ending.

Grab this one and have fun. I know I sure did. Personally, I think Ms. Austen would giggle, if she could see her girls enjoying such empowerment.

I am an ardent Austen fan girl and read far more of the published fan fiction than is probably entirely good for me. Along this vein, I could not resist picking up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies when I heard of it. I expected hilarity, but got what I found to be a shoddy, lazy job. That book seemed to have been written primarily through the use of Word's ctrl-f replace function, changing terms like "practicing the pianoforte" to "practicing the deadly arts." There were a few clever elements, but, for the most part, I hated it. Nevertheless, I could not resist giving the prequel a try.

To my surprise, this one was much better. The reason for this is that Hockensmith could not simply change a few words and sections in an already published novel. He actually wrote a story. It is silly and sensational and gory, the plot rather ridiculous, but that is all to be expected. For my part, I recommend reading this and skipping the book it is prequel-ing, but everyone can make their own decision on that.

The first indication that the dreadfuls had returned was when Mr. Ford rudely tried to walk out of his own funeral. This is where teenaged Elizabeth Bennet sees her first unmentionable. (The zed word is not said in polite society.) Mr. Bennet was involved in the previous zombie war, but gave up the deadly arts when the menace appeared to have been vanquished. Now that the dreadfuls have returned, he seizes the chance to redeem his honor and train his daughters in the deadly arts. Elizabeth may not be the most talented or accomplished pupil, but she is definitely the most energetic and voracious. Between the initial zombie war and the recent outbreak, there had been a long time of people being buried in the normal way: with their heads attached. Now, all of these long buried dead have clawed their way out of graves all over Hertfordshire. Can the horde be stopped by the Bennet family and a hundred new, barely trained soldiers or will all hope be lost?

Hockensmith took great characters and put them in an entirely different situation while still preserving their essential being. The origins of the Bennet sisters fit very well with the image of them in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Jane's kindheartedness and compassion endures through her harsh training. Elizabeth is disillusioned and alienated by two different men, leading to her hard outer shell. The new characters introduced were wonderful. They are very flawed characters with dimensions, but most of them still managed to be likeable. The two that evoked the most feeling in me were Dr. Keckilpenny and Lord Lumpley. The doctor was quirky, cute, and absent minded. His extreme focus on finding scientific solution to the zombie problem was interesting. Lord Lumpley, on the other hand, was disgusting, lascivious, and made me feel dirty just reading about him. I liked that the point of view was in the third person and focused on different characters throughout the novel. It gave a peek into the inner workings of characters that wouldn't normally be showcased.

I was very interested in the way society was portrayed in the novel. When the Bennet girls first start to train, they are seen as social pariahs. This has to do with the tradition role of women in society and racism. Of course when the sisters were saving people that ostracized, the girls were popular and welcome. The attitude of the government when it didn't let people know the full extent of the zombie outbreak to keep people calm is reminiscent of many modern zombie novels. I've never seen this before in a book set in a different time period. These two aspects gave the story a bit of realism that made it easier to suspend disbelief and made me more engrossed with the story.

Dawn of the Dreadfuls was awesome. I loved this book. It was a great, fast read that moved fluidly. I think Steve Hockensmith had a slight advantage over Seth Grahame-Smith in that he didn't have to fit his writing into an existing text and try to blend the two together. This all new story was a much faster read than its predecessor, but just as enjoyable. The big zombie fight at the end really had me on the edge of my seat. I look forward to whatever Steven Hockensmith will do in the future.

First things first: I hate Pride and Prejudice. Austen fans, stay at bay, it is just simply the most boring drivel I've ever picked upon: a bunch of middle class girls harping constantly about being perfectly fine all the bloody time. Nonsense. I appreciate what that novel did to literature, but I cannot abide it. Then PPZ came out. I fell in love. It was flawless. One of my very favorite books, and I've read it a dozen times at least. When the prequel came out, I snatched it up immediately. And on the first read through, I thought it was just delightful, until I thought about what Seth Grahame-Smith wrote about the Bennets' past. This didn't exactly follow what he had laid down as fact. Smith made it clear all the girls trained very young and in the Orient (I believe Lydia would slay her first dreadful at 7) , while in this this not only has them training much older, but in the wrong place, not to mention that the zombies weren't even around when they were at that age. The only reason I mention this is because it distracted me while reading it. I don't think it detracts unduly, but it did make me scratch my head. The story itself, though, was great. It was fun, it was very close to the original's style and humor, and I have read it several times. I wish it had been the original background or different characters, but in the end, it wasn't very detrimental.

When I saw the title, "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", I just had a pure sense of delight well up inside me. Finally, a book that made sense and enchantment out of the originally boring and 'socially dramatic' story and movie that I'd seen many shallow, preppy girls wallow in and try to drown me into. Finally, a rendition for a girl like me that loves zombies, violence, and more important things than who's shocking who at what dance hall in merry old England.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not bashing the author or anyone else who took part of the original story, it's just not my cup of tea. Because I drink chocolate milk. So tea wouldn't work for me at all.

Besides my personal taste, I love Dawn of the Dreadfuls because while it keeps plenty of fancy and romance about it, it also blends in weapons, violence, excitement and monsters. It's a perfect combination for a girl who wants to secure her femininity, but not be a dour old bitch. The story flows along perfectly and is a pleasure to read once you get use to the style. All the ninja things in this book took me by surprise, but it doesn't overdo it to the point where it drowns out the English theme. Sad to say, but once you mix one social popular theme in, they all worm up. I'm surprised (and forever gladdened) there aren't pirates and LOL Cats in this.

PRIDE & PREJUDICE & ZOMBIES
DAWN OF THE DREADFULS

The meshing of classic books and figures with more of a horror element has been very popular as of lat with all kinds of books coming out. That includes the previous book in this series, "Pride & Prejudice & Zombies" for which this is a prequel. Naturally I have bought and read all of them and like most have enjoyed them very much, more so than others. But unlike the first book this one was not written by the same person, this time around Steve Hockensmith takes on the zombie duties.

This time around it is years before the events in the first book, four or five if I remember correctly. The Bennet's decide that it is time to teach their girls how to kill the zombie menace that is all over the land. It is in this that the real fun of the book takes place, zombies, girls being coached on how to kill them, and even martial arts masters, I love it. There is even a scientist that wants to help these zombies out kinda; it leads to some fun moments in the story.

I realize that I am being kinda vague about this but I don't want to give anything away. I will say though that the ending is really fun and a lot of crazy things happen. Some people get what is coming to them and one of those is a really great moment. I do recommend this book but it is not for everybody, if you are a fan of the first book or zombies you will love this. So from one horror fan to another [you must be reading this, I think] check this out, it is a real fun one.

I think I may have enjoyed this prequel even better than Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I think freeing himself from an already well known plot worked well for this author. It had the feel of a Jane Austen book in speech and mannerisms, but lost the expectation of BEING Pride and Prejudice. I could see the original characters clearly in their representation in this book. The only flaw was that it was hard to get emotionally involved with the love interests in the book as we clearly knew the girls would end up with none of them. I must admit, I really liked his backstory regarding the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Bennett and why they treat each other the way they do.

Such a deliciously quirky premise should be deftly handled and true to the original, or it just slides into drivel. Although this promising idea had a pretty solid beginning, it very quickly did the sliding. It's NOT HARD to mimic the voice of a 19th century heroine if you've read more than one Jane Austin novel. To willfully ignore the way people spoke, to flout the courtesies they gave and expected, to use bad grammar and awkward syntax just makes the book heavy going and ultimately impossible to read.

Too bad. Great idea.

First, I haven't read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and didn't realize that this was a prequel to that tale.

However, as one who has been known to enjoy a zombie movie, now and again, this short tale was rather delightful.

The language only flirts with being period, so there's no worry of slogging through any of that. Instead, it's treated as a rather modern telling of a zombie tale, set long ago, unlike the first, which sounded to be more of a tweaking of Pride and Prejudice.

The pictures - black and white, hand-drawn, with lined shading (whatever that's officially called) - is rather nice, and present scenes (although not completely accurate) taken from the book. Thankfully, these are always after the events take place in the book, so the only way these'll spoil the story is if you go looking ahead.

I found it to be a very quick read, once I picked it up, thanks to relatively quick pace and very little extraneous story.

As for the characters, we get to know about a dozen, although only half of that are of any interest, and even that group adds and loses numbers, as the book progresses. (For example, only one of the sisters is really of any interest at the beginning of the book, but by the end two are.)

As for whether I'll pick up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, having read this, I probably won't. This was a fun read, but I suppose I enjoy watching them more ...

So, if you enjoy zombies, and have interest in reading a (short, quick) story about them, pick this up. Otherwise, don't bother.