Let me preface this review with two comments: first, I love
Jane Austen and all of her novels – they just make me smile; second, the current
popularity of zombies urged me check out that world. So why not let these two worlds collide?
I’ll tell you why: the collision kind of ruins Jane Austen.
I won’t lie: it started off highly entertaining. I was immediately amused by how Seth
Grahame-Smith tweaked Austen’s language to directly incorporate the
zombies. The opening line reads:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains
must be in want of more brains”. I
can appreciate this play with the original opening line. And initially I found the undead’s
presence kind of amusing, albeit a little stressful at times. Like when traveling between homes, the
Bennet girls often had to fight off these unmentionables. And occasionally, this worked well within
the story that I love. Remember
when Jane visits the Bingley’s and falls ill because she rode in the rain, leading
to Elizabeth’s arrival in Netherfield and clash with the arrogant Mr.
Darcy? In the current zombie
addition, the reason for Jane’s prolonged visit is because of a zombie attack! It’s not actually so far-fetched.
And then the novel lost me. I found that the addition of the zombies created new
storylines lacking Austen’s intentions.
Relatively major characters are bitten by zombies and slowly move into
the land of the undead; refined romantic women are now sword-wielding ninja
warriors. Seriously, instead of
singing and playing the piano at social gatherings, these women pick up their
swords, and pierce the heart of zombies.
And the men find this attractive?
Oh, and Darcy physically beats up Wickham . . . to win over
Elizabeth. Why is everyone
so violent? I know they’re living
through the zombie apocalypse, but my characters are charming, sophisticated,
elegant. So when Elizabeth fights
Lady Catherine and her ninjas in a battle involving extremely athletic leaps
and spin, as well as sword clashing and muscle punctures, the collision between
Austen and zombies finally implodes and I decided the novel is ridiculous.
Furthermore, with all the alterations in storyline,
Grahame-Smith’s must actually write his own material. And let’s just say it’s not up to the sophistication of
Austen’s. If I actually
enjoyed the novel, I could forgive the lack of intellectual writing. The combination of ridiculous story and
bad writing make this novel not worth my time.
Oh ya, and I didn’t learn that much about zombies.
I have other zombie books on my to-read pile, so perhaps
those stories will draw me in better than this ridiculous adaptation of one of
my favourite novels.
