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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. 2009. Quirk Publishing. 317 pages.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.

As you can see, this isn't your traditional Pride and Prejudice. And Elizabeth and Jane aren't your traditional heroines. Meet the Bennet family. "The business of Mr. Bennet's life was to keep his daughters alive. The business of Mrs. Bennet's was to get them married." Why is life so dangerous? Zombies, of course! Fortunately, all five of his daughters have been trained in the deadly arts. All know how to defend themselves from the unfortunates, the undead, the unmentionables.

If you're familiar with the original, you'll recognize the basics. Yes, some of Jane Austen's lovely text remains. It definitely provides an outline for the rest.

Here is a classic scene which you'll remember if you've read the book or scene the movie:

"Upon my honor!" cried Mr. Bingley, "I never met with so many pleasant girls in my life as I have this evening; and there are several of them you see uncommonly pretty."
"You are dancing with the only handsome girl in the room," said Mr. Darcy, looking at the eldest Miss Bennet.
"Oh! She is the most beautiful creature I ever beheld! But there is one of her sisters sitting down just behind you, who is very pretty, and I dare say very agreeable."
"Which do you mean?" and turning round he looked for a moment at Elizabeth, till catching her eye, he withdrew his own and coldly said, "She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me; I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men."
As Mr. Darcy walked off, Elizabeth felt her blood turn cold. She had never in her life been so insulted. The warrior code demanded she avenge her honour. Elizabeth reached down to her ankle, taking care not to draw attention. There, her hand met the dagger concealed beneath her dress. She meant to follow this proud Mr. Darcy outside and open his throat.
But no sooner had she grabbed the handle of her weapon than a chorus of screams filled the assembly hall, immediately joined by the shattering of window panes....(13-14)

Here is another one of my favorites, the scene where the highly critical Catherine meets Elizabeth for the first time:

"Have your ninjas left you?"
"We never had any ninjas."
"No ninjas! How was that possible? Five daughters brought up at home without any ninjas! I never heard of such a thing. Your mother must have been quite a slave to your safety."
Elizabeth could hardly help smiling as she assured her that had not been the case. (126)

Yes, the book is gimmicky. But it's clever and fun. Though personal taste plays a big role in rather you find it so. I enjoyed most of this one. I loved some of the twists and turns. Some of the lines were just genius. There was only one chapter which angered more than amused. (But I won't spoil that for you!) You'll find all the same characters and situations...but the women--as warriors--are more empowered than the originals.

As a comedy, this works. And Pride and Prejudice becomes a page-turner for a whole other reason.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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Bonavia-Hunt, D.A. 1949/2008. Pemberley Shades: Pride and Prejudice Continues: A Lightly Gothic Tale of Mr. and Mrs. Darcy. Sourcebooks. 376 pages.

"When old Dr. Robinson, who had been Rector of Pemberley in Derbyshire for over fifty years, died one night in his sleep at the age of eighty-seven, a long life of little eventfulness and placid prosperity came to a not untimely end....Who could have foretold that Dr. Robinson, who had done nothing of note in all his lifetime should, by the common and natural act of dying, set in motion a train of events so strange, so startling, so far removed from probability, as to emulate the rioutous fancies of a disordered mind?" (1, 2)

You can read the first chapter online here. What can I say about this one? Me, the skeptic who remains ever-doubtful that the perfect sequel exists? I loved this one! I did! Last week, I talked about what I expected out of an Austen sequel..."I don't expect the writer to be Jane Austen. I don't expect her to try to channel Austen when she's writing. I don't expect her to match Austen's literary style or her wit. Just a teeny tiny smidgen of it is good. If she can capture just a small trace of the charm or humor (or both) then that's enough. What makes Austen likeable? Is it her focus on love and romance? Is it her focus on women's lives? Is it her focus on society? Is it her focus on class? Is it her focus on these often comical eccentrics? (Like Mr. Collins or Mrs. Jennings or Mrs. Bennet) Is it the fact that she was good at taking snapshots of her world? Of describing life as it was? Is it the fact that she develops so many characters all at once? Her books are never the story of one man and one woman falling in love. They are always so much more than that. There will never be a sequel that can capture anything and everything Austen was...as a writer. But I think the best of the lot will try to be multidimensional. Maybe not as widely as Austen herself was. But more than just one-dimensional."

This one delivers and then some. We've got a nice balance of Austen characters--Elizabeth, Darcy, Georgiana, Kitty, Lady Catherine, Anne, etc.--with new characters: Mr. Mortimer, Miss Robinson, Miss Sophia, Major Wakeford, Stephen Acworth, etc. This blending is so natural, so seamless that it just works. The story is simple: a new rector must be found to fill the parish/living. Mr. Darcy is looking for candidates--good candidates--to interview. The only thing he knows for certain--and Elizabeth agrees--is that it cannot, must not be filled by Mr. Collins! (He does apply for the job!) Temporarily, Mr. Mortimer is filling in as substitute preacher. But while Mr. Darcy feels he is good enough for that, the idea of him becoming the new rector is unlikely. But who will he find? One candidate after another fails to meet Mr. Darcy's standards. But then an old friend contacts him. This old friend has a brother, a younger brother, a young widower. A scholarly man who would be "perfect" for the job. A Mr. Stephen Acworth. Darcy sets off to interview him. And happens to come back with not one but two house guests: Stephen Acworth and Major Wakeford, a soldier who had at one time been quite chummy with him. But though this probation period--of six weeks--has been set in place, been promised, something about Stephen Acworth bothers Darcy. Is this his old sense of prejudice resurfacing? Or is Darcy onto something?

The story is of course more complex than that. It is filled with characters--all well-developed, all flawed, all human, some quite comical or eccentric--all have their own story to tell. There are visits, walks, parties, balls, declarations of love both proper and improper, and much much more. I don't want to say much more, but I don't want to say too little either. I highly recommend this one to skeptics everywhere. Who will like this book best? Those that love Jane Austen and who typically find modern sequels to be sickening. Who find that modern writers just don't get what Elizabeth and Darcy are about. Who will not like this book? If you're all about contemporary sequels that offer sex, sex, sex, and more sex...then this one will disappoint.

One other note: THIS IS NOT A GOTHIC BOOK. Despite the fact that it says "lightly" gothic. The point of the book is that it is an entertaining, sometimes comical, lightly romantic, moderately mysterious sequel.

Other reviews: Austenprose, Austenblog (who didn't like it at all), Curled Up,

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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Lathan, Sharon. 2009. Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Two Shall Become One. Sourcebooks. 309 pages.

(This post *could* be considered a bit PG-13...since it addresses an adult book. And really I can't discuss it without mentioning what it is about.)

I admit it. I'm skeptical of sequels. Of Jane Austen sequels. I know right off that it has the potential to be really, really good...or just plain awful. Literary Variations--prequels, sequels, and such--are books that take the characters of one author and seek to give them new life, new adventures. There are several things to consider--in general--when it comes to fiction of this kind. On the one hand, if the author (the original author) has wrapped up the book (the original book) neatly with a happily-ever-after ending, then the new author of this new book has a few choices...they can either go the route of introducing new conflict, new characters, and climb towards a new climax....or they can forget matters of plot and spend several hundred pages doing nothing in particular hoping that they can mimic the characters and/or literary style of the novel so closely that readers won't notice the lack of a plot. They'll just love being with these friends again. There is another option--one that is a frequent choice though it is a boggling one to me--use familiar characters written by famous (but-now-dead) authors and write erotica. After all, the original novels often lacked these bedroom (and not-so-bedroom) scenes. There is a market apparently for writers and readers to share together that explores these types of scenes and scenarios. On the other hand, there are books where the author (original author) hasn't wrapped everything neatly up. The author has chosen to be more ambiguous, to leave things hanging, to leave questions answered. In this case, new authors can write how they envision the characters to continue on and progress were the action to continue off the page.

Of what sort is Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy? The seemingly plotless* semi-erotic variety. Oh, it goes there. Mostly. In an almost-classy, not coarse or vulgar way; at times awkward, at other times melodramatic**. (Overuse of exclamation points!) I say seemingly plotless...it does have a plot. But it takes around two-hundred pages to get there. And once you get there, it is the introduce a villain (and in a hurry) so there will be an excuse for a sword-fight or duel later on so Darcy can play hero variety. On the one hand, the presence of this plot keeps it from being plotless altogether. And it does add some variety. I've seen plots a hundred times weaker on soap operas every day of the week. And I'm sure it is about the same sort of plot you'd find in other romance novels. No better or worse than anything you'd find in others' works.***

Elizabeth and Darcy. The author admits finding inspiration from the 2005 Pride and Prejudice. And perhaps that explains it in a small way. I have nothing against the movie****--either that one or any other adaptation--but basing a book on a movie that is based on a book...doesn't make for the strongest characters overall. The dialogue. It is what makes Austen's work sparkle. (Perhaps sparkle isn't the best word to use since it tends to associate itself with Twilight now....but I digress...) What makes this relationship work in the book is intelligent, subtle dialogue with romantic undertones. There is tension in the original. There is attraction. There is chemistry. In this sequel, well, it's lacking.

Lots of "oh's" and "my's"....My beautiful. My darling. My love. My soul. My everything. My world. My precious. Oh, darling. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. This couple exists primarily to reassure each other 24/7 that they are madly, deeply, truly in love with each other...andt a good 80% of their conversations revolve around stating just how much in love they are. How they complete each other. How lucky they are to be together. How perfect their lives are now. How happy they are. How content they are to be in each other's arms. All day. All night. They exist to gaze in each other's eyes. And, for other purposes as well, as you can imagine. I got to the point where every time Darcy would talk about how beautiful, how flawless, how perfect, how amazing, how glorious, how wonderful, how tremendous Elizabeth was....I just wanted to throw the book across the room. While the doting could prove repetitively harmless, there were a few scenes that were just awkward: scenes where Darcy and Elizabeth were talking dirty to one another (trying to at least). These scenes weren't dirty enough to be completely or outrageously filthy or vulgar. But much too much to be classy. To me, they were just awkward, embarrassing. Not every scene. Some were more classy than others. None were out-and-out explicitly graphic in the what-goes-where sense. (Well, compared to other smutty books out there where not one iota is left to the reader's imagination. And this is no Fanny Hill. It is more tasteful than most.) But plenty to squirm about if you prefer to read clean books and not introduce such stuff to your imagination.*****

In a way, this relationship reminded me of how Bella and Edward are portrayed: so sickeningly happy as long as they're together and there to talk about how wonderful the other really is. Actually, the more I think about it, the more this one reminds me of Breaking Dawn. Not that it has super-vampire-sperm or imprinting...but the weak climax and the hundreds of pages dedicated to sex where nothing much else happens. (Plenty of people out there love Breaking Dawn and think it's great. So I wouldn't be surprised if there are people who think this one is good too.)

What I can say about the book in a positive sense...while I prefer (more often than not) to stay outside the bedroom doors of my favorite literary couples, many readers get excited about the prospect of Jane Austen sequels. Many hope that such books are graphic, that they go above and beyond where the original was allowed to go. That they'll be able to be a-fly-on-the-wall to watch the hero and heroine be intimate with one another again and again and again. And for those readers looking for several hundred pages of Elizabeth and Darcy intimacy, then this will satisfy you. I'm sure for every reader that objects to such envisioning or re-envisioning, there are two more that are happy and pleased with it. I will say this much on its behalf...it is emphatically and unquestionably a thousand times better than the sequels by Linda Berdoll. (Chances are you'll agree with me. There are (at the time of this posting) 174 ratings that give that book only 1 star. 139 give it 5 stars. 37 give it two stars. 43 give it three stars. 83 give it four stars.)

I hope I've stated clearly enough that while this one may not appeal to me, it could very well appeal to you. To get a better idea of what it has to offer visit the author's blog. One other note, it is the first in at least a three-volume series (perhaps longer). So it could be that more plot will be coming. Other books in the series may prove more interesting and satisfying.

Other perspectives: Diary of An Eccentric; Armchair Interviews; Bookfoolery; Ex Libris; AustenBlog; Savvy Verse and Wit; AustenBlog (2nd review);

*some folks think a book of loosely connected sex scenes is a plot; who am I to judge them for thinking it is?
**Trust me, I'm glad it errs on this side of the line. I'd much rather have it be closer to classy and completely dignified than explicitly graphic. The two are obviously in love. And they're married. And there is nothing wrong with them taking pleasure with one another.
***In case you're curious--my romance tastes are this: I don't mind smut (and I don't mean smut in a derogatory way. Really. You'll just have to trust me on that.) occasionally. But I like a balanced approach: the hero and heroine fully developed, interesting dialogue that isn't of the drag and drop variety. (You know the kind where you could replace the names of any two characters and play switcheroo with scenes and insert them into other books without blinking an eye). The best kinds of love scenes are where the characters are so thoroughly themselves, so unique that it's all about them and not so much about what they're doing or how they're doing it. And the story. It should have a story. It doesn't have to be a serious story. Or a dramatic story. It could be lighthearted. It could be serious. It could be funny. It could be touching or tragic. It could be a parody. It could poke fun at itself or the genre. It could be silly. The story could revolve around anything--a ball, a dance, a party, a vacation or trip, whatever. But something needs to be going on outside the sex scenes. There are thousands and thousands of romance novels out there. And some I've enjoyed. Some I haven't. Some I thought were more tasteful than others. Some suited me. Some didn't. Some I thought were better written than others. But I've read at least a hundred or so (maybe more) through the years so it's not like I've no experience with the genre.

****I own the 2005 movie and the 1995 movie. I've seen both. Multiple times. I've probably watched P&P more than read it. I've only read it twice.

*****I believe in playing nice. Some of my readers do like fiction on the clean side. I have readers that like things smutty. I'm not playing favorites or picking sides. I try to let my readers know which is which so they can choose for themselves what they want to read. I would never criticize anyone for liking things on the smutty side. Everyone has a right to pick what they want to read.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Brinton, Sybil. G. 1914/2008. Old Friends and New Fancies: An Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen.

Originally written in 1913 (published in 1914), Old Friends and New Fancies is the first Jane Austen sequel ever created. It has been newly published by Sourcebooks. The book is a first in many ways. It is unique too. It is a sequel to all SIX Jane Austen novels: Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and Sense and Sensibility. You'll find several of your best-loved and best-love-to-hate characters within its pages.

At its heart, Old Friends and New Fancies is a love story. A book all about the ups, downs, twists, and turns of courtship--Austen style. Misunderstandings abound!

I especially loved to see how Mrs. Jennings, Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Emma Knightley are still causing trouble--intentional or not.

The book is essentially concerned with four would-be-pairings. I hesitate to tell you too much. After all, half the fun is seeing which pairs Sybil Brinton imagined being compatible. There are two primary narrators, however, in the book: Georgiana Darcy and Elizabeth (Bennet) Darcy. (Other viewpoints are shown. And it is more than just those two, but over half the book at least are those two.)

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Mix and match: James Morland, William Price, Colonel Fitzwilliam, Tom Bertram...with....
Georgiana Darcy, Kitty Bennet, Isabella Thorpe, and Mary Crawford.


© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Odiwe, Jane. 2008. Lydia Bennet's Story.

The true misfortune, which besets any young lady who believes herself destined for fortune and favour, is to find that she has been born into an unsuitable family. Lydia Bennet of Longbourn, Hertfordshire, not only believed that her mama and papa had most likely stolen her from noble parents, ut also considered it a small miracle that they could have produced between them her own fair self and four comely girls--Jane, Lizzy, Mary, and Kitty--though to tell the truth, she felt herself most blessed in looks. Lydia's greatest desire in life was to be married before any of her sisters, but a lack of marriageable beaux in the county and her papa's reluctance to accompany her to as many Assembly Balls as she wished had thwarted her efforts thus far.

Shall Lydia live happily ever after like her two older sisters? You'll have to read Lydia Bennet's Story for yourself to see. The greater question may just be...does she deserve to have her happily ever after? Lydia is many things. Playful. Boy-crazy. Immature. Irresponsible. Impulsive. Selfish. Vain. Spoiled. Silly. Naive. Flighty. Flirtatious. Entitled. (Reading that description, I think of Scarlett O'Hara. Isn't that an odd comparison waiting to happen!) And as the youngest of the Bennet clan, she is the least ready (emotionally and psychologically) to be married. She is one of those girls that is stuck-on-herself. Who believes that the world revolves around her. For her to get her happily-ever-after Lydia will have to change. She'll have to start growing up. She'll have to start maturing. She'll have to begin to think of others, to be respectful and considerate. She'll have to learn to compromise. She'll have to learn to think before acting. She'll have to become wiser and more genuine. Which leads to my question, is Lydia capable of growth and transformation?

Lydia's story is revealed through rather obnoxious diary entries and letters (simply because they're written by her), and through a more traditional third-person-narrative. The book is in two parts. The first which parallels what we know from Pride and Prejudice, and the second which is a sequel to the action. It is in this second section, that we see if Lydia does get her happily ever after.

It's hard to review this one without giving it away. George Wickham is George Wickham. And if you've read Pride and Prejudice you know exactly what that means. He's a shameless bad boy incapable of change, incapable of integrity. If George is who he is...is it possible even remotely for Lydia to have her happily ever after and remain Mrs. George Wickham? I'll leave that for you to decide!!!

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So what do I think of this one. I found the ending to be a bit unbelievable. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't hoping for Lydia to get what she deserves--to pay for the consequences of her impulsive rashness. Okay, maybe a part of me was. But I knew better than to expect that in a contemporary sequel. But the ending seemed a bit rushed...not giving Lydia the needed time to mature and develop into a woman.

Other reviews: A Book Blogger's Diary, Jane Austen Today, Austenprose, Austen-tatious.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Noyes, Deborah. 2008. The Ghosts of Kerfol.

The Ghosts of Kerfol is an enjoyable short story collection that pays tribute to Edith Wharton's short story "Kerfol". I'd encourage you to take a few minutes (about ten or twenty actually) and read this haunting story about an old-and-creepy manor. The Ghosts of Kerfol is a collection of five short stories: "Hunger Moon," "These Heads Would Speak," "The Figure Under the Sheet," "When I Love You Best," and "The Red of Berries." The first two especially--"Hunger Moon" and "These Heads Would Speak" pay tribute to Wharton's original story. The remaining stories are imaginative what-ifs that bring the story into the modern world.

The original story is a story-within-a-story. Kerfol is the manor in question. The framework of the story is about a person (I don't think it says if it is a man or woman; if it did I missed it) who is considering buying Kerfol. The narrator is there at the estate exploring the grounds and hoping for a closer view of the house itself. But the narrator keeps seeing a handful of dogs around the place. We later realize--along with the narrator--that these dogs are ghosts. That one day a year--on the terrible anniversary--they appear. The guardian and his daughter always leave that day to avoid the creepy factor as much as possible. The narrator then reads an account of the history of Kerfol.

This second story, the inner story, is set in the seventeenth century. It involves an old man and a young woman in a "seemingly" "happy" but childless marriage. Happy if you think such a thing is possible when the woman has no freedom to move about on her own even on her own estate in and about her home, her gardens, etc. Sensing on some level at least her loneliness, he buys her a dog. What happens next isn't pretty. One day he becomes jealous and he strangles her dog. And it only gets worse from there. Believe me. Dog-lovers will be crushed at the cruelty. But the husband does get his comeuppance, he's murdered--and according to his wife's claims--by these dead dogs of hers.

The story isn't pretty. It's melancholy at best. And the stories crafted in The Ghosts of Kerfol are bittersweet and haunting. The first, "Hunger Moon," re-envisions the second story (Yves de Cornault and Anne de Barrigan) as told by a servant girl, a waiting woman. The second story, "These Heads Would Speak," is about a young man visiting the estate. He's there while his mother seeks to straighten out his inheritance. Anyway, this story parallels the frame story of the original in a way.

The remaining stories interconnect with the previous and the original. It was a well-crafted book. The creepiness was perfect. I enjoyed all the stories.

Other reviews: Teenreads.com, ReadSpace, The Well-Read Child.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Reynolds, Abigail. 2008. Impulse and Initiative: A Pride and Prejudice Variation.

This book sets out to answer these questions, "What if...instead of disappearing from Elizabeth Bennet's life after she refused his offer of marriage, Mr. Darcy had stayed and tried to change her mind? What if...Lizzy as she gets to know Darcy, finds him undeniably attractive and her impulses win out over her sense of propriety? What if...madly in love and mutually on fire, their passion anticipates their wedding?"

I have mixed feelings on this one. I do. Pride and Prejudice is one of those books that is practically perfect in every way. One of those happy-making books that you enjoy reading with a big smile on your face. Mr. Darcy is just so perfect, just the way he is. So I've never thought about him needing improvement. Never imagined him courting Elizabeth any other way. Never thought their relationship lacked sizzle.

And this book sets out to re-imagine those beloved characters. It is a variation in tone, in character, and in plot. Mr. Darcy is madly in love with Elizabeth. But she's hesitant about his wooing. For Darcy, as Reynolds envisions him, this means that he needs to turn up the heat. If she won't respond to his true-heart-revelations, perhaps she'll respond to his touch, his kiss, his embrace. If he can make her melt, drive her wild with passion, then surely she'll consent to become Mrs. Darcy. Right?

The problem with this is that to win her that way, he has to resort to becoming everything he despises. Darcy is fundamentally a gentleman at heart. A Mr. Darcy without morals, without propriety, without thought or concern for a lady's reputation--his lady's reputation--is almost unimaginable until now. Darcy borrowing from Wickham? Really?! An Elizabeth whose reputation is in tatters, who has become the disappointment of her father, who has adopted Lydia's it-feels-so-good-it-can't-be-wrong philosophy?!

The writing. Reynolds' writing is not fundamentally bad. It's not that she doesn't know how to write, how to turn a phrase, how to write scenes that work. Stylistically, on the surface, everything about this one works. The characters. The scenes. All good--maybe not brilliantly, great (award-winning great) but not bad. Certainly entertaining. Certainly on the level of other romance novelists. But it's the fact that it's Mr. Darcy. It's Elizabeth. Their love isn't supposed to be smutty. Respect. Purity. Both qualities that they'd expect to find in the other, and hold themselves to as well.

There were enjoyable aspects of this novel. I must say that I smiled when it was Elizabeth who came home and announced that she'd married first. You know those smug scenes between Lydia and her mother and sisters. The ones where she's bragging that she got married first. That she got her man. That married life was so wonderful. Now it's Elizabeth's turn to boast.
And there are a few other enjoyable scenes as well. I like, in a way, the conversations between Darcy and Elizabeth trying to prove to themselves (reassure themselves) why it was right for them to have sex, but wrong for Wickham and Lydia. I suppose they rationalize it all by intentions. Wickham is a jerk, a lusty jerk that is selfish and only looking out for himself. And Darcy, well his intentions are honorable even if his actions aren't. And while one might think Elizabeth's own tainted (impure) experience might give her sympathy or understanding for her sister and her sister's giving into temptation...you'd be wrong. Elizabeth still feels a bit superior to her sister. Still judges her for the foolish idiot she is.

If you're looking for Pride and Prejudice with smut inserted, then this one is for you.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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