2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Seth Grahame-Smith's book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.


***Please remember to mark spoilers.***

Participants:
Kadijah Michelle, Keri, Lindsay, Holly, Tami, Taylor R, Cassandra

Suggested break down of reading so that you can check in and let us know how you're going. The following breakdown is purely a suggestion and is therefore not set in stone.

Rather than putting dates for each section I've done it so that it takes into account that not everybody will necessarily have the book at the same time.

Week 1: 79.75 pages
Week 2: 79.75 pages
Week 3: 79.75 pages
Week 4: 79.75 pages

I started reading the book yesterday and have only gotten to chapter 12, but I so far am not impressed with it. Maybe it's just me, but the story feels rather flat. It reads like the author copied the original and just threw in a few mentions of the 'unmenti
onables.' So far, the zombies aren't even all that.....dangerous. In fact, they kind of feel like a joke. There is no real presence of fear of them.

I guess I was expecting more of a survival story set in Austin's story of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. I would also have liked if the book would explain how the plague started and why.

I'll keep reading though. Perhaps it will improve. It's not bad, i'm just losing interest.


(Much time later)

I would have to say the best part of this book was that it was a fast read. I'm not entirely sure why I dislike it so much, but the whole story grated against my nerves. Perhaps part of it was that i was expecting a horror version of P&P and only got a dumb down cheesy version. The zombies were rather a joke. In summary, I was disappointed and not impressed.

Hey Keri!

I finished Pride and Prejudice and Zombies over the weekend and I know what you mean. I thought the first few chapters were brilliant with the ball and the zombies. But the girls are so adept with their deadly arts that there isn't any fear of them. In fact, there are several cases where they get surrounded by 50+ unmentionables and they get away in under a page.

The story really dragged for me in the middle, but I did like the ending. There were a few dislikable characters who had a rather nastier end in this book than the original.

It was more of a parody than I was expecting, though the review questions at the end of my edition tried to make it more serious than it really was.

Anyone else reading this?

I've started. I was reading along with Pride and Prejudice to begin with but I'm way behind now. It reminds me of the joke parody books that come out every year for the Christmas gift market. They are normally much shorter though. I will persevere!

Cassandra wrote: "Hey Keri!

I finished Pride and Prejudice and Zombies over the weekend and I know what you mean. I thought the first few chapters were brilliant with the ball and the zombies. But the girls are so..."

As bad as this sounds, I liked *spoiler alert* how Charlotte got infected. That added the most intrigue for me. And it shocked me that Mr. Collins hung himself. That was definitely not what I was expecting. So it did have some interesting points.

I agree, Keri! It provided some comic relief but was also pretty interesting.

I thought about reading this during Pride and Prejudice too but I have to have full focus when I read it lol. P&P is definitely a challenge for me. I'm literally about 10 minutes away from finishing "Ella Enchanted." Can't wait to join in with you all on this one :)

Taylor R wrote: "I thought about reading this during Pride and Prejudice too but I have to have full focus when I read it lol. P&P is definitely a challenge for me. I'm literally about 10 minutes away from finishin..."


You will be having a lot of deja vu when reading P&P&Z.

Oh no. I'll still give it a try. Just by the expectations I've heard from others, I thought it'd be a retelling rather than a copy

It's basically the same story.....with zombie excerpts. There are a few new scenes and rewritten scenes but it has a lot of the same story (written the same too).
It was interesting reading how he twisted some aspects of the story. I hope you enjoy it once you get to it. =)

Keri wrote: "It's basically the same story.....with zombie excerpts. There are a few new scenes and rewritten scenes but it has a lot of the same story (written the same too).
It was interesting reading how he ..."

Thank you! :) I love retellings, and even though this book technically isn't "classified" under that genre, I'm still looking forward to it. :)