"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" was my second read for my "Pride, Prejudice and Pastiches" reading challenge. Unfortunately, it turned out not to be for me. I abandoned it at 38% (a little more than four hours).

I was attracted by the wonderful title ( a gift from the author's editor) and the fun movie (which was visually stunning) so I had some hopes that the book would be equally amusing. Sadly, it wasn't.

The book is a roughly sewn quilt which uses small squares of the Austen original, with all the wit and nuance washed out, to hold together a Georgian zombie story.

For this to have been worthwhile, the zombie parts of the book needed to have something fresh and compelling that went beyond the unlikely juxtaposition of genteel Georgian young women, Japanese samurai sword-play and stumbling zombies.

What I was offered was a series of splatterfests that were neither funny nor gruesome and a picture of the Bennet sisters as a pack of dagger-wielding, pistol-shooting, throat-slitting, neck-slicing, psychopaths with a lust for weaponry and fond memories of abusive training by a master of the Chinese martial arts.

The Austen parts so simplified the people that I found them more horrifying than the zombie scenes. The zombie scenes were shallow and repetitive. Worst of all, Elizabeth Bennet became someone I would cheerfully have seen dismembered with her own sword.

Katherine Kellgran does a good job at the narration. Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample.

"Pride And Prejudice And Zombies" is the second book in my "Pride, Prejudice and Pastiches" reading challenge and I'm beginning to think that moving from the well-considered and beautifully written "Longbourn" to a zombie spoof was ill-considered.

I was drawn to the book by the movie and scenes like these:

While the excitingly martial Bennet sisters are as much fun as I thought they'd be, wading through a poor mimicry of Austen rather sets my teeth on edge.

I'm going to persevere in the hopes that, as the plot diverges from the original, I can lose myself in the humour a katana-wielding Elizabeth Bennet.

I'll make this largely a visual post, since it's all about judging a book by its cover ;)

Moonlight Murder and I already spoke about Magical Realism and now today we are going to cover the supernatural genre. 

Moonlight Murder

Books with supernatural elements are fairly common and easy to find - supernatural simply means something beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature. Folklore and mythology is full of supernatural beings and events. Werewolves, ghosts, and demons are examples of supernatural creatures. Anything with this sort of element will fill that square.

I want to talk about a specific subset of supernatural fiction - the supernatural thriller or mystery, which is sort of the intersection of fantasy and horror. I have a few books that I want to offer in this subcategory:

1. The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey: This is actually YA horror, but guys, it is so good. It blows the doors off of Yancey's follow-up series, The Fifth Wave, in my opinion. Set in an alternate New England, called New Jerusalem, this is Yancey's effort at a Dickensian cryptozoological horror story and it works. Snap to, Will Henry.

2. London Falling by Paul Cornell. Here was my review of this book from 2014: "This book was a total mindscrew for 75%. Really, really good though." Basically, London Falling is police procedural + urban fantasy + supernatural.

3. Fated by Benedict Jacka: This is the first in the Alex Verus series, which is sort of a Harry Dresden set in London. Alex is a mage with foresight who is pretty much constantly in danger. There's also a sentient spider who designs clothing.

I haven't entirely decided what I am going to read, although I am leaning strongly in the direction of Mayhem, by Sarah Pinborough. I've never read anything by her, but I've had my eye on this one for a long time.

Obsidian Black Plague

Supernatural books I think sometimes can also dance around the magical realism genre. But in this case, most truly supernatural books do not just have some minor elements that are magical, the majority of the book includes supernatural creatures, humans with supernatural abilities, or world building that is based upon something supernatural.

For this square I am thinking of reading the following books:

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling. I have not read this book for several years at this point, so it would be nice to read again.

2. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern because I have this book somewhere on my shelves and I believe it has been sitting there for a while.

3. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, #1)
by Seth Grahame-Smith because even though I saw the movie and disliked it, I am still interested in the book. Also this is sitting somewhere on a shelf too.

I would add that supernatural can include so many series out there that I think that everyone should be able to get this one pretty easily even if supernatural fiction is not your thing. You have authors like Jim Butcher, Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs, Ransom Riggs, Deborah Harkness (though I think the last two books in her series were not all that great), Charlaine Harris, and Stephanie Meyers.

I even really enjoy my supernatural with a touch of romance/mystery and some of the authors listed above are included in these genres as well.

1. OBP & MR talk Magical Realism

This book is sheer ridiculousness. If you are a die hard true loyal Jane Austen fan, you will not like this book. If you're people like me on the other hand, who don't really relate that much to Pride and Prejudice, you should pick it up. No, it is not a great work of fiction but it's super fun.

I did notice that everyone in this book is described as handsome, especially the ladies. They are not pretty but they are handsome. That was something that annoyed me in the real Pride and Prejudice but I found it quite comically here. I still hated all the characters except Mr. Darcy. In fact, I think I hated most of the characters even more in this version.

The Bennet's were supposed to have been trained by Shaolin Monks but there is nothing Buddhist in the way that Elizabeth Bennet is portrayed. She has very violent thoughts. The book as a whole is very violent in nature. I guess if they are fighting Zombies then you might have to be but they don't really fight Zombies very often.

It's a 3.5 Star book. It's a nice fun read. Now I need to see the movie.