Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls

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.

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.

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 prequel immediately opens with zombie action at a funeral. The late Mr. Ford reanimates; while Mrs. Ford believes he must have been alive all along, most of the congregation flees the church in absolute hysteria. Luckily, Mr. Bennett has prior experience dispatching zombies. This time, however, he decides to test his daughters' reactions to the "dreadful" (use of the Zed word is not appropriate behavior back then). He is disappointed when he realizes that the five sisters are not at all prepared for the inevitable outbreak. Mr. Bennett contacts his Order, and Master Hawksworth shows up to train the Bennett sisters, as well as put Mr. Bennett through a refresher course. In addition to the training, Mr. Bennett tries to persuade Lord Lumpley to help him convince the military to send soldiers to pre-empt the outbreak. Believing that the zombie plague was behind them, for the previous five years, the deceased were allowed to keep their heads attached to their bodies, so the plan is to remove the problem before they crawl out of the graves. When the soldiers do arrive, Dr. Keckilpenny is among them. He believes science holds the key to solving the problem with dreadfuls. His character reminded me of the doctor in Romero's Day of the Dead. For some reason, Elizabeth Bennett finds his unique way of reasoning very interesting, and there is some attraction between the two. However, there is also some attraction between herself and Master Hawksworth, which is beginning to derail the training of the Bennett sisters. In addition to Elizabeth's mixed emotions, Jane is facing her own dilemna with the lecherous attention from Lord Lumpley. Of course, the Bennett sisters have their mother's "help." (If not for the rest of the family, Mrs. Bennett would have no chance of surviving much of anything.) The problem with this being a prequel to a parody of a well-known novel is that there are obvious spoilers concerning the futures of the five Bennett sisters, but the outcomes concerning the other characters are still somewhat unpredictable. While the book maintains a mix of zombie gore and Jane Austen propriety, there are moments of humor that made me laugh so hard, I could barely breathe. I will never forget the image of Lord Lumpley and his slice of fruit, or Belgrave calmly offering to get another slice. The writing style is more relaxed than Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but Steve Hockensmith didn't have to contend with Jane Austen's style as Seth Grahame-Smith did. Also, the POV is not exclusive to Elizabeth Bennett in the prequel, as Mr. Bennett and Jane have their moments as well. I also liked the way chapters were not limited to the thoughts of just one character at a time, which made made the story flow quickly from one action scene to another. If you like historical zombie fiction, I highly recommend Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter.

Elizabeth, Jane, Mary, Lydia and Kitty; names so familiar and beloved to diehard Jane Austen fans. Zombies, too, are becoming quite familiar to readers of Austen prose. In Dawn of the Dreadfuls, the prequel to the popular Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, readers will discover how the girls learned to fight so valiantly, and where the zombies came from (well, sort of, we never really find out the whole story). Dawn of the Dreadfuls gets off to a quick start. The Bennett family, as well as much of Hertfordshire, are attending the funeral of Mr. Ford, the local apothecary. But Mr. Ford doesn't want to miss out on the ceremony, so he pops up out of his casket. Actually, Mr. Ford can't quite get out because his legs were severed two days prior, thus the reason for the funeral. As Mr. Ford, now a zombie, tries to free himself from the confining space of the coffin, Mr. Bennett jumps into action, slaying the creature. After the raucous upheaval at the funeral, Mr. Bennett realizes the zombies are coming back. It turns out he was once a member of a secret order sworn to destroy the "unmentionables," but he went astray when he failed to raise his daughters as warriors. With the return of the zombies, there's no time to lose; Mr. Bennett must train his five daughters to fight. While Mrs. Bennett is more concerned with an upcoming party, her husband cleans out the greenhouse and converts it into a dojo. Slaying 101 is about to begin. At first, the girls, don't have the stomach or desire to fight, but when a mysterious member of the "Order," Geoffrey Hawksworth, arrives, training begins in earnest. Before long, the girls are the pride of Hertfordshire, Jane is ensconced in the house of Lord Lumpley, as protector (and target of Lumpley's lust), while Elizabeth is somewhat beguiled by Dr. Bertram Keckilpenny, a doctor intent on discovering just what zombies are thinking, or if they are thinking. Although it might, at first, be hard to accept the prim and proper young Bennett ladies as sword wielding warriors, if you can get past that silly premise, Dawn of the Dreadfuls is a lot of fun. The action is almost non-stop, with plenty of zombie slashing, all leading up to a big battle at the end. While there is talk of Lizzy's coming out party and a bit of old-fashioned wooing, that's about where the similarities with the original story end. Mr. Bennett and his girls stray far from the characters of Austen's pen with only the dotting Mrs. Bennett and Mrs. Hill staying relatively true to form. It is the male characters (based on those from the original book), however, that really make this book shine. From the self-absorbed Richard George Saunders-Castleton Harper-Milford Norman-Stilton-Harrowby Lumpley II, aka Lord Lumpley, to the limbless Captain Cannon, who gets pushed around in a wheelbarrow and uses two soldiers, "Left Limb" and "Right Limb" to do his bidding ("Limbs! Embrace the lady!"), the gentlemen in this story add personality and laughter. If you're