Surprisingly gentle, but delightfully wicked

I came to the book with good expectations and was mostly pleased. The imitation of Austen’s style in the new sections is pretty good. Both the old and new parts of this book are funny and witty and the two blend together very well. The emotional scenes are still affecting and the listener still wants the protagonists to succeed. I did find the slightly cruel new edge to Elizabeth’s character a bit off putting, such as when she kills living people like lady Catherine’s ninjas, but the hilarity of that concept itself kept me listening and I tried to take it less seriously. I do wish Grahame-Smith could have found more words to describe the are that contains China and Japan rather than just relying on ‘the Orient.’
Kellgren did a magnificent job of narrating the two styles. Her lovely refined pronunciation was very well suited to Austen’s prose and she delightfully relished in the horrifying descriptions and gore. She handled distinguishing characters voices very well although some of her male voices were very similar and this led to mild confusion.
Overall it was gory fun with added emotional investment

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Much better than it has any right to be.

Pride and Prejudice is still in there. It felt to me like the original has been treated with love rather than mockery. There is a cheesy zombie story in there as well (I confess I'm saying it was cheesy but I would happily have heard more of it as there isn't as much zombie mayhem as you may expect).

And then there is the performance by Katherine Kellgren. This my be my favourite piece of her work. Hard to imagine anyone ever being better than her. She's sadly missed but at least we all have this book which she brings to life with extraordinary characterisations and performance throughout. A very, very entertaining listen.

The book is exactly as the title suggests, this is "Pride and Prejudice"...just with "Zombies".

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Highly recommended

I consider myself to be an Austen addict and enjoy the original versions , audio books and films (the adaptation of some to be questionable) and I did see with some trepidation the film entitled Pride and prejudice and zombies and found it to quite entertaining although bearing little relationship to the Austen book.

This however is the whole story entertainingly set during a long standing zombie plague and well worth the effort. The variations to the Austen story all add to the enjoyment.

The performance by the great voice artist Katherine Kellgren really adds to the story.

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Amusing mix of Austen and the almost dead

This is an enjoyable, easy read. It is a bizarre and incongruous mix of Victorian cultural norms and the battle against zombies. The audible version has an interesting prologue by the author (ok, one of the authors: Seth Grahame-Smith) describing his inspiration and method of writing. This explains how the book is remarkably close to Jane Austen's original.

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Absolutely Brilliant!

I don't usually write reviews but I have to make an exception for this fabulous audible book. Not only is it a fantastic take on a classic story it was read so wonderfully that I could hardly wait to get in my car to listen to it. As soon as it finished I wanted to listen to it all over again! I can't recommend this highly enough.

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6 people found this helpful

Very entertaining!

The most fun and well read audiobook I have heard for a long time.
Highly recommended!

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Nice spin on a classic but...

Enjoyable spin on a classic but I can help think eveyone's making money off a real classics back due to the copyright laws for books of that age. However some will enjoy this as a taboo version of Pride'.
It's not 'The Breathing Dead' a zombie tale audiobook or 'wwz' but it is worth a listen.

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Brilliant. Excellent Listen

Loved reading the books and this is a great way to relive the story if you don't have time to sit and read the book.

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Why all the fuss?

I don't understand why people have gone so crazy for this book.
It's basically an overly-long one-pun joke. It's one of those crazy ideas you might have drunk one night in a pub with your friends, but like most ideas of this type, it shouldn't go beyond the beer mat. I listened to it all but often found myself wondering why. Ninja's, zombies, Mr. Darcy....this is six form stuff. Yeah it's funny at times, but, really, why the fuss?
I guess it's a novel technique to get the masses reading the classics.

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Laughed so hard I cleared the train carriage

This is not something to listen to on public transoport as your laughter may be loud enough to disturb fellow passengers.
Seth Grahame-Smith manages to integrate his schlock-horror so well into the txt, I had to go back to the original book to just make sure there weren't any zombies lurking!
Katherine Kellgren's plummy tones set the parody up perfectly. This is a great antedote for anyone who has overloaded on classic texts for literature exams.

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