Dreadfully Ever After

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After in which the warrior women of the Bennett line combat intrigues, scandals, dreadfuls, ninja and high society by utilizing their varied martial arts skills and the manners and etiquette of a gentleman's daughters.

I am going to start this by stating that I enjoyed Pride and Prejudice (Austen). I also enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
If anything, this latest installment may have been even more fun, probably because it didn't have the original novel to which to adhere. Or stand up to, for that matter, though it does remain in keeping with the "comedy of manners" feel of the original. The story opens a few years after the close of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, with Jane and show more Bingley settled comfortably with their offspring at Netherfield, Lizzie and Darcy still happily married (though childless), and Kitty and Mary are still at home (through the contrivances of their mother, who, having married off three of her daughters discovered that she wants to keep the remaining two at home to wait on her. She uses her personality to discourage would-be beaus, much to Kitty's vexation.) Elizabeth and Darcy are returning to Pemberly after having visited Jane and her newborn, when disaster strikes - Darcy is bitten, and Elizabeth begins her search for a cure by contacting and following the instructions of her formidable enemy, Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

I liked that this installment focused on some of the lesser characters - Kitty, Mary and even Anne are much more fully fleshed out and given greater consequence in the plot, something I think that Austen would approve of, even if she may not have quite approved of their more unladylike activities (fighting, seduction, misdirection and bouts of brazen hussy-ness, to name a few.) Darcy is unexpectedly humanized, Anne de Bourgh displays unusual vitality and even the ninja are brought forward into the light. Well, as much as they can be at any rate.

The descriptions of the spread of disease (cholera) in London, the battles with the unmentionables, and the insights into the point of view of the zombies are all excellent touches, and should satisfy even the bloodthirsty mobs of ancient Rome. The humour is excellent; Austen's wit and satire tweaked into black comedy, as even parasols become weapons against the undead.

4 stars (of 5)
Crossposted to Amazon.com, BookMooch and GoodReads. show less

After four years, Elizabeth has settled into being Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy. Yet even he can tell that something's not right. It's only in the quiet moments when the two are out on watch together hunting the Dreadfuls, instead of having to play the part of dutiful wife beholden to the the mores of polite society, that she seems to be happier, more her true self. When he diverts their ride back to Pemberly for a chance to walk and to talk, he is bitten by one of the Dreadfuls. Elizabeth knows the laws, knows that she must behead her beloved before he turns, but she hesitates. She has heard of a possible cure in London, but the only way she knows to procure it is through her nemesis, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. And the price Lady Catherine show more exacts could ruin Elizabeth's standing not only in society but in the eyes of her beloved Darcy forever.

"Dreadfully Ever After" is an entertaining mix of the zombie novel and the classic romance. Author Steve Hockensmith takes the beloved characters from Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" -- and re-mixed into the original mash-up "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" -- and ponders an alternative take on the "happily ever after". The romance and heartbreak within the societal confines of English society are still ever-present, and all none of the characters veer from that, which creates much of the tension for Elizabeth. Though she may be one of the foremost zombie slayers of her time, being married to a gentleman of standing prohibits her from carrying weapons or joining in the battles against the undead -- much to her dismay. I think that's one thing I appreciated about this book: though what we consider modern-day monster creations run rampant, the structure and context in which they appear adhere to the original tale told by Austen. It would be so easy to veer from that, potentially turning the story from the good horror tale that it is into a parody of both zombie tales and classic literature.

Thankfully, Hockensmith keeps the characters, whether undead or alive, in check, and what the reader gets is a wonderfully crafted zombie tale. show less

Hockensmith's novel gets to do something that the (rightly) well-loved Pride and Predujudice and Zombies does not: instead of working directly from a classic novel and rewriting it, he takes the *idea* from a classic novel and goes from there: what DOES come after that happily-ever-after? Perhaps not exactly what fans of Austen were quite expecting, but what we get is quite delightful.

Elizabeth finds herself smothered by the constraints of marriage, notably by the fact that zombie slaying is now a no-no. Kitty and Lizzy are stuck at home, teetering fearfully at the edge of spinsterhood (alas!). Lady Catherine looms at the edge of the picture, as forbidding a presence as ever. Jane is happily married to Bingly and producing offspring at show more an alarming rate. Lydia has (thankfully) exited, stage right.

Into this situation, the worst happens: Darcy is bitten by a zombie, and Elizabeth's world spins out of her control. Without going into much plot summary, I will say that Hockensmith makes excellent use of all the sisters; Kitty in particular gets very good character development and has some very memorable scenes. Elizabeth, while a major character, is not what you'd call the central character; there are so many people playing so many roles in Hockensmith's busy world that it would be wrong to try to pin any one person or couple down as central, and the bustling character landscape makes for a varied, page-turning read that never loses its spark. Characters like the mysterious Mr. Quayle and the ninja Nezu, as well as the comical Bunny, add life and many dimensons to the novel, carrying it places-- zombies or no-- that the reader could have never imagined it going. Indeed, the zombies are almost secondary to the wonderful cast of characters; those hoping for many battles and blood-and-gore mayhem may be a little disappointed, in fact.

The dialogue is spot-on. Elizabeth seems a little melancholoy, a little resigned to her fate, to drag her heels a little, but the actions of others make up for this. She's a bit frustrating at times, and we can't expect much out of Darcy in his condition, but even Mr. Bennett is a joy. Characters who grew tiresome in the orginal narrative, like Lydia and Mrs. Bennett, are simply absent in this to-be-continued.

It's also a great deal of fun that a lot of the action takes place in London. It's a far cry from the countryside of the original parody novel, and I think that distance from the original mash-up helps this work stand out in its own right. It gives Hockensmith more room to play out his own ideas, create his own scenes, expand his own ideas.

If you're looking for a simple part two of the original mash-up, you may be disappointed; Hockensmith has his own ideas, and he's off and running with them. But for the reader who's ready for a taste (no pun intended) of something different, full speed ahead! show less

I must admit, I wasn't expecting much from an in-house-written sequel to a so-called "literary mash-up" that incorporated Jane Austen with Zombies, but... wow! Dreadfully Ever After not only reencapsulates the dichotomous polite society plagued with hordes of the undead, but also manages to weave a fairly complex and interesting story.

The book starts some four years after P&P&Z, in which Elizabeth, now Mrs. Darcy, has put away her warrior's ways in order to be a respectable English woman. However, once her husband is bitten by one of the "unmentionables," all bets are off as she seeks a cure to this terminal condition.

Again, we get zombies, and ninjas, and all manner of strange things you would expect from such a book. Smaller show more characters from P&P&Z are fleshed out more fully, and while the writing voice is distinctly non-Austenian, the book's ending certainly is.

I recommend this book to all those who dared P&P&Z, and preferably, liked it. Meanwhile, I'm tempted to pick up a copy of prequel: Dawn of the Dreadfuls. show less

Quirk Classics has performed a task that only a handful of women would generally commit to: create an Austen "what-if" novel (with a pretty polarizing "if"), and then write bookends: a prequel and then a sequel to that text. Now the first part of that task was relatively simple: Seth Grahame-Smith used the story and much of the original dialogue from Austen's Pride & Prejudice and put it all in a world riddled
with zombies.

Like W. Bill Czolgosz's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim, the dreadful reanimation is caused by a cholera of unknown origin and, unlike in Czolgosz's novel, many of the living have gotten the necessary training (based in Asian culture) to defend themselves. That's all explained in Steve Hockensmith's show more prequel Dawn of the Dreadfuls, which I haven't yet read. But given the source material, a prequel would I think be relatively simple: throw together what you know about the canon characters,
and what you know about the added "if" and give them a plot line to follow to those ends. Done.

A sequel on the other hand, is decidedly more difficult. Not only do you have to master the pre-written characters and be able to carry them forward in Austenesque fashion, and not only are you mixing the Austen plot with Seth Grahame Smith's plot and then adding the pieces from Dawn of the Dreadfuls, but you are also challenging the assumptions of every young woman (or, for argument's sake, young man) who has read the original, and who has invented the rest of the story. Tales do not always end just because the author has said "the end." No, these stories continue in the minds of the reader - a type of post-literary fantasy. It's where fanfiction comes from. It's where all of those Pride & Prejudice sequels following the lustful lives of the newly wedded Mr. & Mrs. Darcy come from.

It is in the spirit of curiosity that Steve Hockensmith has created the finale to the Pride & Prejudice and Zombies trilogy in Dreadfully Ever After. The story goes that after 4 years of marriage, Mr. Darcy is bitten by a Dreadful (don't worry, I promise Elizabeth notices... not like in that idiotic Mr. Darcy, where it took Lizzy 239 pages to figure it out...). All hope seems lost until Lady Catherine, still as hateful as ever of Elizabeth, concocts a shameful plan (let's just say it's something Jane could have easily written in her youth) for his salvation. Of course, given the zombie addition, there are endless parades of zombies
and ninjas in the way of success, but those Bennet girls are wily - trust 'em to find success eventually.

The story is well executed and definitely makes for a quick read, especially if you can't bring yourself to read the gorier parts - it's not exactly for the faint of heart. But I have to say, for something written so specifically for the blood and gore, I actually enjoyed it. It stays true to all accountable versions of our beloved Austen characters, and even introduces some original flavor in Sir Angus and Bunny, and it's always nice to see an Austen villain get her comeuppance now and again.

Lauren Cartelli
www.theliterarygothamite.com show less

One assumes that Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy lived happily ever after at the finish of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. This is not quite true. After four years of marriage, Elizabeth feels unsatisfied and unhappy. Not with her husband of course, but with the fact that it's improper for her to remain the warrior she was in her unmarried days. After Darcy sees some of her old fervor when they defeat a horde of unmentionables together, Elizabeth confides in him, but their talk is interrupted. An unmentionable child bites Darcy on the neck, where amputation is impossible. Elizabeth dispatches the offending thing and takes him into their home. She calls upon her nemesis, Lady Catherine De Bourgh, who has a serum that will prevent show more Darcy from fully becoming one of the undead. Lady Catherine also enlists her to sacrifice her honor and her pride to seduce a doctor in London into giving her the experimental cure to save Darcy. Elizabeth has no choice but to agree and departs for London, meeting her father and her sister Kitty there to complete the facade and aid her in her quest. Can they obtain the cure before Darcy succumbs to this plague?

This is the final chapter in the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies saga and I am very happy with its conclusion. Steve Hockensmith really expands upon Jane Austen's world and characters and makes them his own, while adding in zombies and ninjas. Elizabeth is entirely taken completely out of her element when she is forced into the role of seductress. In addition, she is thrown into the height of English society, which exemplifies all the frivolity and shallowness that she despises. The rules of society in general are completely ridiculous. They not only hinder her progress at every turn in London, but are at the root of her unhappiness from the start of the novel.

Other characters, such as Kitty, Mary, and Anne, actually develop personalities of their own. In the original Pride and Prejudice, Kitty and Lydia were practically interchangeable; Mary only stood out because she was more isolated and standoffish than her frivolous sisters; and I honestly don't recall if Anne was actually present or just mentioned. Lydia is completely absent, allowing Kitty to create her own identity. She retains some of her silliness, but she's also a very calculated and disciplined warrior. Her budding relationship with someone inappropriate to her social standing is a big part of her character development and one of the conflicts she faces. Mary is shown to be much more aware and sensible than I previously thought her to be. She faces problems head on, without much subtlety. Her direct approach sometimes gets her into trouble, but her intentions are always good. She is also shown to not be completely devoid of emotion like her exterior oftentimes portrays. Anne is an interesting character because I have no previous impression of her. At the beginning, she seems to be Darcy's creepy stalker that is constantly at his bedside. Later, her sweet, yet odd, nature made me like her and one of her actions in the end is the the height of awesome. The third person narrative that focused on the internal monologue of different characters in every chapter is absolutely instrumental to the fleshing out of these previously flat characters.

I had a few grievances with the zombie rules and some of the plot points. Zombies do not run away. Even if they are being hacked to bits or witness other zombies being destroyed, they don't retreat. They don't feel fear or have thoughts or have any instincts of self preservation. Zombies try to run away at least a few times and it makes me shake the book in annoyance. Another zombie annoyance occurred when dogs ate zombie flesh. They would either be zombie dogs or very very sick and probably soon to be dead dogs. The plague would turn them or kill them or they would die from eating disgustingly rancid, rotting meat. The only other aspect that bothered me is the modern language frequently used throughout the novel. They are Jane Austen characters in Regency England. The modern phrases and slang jarred me a bit and brought me out of the novel.

Dreadfully Ever After is the satisfying conclusion to a very enjoyable series. I really loved how Hockensmith created much more fleshed out characters than Jane Austen had originally written. The message about how society's arbitrary rules and constructs creates unhappiness and hinders love is very valid even today. I would recommend this to both fans of zombies and Jane Austen (if they have a sense of humor). show less

Dreadfully Ever After is the third and final installment in the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies trilogy. What can I say, other than this trilogy has been a fun and quirky ride?
Dreadfully Ever After starts off with a happily married Elizabeth and Darcy visiting the Bingley's, who I might add have four children. Elizabeth is no longer allowed to slay zombies in public especially, since she is now a married woman and doing so is frowned upon when she has a perfectly capable husband to slay the undead for her.
On the walk home, Darcy is bitten by a zombie child. Lizzie refuses to do what she is supposed to do to anyone who has been bitten by an unmentionable. She cannot bear to slice her beloveds head off with her katana. Instead Lizzie show more contacts Darcy's aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, since there is rumor she has access to a cure for the disease.

Lady Catherine agrees to help Darcy, but she does have a few stipulations, the first being she take him back to her home and away from Lizzie, who she still hates. Elizabeth and her sister Kitty are supposed to be seductresses as well, getting the zombie cure from its creator, Sir Angus MacFarquhar, and his son Bunny.
Lady Catherine sees this as an opportunity to get rid of Lizzie and ruin her reputation once and for all. It's also her chance to get her sickly daughter, Anne, near Darcy.

I thoroughly enjoyed Dreadfully Ever After. Having read the first two books in this trilogy, I was eager to get to this one. I laughed out loud as I read and the book kept me hooked wondering what would happen next. The illustrations within the book add that 'special touch'.
Author Steve Hockensmith combines two of my favorite things: Pride & Prejudice and zombies. What's most impressive is that what started as inserting zombies into Austen's beloved novel Pride & Prejudice, has spurned two other books that have a life of their own.
I think this is a great conclusion to the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies trilogy. It was funny, quirky and Austen's beloved characters stay true to form, though most are highly trained warriors. Lizzie's dainty parasol conceals well hidden razor blades and a small sword in its center. I'm actually sad to see it all end. show less