I found this good-condition hardcover at a local Savers thrift shop, and picked it up to release in honor of the 2016 film adaptation that's due to arrive in theaters in February.

Another entry in the "I can't believe it's a book" category, this one was first mentioned to me by my sister and a friend, who are both well aware of my taste (or lack thereof) in books. Subtitled "The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!", the book appears to contain much/most of the original text of the novel (poor Jane, being out of copyright, has naught to say about that), into which a plague of zombies makes its way. Should be all the more fun because Seth Grahame-Smith is the fellow who produced How to Survive a Horror Movie, so he should know his zombies!

I did enjoy it, though I have mixed feelings about the technique; I certainly hope it doesn't become a common thing for people to reprint public-domain classics with minor additions. Still, the juxtaposition of zombies and Austen is so funny by itself that I'm willing to forgive a lot.

There's a list of illustrations up front, the captions of which give one a hint that this isn't Mother's Jane Austen ("A few of the guests, who had the misfortune of being too near the windows, were seized and feasted on at once"). And the book has a little reader's guide at the end that's almost worth the price of the book, with some questions specific to this version but a few that could apply to the original as well ("Does Mrs. Bennet have a single redeeming quality?").

It wasn't all delight. I don't think that the zombies were integrated into Austen-world as well as they could have been - I detected a fair number of plotholes. And I wasn't thrilled with some of the changes to the fates and motivations of some of the characters, especially as some of them weren't consistent even within the zombified frame. (The few racy bits also seemed out of place: "She remembered the lead ammunition in her pocket and offered it to him. 'Your balls, Mr. Darcy?' He reached out and closed her hand around them, and offered, 'They belong to you, Miss Bennet.' Upon this, their colour changed, and they were forced to look away from one another, lest they laugh.") The whole thing could probably have been carried off in a much shorter work, though it's true that part of the fun was re-reading (most of) the original book just to see where the new bits were going to be grafted in.

But, overall, I had an enjoyable time reading it. Whether I'd have liked it as much if I didn't know the story nearly by heart I can't say; someone who's looking for lots of martial-art/zombie-bashing action might find this story rather slow, with way too much exposition in between the violent episodes. But it should be interesting to see whether the bits-o-zombie do entice readers into tackling the rest of the story - and, if so, whether they have any interest in checking out the original after that.

[There's a TV Tropes page on the book, with some entertaining tidbits.]

I left this book, bagged against the snow and icy winds, on the turtle sculpture near the library at around 3; hope the finder enjoys it!

*** Released as part of the 2016 Movie release challenge. ***