Steve Hockensmith

This was a fun read. This is apparently a prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame Smith (which I have yet to read, although it was published first). It is set a few years prior to Pride and Prejudice, in the year when Elizabeth was set to come out into society. In this telling, about twenty years prior to the events, the living English were at battle with zombies (dreadfuls) and defeated them. After a time, zombie prevention methods (ie. decapitating the dead prior to burial) lapsed and enter the current events when the zombies begin arriving in Meryton again. In the previous war, Mr. Bennett had been a warrior, and begins training his daughters in the deadly arts. After all, Lady Catherine de Burgh was a noted leader in suppressing the previous war's zombies. This is smartly done. Its funny and has literary illusions that readers of the classics will get. A favorite is: "Lieutenant Tindall told me I'd find you up here tilting at putrid windmills. Now I know what he meant." Its not some hokey reworking of Pride and Prejudice. You get to see several of the Meryton townfolk and locations you're familiar with. But the familiar characters and places are put into more of a Shawn of the Dead situation, rather than a bad parody. I plan on picking up the other two in this series.… (mehr)

I was curious as to whether they gave the Tarot a decent telling, and yes, that part was pretty accurate and funny at times. I also loved the cover, created by a friend of mine.

I quit at page 136. I kept reading that far, because I was hoping that at some point there would be a denouement of the main character realizing divination is real .. or some kind of redemption.

But then I realized I had developed a hard dislike for all the characters except maybe the cop (to the extent he was developed at all). Driven by self-consciously snappy, glib dialogue, and attitude up to our necks, it just annoyed the hell out of me. Goodbye, so long, I really don't care.

Soooooo glad it was only a library book.… (mehr)