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. ( )

This didn't work for me. The first few pages seemed promising. Then it flipped into full kung fu ninja mode and completely blew me out out of the period. Just silly. Don't get me wrong. I like absurd. I like funny. I kind of liked Jane Slayre. But there was nothing here to make me care enough about what was happening to endure it. ( )

Incredibly silly. That's really all that can be said about this. And what I liked most about P&P and Zombies, the fact that it was the orginal JA text with some zombies added in, wasn't in this book at all. Obviously. It was fun, and entertaining to read, I guess. I'm getting a little tired of this particular trend, though. ( )

This review originally appeared at RevolutionSF.com:

“And if you preserve genteel English womanhood while
serving up genteel English women as so much steak
tartare, I would say that you have most definitely lost."

Dawn of the Dreadfuls is technically a prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, giving us the story of how the Bennett family came to be the people we met therein. It gives us the first return of the unmentionables to Meryton, and the beginnings of the ly martial arts training of the Bennett s. We also get hints of romance, with two suitors each for Jane and Elizabeth.

Hockensmith does an excellent job creating younger, more versions of the Bennett s and he does equally well in showing their growth. We meet a young Elizabeth Bennett who's still smart and feisty, but who is much more open to romance than she would later become. And we see the hopes and disappointments that lead to her mistrust in love. We learn more of Mr. Bennett and the first invasion of the unmentionables, and we even get to see a new side of the impossible Mrs. Bennett. But Hockensmith is especially adept at creating the foppish, stupid, arrogant, and downright evil people who look down on the Bennett's, especially Elizabeth.

Who knew just how satisfying it would be to see all of those stuck-up, classist, horrible, horrible people eaten by zombies? I know my high school English classes would have been a lot more fun (and more people would have paid attention) with a judicious application of zombies. If Hockensmith can figure out a way to off Heathcliff and Catherine in this same delightfully gross way, I might just ask him to marry me.

The writing style is just as -on as in the first book, so if it gave you troubles there, it's likely to do so again. But the rewards of the story itself are worth the effort.

If you liked Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by all means give this one a look. But even if you didn't read it, even if you never read Jane Austen in your life, if you like your stories full of action, romance and a dark sense of humor, you'll still enjoy this tale of love and zombies.
( )

Oh, this one was much better than the first P&P&Z.
Maybe it's because Jane wasn't actually involved. Or maybe it was because I didn't already know the general direction the story was taking. Either way, this was a fun read. And really, that's all that matters to me when the weather is warm and the sun is shining. ( )