Review: Dreadfully Ever After

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After

Steve Hockensmith

Series or Stand Alone: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies trilogy, book three

Release Date: March 2011

Publisher: Quirk Classics

Pages: 320

Author Site: http://www.stevehockensmith.com/

My Rating: 3.75/5

Source: Received for review from publisher

Synopsis:

[from goodreads.com]

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and its prequel, Dawn of the Dreadfuls, were both New York Times best sellers, with a combined 1.3 million copies in print. Now the PPZ trilogy comes to a thrilling conclusion with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After.

The story opens with our newly married protagonists, Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy, defending their village from an army of flesh-eating “unmentionables.” But the honeymoon has barely begun when poor Mr. Darcy is nipped by a rampaging dreadful. Elizabeth knows the proper course of action is to promptly behead her husband (and then burn the corpse, just to be safe). But when she learns of a miracle antidote under development in London, she realizes there may be one last chance to save her true love—and for everyone to live happily ever after.

Review:

Dreadfully Ever After picks up four years after Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam get married. But their happily-ever-after gets cut short when Darcy gets bit by a dreadful. Although Elizabeth should be thinking of beheading and ultimately burning her true love, she finds out about a antidote that’s currently being worked on in London. Under the guidance of her nemesis, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Elizabeth heads to London under a false identity to save her husband’s life. The rest of the Bennett family gets dragged along for the ride as they set out find the cure.

What I liked most about the book was that Kitty and Mary got a lot of “air-time”. I still haven’t read the original Pride and Prejudice so I don’t know how true the PPZ trilogy has stayed to their original personalities but I’ve come to really like the two sisters. Kitty is somewhat silly and childlike but she certainly develops some brains and a backbone this time around. Mary is very independent and somewhat stubborn. I loved the fact that they got a certain kind of “happily-ever-after” for themselves that I won’t ruin for anybody.

Elizabeth was definitely a background character this time around. I missed her warrior-like spirit. I missed her fierce personality. Of course, it’s not proper for a married woman to be fighting off dreadfuls or carrying weapons of any kind. Darcy on the other-hand showed some attributes that made me see him in a different light. Although I started liking him at the end of PPZ I found him vulnerable and a lot more personable after being bitten. It’s crazy what a zombie-bite will do to you! Speaking of crazy…Darcy’s cousin Anne has a surprise or two up her sleeve for everybody, including her overbearing, psycho mother. Anne’s “coming out of her shell” is definitely enough for one to read the book. It makes the ending all that more exciting!

So overall, Dreadfully Ever After was a pretty satisfying conclusion to a crazy, zombie-filled romp through a classic novel. There were some slow times I had to trudge through but the ending certainly made up for it in my opinion. And although I enjoyed Hockensmith’s prequel a lot more than the conclusion, it’s still a great read for PPZ lovers! And to be honest I really love Quirk and the crazy things they come up with. I’m looking forward to future projects they’ll be dishing out for us.

P.S. (cover talk)

Not a big fan. The cover makes sense but I’m just not really digging it.