I put off reading this for a long time as I was pretty convinced it would be terrible, but you know what? It wasn't actually as terrible as I was expecting, though admittedly that's a low bar. Grahame-Smith's writing is certainly nothing to compare to Austen's, but enough of the original story remains that it's amusing just seeing how he decided to change it. Darcy's declaration of love leading to Lizzy ninja-kicking him into the mantle piece, and Lady Catherine DeBourgh's final meeting with Lizzy turning into a sparring match, katanas and all, were surprising but not entirely disappointing examples. On the other hand there were some very odd choices - why have the Bennett sisters all train in China (and the Darcys in Japan), rather than just train in home grown English killing techniques? Why does everybody seem prone to vomiting at the drop of a hat? Why get rid of the Collinses so apparently pointlessly? And why throw in random irrelevant comments about sex that are neither funny nor relevant - like having Mrs Gardner randomly go sleep with some Russian ex boyfriend that we never hear about again and which affects nothing? So many odd disjointed choices that didn't make any sense and didn't contribute anything to the story.

As another reader commented, it might have been better titled Pride and Prejudice and Ninjas, because the zombies really didn't have much to do with the plot other than being there and occasionally getting in the way. They never present any threat, never have any significant effect on the plot, and simply show up and get mown down at fairly random intervals. Call me picky, but I think that if you're going to rewrite an entire book to bring in zombies, you should actually make them relevant in some way.

Still, it was entertaining mindless entertainment for a few hours and an easy read. And now I'm actually tempted to see the movie, not least because Matt Smith is in it. Don't go in with high expectations and you may find the book entertaining. But definitely don't look too deeply into it.