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Reviews tagging 'Ableism'
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith
8 reviews
max_pink's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
Absolutely putrid.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia, Vomit, Cannibalism, Body shaming, Gore, Cultural appropriation, Terminal illness, Body horror, and Ableism
bookwormcat's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Self harm, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, and Body horror
Moderate: Infidelity, Suicide, Grief, Vomit, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Ableism
ruthee's review against another edition
I was so looking forward to this, but it was a complete let down.
How could it be any more boring! I mean, there are zombies, but no real zombie action. They felt too much in the background to the story to add anything, either excitement or humour.
The rewrite of the characters made them so unpleasant, that I became disinterested in them and their fates.
And the pejorative/derogatory terms, fat shaming, and verbally abusive relationships really detracted from, and took me out of, the story. And prefacing the character of a 15 year girl as a ‘temptress’ was just gross.
The narrator (Katherine Kellgren) was very good and probably the only reason I got as far into it as I did.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, Sexism, and Vomit
emtees's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I wanted to like this book because the premise is really clever and funny. If I had to pick a quiet piece of classic literature that would benefit from the inclusion of horror monsters and fight scenes, it would be Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth Bennet is the perfect classic heroine for this story, which comes across well in the book - she’s got a bit of savagery to her that this twisted version of her story brings out. And if the author had chosen to cut the original novel down to a novella and insert the zombie storyline into it, I think it would have worked very well. There are so many moments that are really striking and funny: the Bennet sisters falling into fighting formation when a ball is overrun by “unmentionables,” the prolonged bit where a major character from the original story is turning into a zombie and the manners-obsessed society around her doesn’t seem to notice, the big wuxia-style fight scene at the end between Elizabeth and Lady Catherine. I also really liked the fictional sermon inserted at the end of the book, where a priest attempts to explain why the English are so suited for dealing with a hoard of zombies overcoming their country: “who but the English could suffer this plight with so complete an absence of hysteria or emotion whatsoever?” The fake set of questions for the reader, imitating the kinds of book club type questions found at the back of reissues of classic novels, was also funny.
But the concept of the book isn’t really enough to sustain a whole novel, and all the ways the author tries to get around that problem don’t work. There are whole chapters that are just Austen’s Pride and Prejudice with some find-and-replace dialogue, subbing in references to training in the “deadly arts” in place of music lessons or randomly adding a line about the joys of the warrior lifestyle into a familiar scene. There are moments where it feels like the author is actually trying for some real fantasy world building - the scene where Elizabeth surveys a church full of zombie victims, or the bits that deal with the way the Bennet sisters were shaped by their warrior training, are strangely sincere - but they sit awkwardly alongside a bizarre scene where Elizabeth rips a man’s heart out of his chest for no reason or constant references to ninjas. (The thing where all the characters are trained in Asia to fight and are obsessed with a really superficial idea of Japanese and Chinese culture is never clearly explained or excused. Why does Darcy’s housekeeper have bound feet?) There are plotlines that should have been cut because the experiment falls apart when you get to a storyline where everyone worries that a warrior-trained zombie fighting woman might have her virtue besmirched. And worst of all, there’s the gross, sophomoric humor that has nothing to do with zombies that keeps being thrown in, like the author needed to make sure you understood that this book was not actually written by literary icon Jane Austen. I could get past weird stuff like Elizabeth’s father sleeping with Chinese prostitutes or the constant unnecessary references to vomit, but then there was the prolonged bit at the end where Wickham becomes a quadriplegic and this is not only played for laughs, but we get endless references to him having bowel movements and Lydia being forced to clean them up, which we are assured is what they deserve, because I guess disability and caretaking is a funny bit. .
But the concept of the book isn’t really enough to sustain a whole novel, and all the ways the author tries to get around that problem don’t work. There are whole chapters that are just Austen’s Pride and Prejudice with some find-and-replace dialogue, subbing in references to training in the “deadly arts” in place of music lessons or randomly adding a line about the joys of the warrior lifestyle into a familiar scene. There are moments where it feels like the author is actually trying for some real fantasy world building - the scene where Elizabeth surveys a church full of zombie victims, or the bits that deal with the way the Bennet sisters were shaped by their warrior training, are strangely sincere - but they sit awkwardly alongside a bizarre scene where Elizabeth rips a man’s heart out of his chest for no reason or constant references to ninjas. (The thing where all the characters are trained in Asia to fight and are obsessed with a really superficial idea of Japanese and Chinese culture is never clearly explained or excused. Why does Darcy’s housekeeper have bound feet?) There are plotlines that should have been cut because the experiment falls apart when you get to a storyline where everyone worries that a warrior-trained zombie fighting woman might have her virtue besmirched. And worst of all, there’s the gross, sophomoric humor that has nothing to do with zombies that keeps being thrown in, like the author needed to make sure you understood that this book was not actually written by literary icon Jane Austen. I could get past weird stuff like Elizabeth’s father sleeping with Chinese prostitutes or the constant unnecessary references to vomit, but then there was the prolonged bit at the end where
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Ableism
Minor: Suicide
It’s a zombie book, with all the expected violence. A secondary character commits suicide off-screen, with no one caring in the least. A main character becomes disabled at the hands of another main character, something that is played for laughs. The disabled character’s lack of control of their bladder and bowels and his wife’s need to care for him then becomes a running joke.elsary's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
2.0
Make no mistake: the two stars are here only for the original work. This book - if it deserves to be called such - is a blasphemous caricature of the original masterpiece, yet I am physically incapable of giving it less than two stars for Jane's original beautiful words. For everything that has been added and changed and taken away, I have nothing but the question why. Spoilers ahead.
Why do the sisters fight zombies with daggers?!? Isn't the point of a zombie fight to keep the monster as far away from you as possible? As if this wasn't enough, they also engage in hand-to-hand combat with the zombies. Why??
Why did they do away with Volumes? Storytelling-wise, they add the excitement, the power of the twists - why were they taken away?
Why is Miss King not mentioned by name in the first instance she appears but only later - and then, without any explanation? This is a small thing, but it annoyed me to no end.
Why is Mr. Collins so fat? Fatphobia isn't funny.
Why were the characters' personalities so altered? Everyone in this novel is either a semi-stupid or fully-stupid side character incapable of fighting, or a martial arts expert who's lusting for blood and vengeance and fantasising about murder. I admit they bear some resemblance to the original characters in how they act, but their thoughts seem not be much different form the zombies they slaughter.
And on that note, the ableism in relation to Mr. Wickham is not simply "why" - it's gross and disgusting. Why did anyone think it was okay?
Why does Mr. Collins kill himself? That just makes no snese whatsoever to his original charcter, or the society they are living in, and it doesn't really do much for the plot either. He could've been killed by Charlotte, that would've been funnier and more suitable.
And maybe the biggest why: the orientalism, racism, cultural appropriation. Just... No. Emma Coffin (2016) has done a great job in analysing the orientalism in the book, and I wholeheartedly recommend her essay. It's more in-depth and better articulated than I could write, blinded by my rage after I had to read about a maid servant "dressed in a kimono and shuffling about on bound feet", the slapstick ninjas, and whatever is "zarizushi". Considering this was written in 2009, how is it possible to have such inaccurate, misinformed, fully racist and exotifying portrayal of Asian cultures?
I have wanted to read this novel for a good while, and I am now glad it is over. Can not recommend to anyone. If I have to read the words "deadly arts" ever again, I will practice them myself in ripping each fingernail of the author away and rubbing salt into the wound, after which I will claw the eyes out.
If you want a good historical novel with zombies, I beg of you to read Justina Ireland's DREAD NATION. It's ACTUALLY good.
Why do the sisters fight zombies with daggers?!? Isn't the point of a zombie fight to keep the monster as far away from you as possible? As if this wasn't enough, they also engage in hand-to-hand combat with the zombies. Why??
Why did they do away with Volumes? Storytelling-wise, they add the excitement, the power of the twists - why were they taken away?
Why is Miss King not mentioned by name in the first instance she appears but only later - and then, without any explanation? This is a small thing, but it annoyed me to no end.
Why is Mr. Collins so fat? Fatphobia isn't funny.
Why were the characters' personalities so altered? Everyone in this novel is either a semi-stupid or fully-stupid side character incapable of fighting, or a martial arts expert who's lusting for blood and vengeance and fantasising about murder. I admit they bear some resemblance to the original characters in how they act, but their thoughts seem not be much different form the zombies they slaughter.
And on that note, the ableism in relation to Mr. Wickham is not simply "why" - it's gross and disgusting. Why did anyone think it was okay?
Why does Mr. Collins kill himself? That just makes no snese whatsoever to his original charcter, or the society they are living in, and it doesn't really do much for the plot either. He could've been killed by Charlotte, that would've been funnier and more suitable.
And maybe the biggest why: the orientalism, racism, cultural appropriation. Just... No. Emma Coffin (2016) has done a great job in analysing the orientalism in the book, and I wholeheartedly recommend her essay. It's more in-depth and better articulated than I could write, blinded by my rage after I had to read about a maid servant "dressed in a kimono and shuffling about on bound feet", the slapstick ninjas, and whatever is "zarizushi". Considering this was written in 2009, how is it possible to have such inaccurate, misinformed, fully racist and exotifying portrayal of Asian cultures?
I have wanted to read this novel for a good while, and I am now glad it is over. Can not recommend to anyone. If I have to read the words "deadly arts" ever again, I will practice them myself in ripping each fingernail of the author away and rubbing salt into the wound, after which I will claw the eyes out.
If you want a good historical novel with zombies, I beg of you to read Justina Ireland's DREAD NATION. It's ACTUALLY good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Ableism, Cultural appropriation, and Racism
grace17's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Ableism
Moderate: Death and Toxic relationship
Minor: Self harm
alaskaisback's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit and Body horror
Moderate: Fatphobia and Ableism
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