Quirk Books recently announced their 3rd Austen title, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, due to be released in late March 2010.
This book is a departure from their two previous titles in that it is not technically a mash-up but rather a completely new title. This title is an Elizabeth Bennett ‘origins’ story of sorts in which we find out how the plague of ‘undesirables’ started in England and how Elizabeth Bennett went from traditional Austen heroine to zombie-kicking ninja.
Given the HUGE number of Austen-inspired zombie and vampire books currently out right now (Mr. Darcy, Vampyre is yet another of these titles) maybe Quirk Books has jumped the shark on this topic (as proposed in the New York Times way back in February 2009)?
What do you think? Are YA readers still interested in these books? And what about the fact that this new title has no original Austen text. At present, many high schools have incorporated P & P & Z into their English curriculum to pique readers’ interests in the classics, but will the same be true for this new title?
Filed under: Classic YA, Twilight, Vamps, Zombies & Other Supernatural Stories Tagged: | Elizabeth Bennett, Jane Austen, pride and prejudice and zombies, Quirk Classics, zombies
Not actually related to the post at hand, but this is an official invitation to join my “Finding the ‘good’ parents in YA Lit” challenge and post your own list of books with “good” parents.
You can find all the information here:
http://wp.me/p6kfM-LB
Thanks!