The Grimm Legacy by: Polly Shulman

I used to feel strange reading a book written for teenagers. (And actually I think that this book would be good for even younger than that.) Then I decided that an adult wrote it, so what could be wrong with an adult reading it right? If it looks like something that is going to peek my interest why not dive right in? I’m really glad that I made that decision. This book was very cute and thought provoking. It could have easily been a topic for an adult fantasy book. I believe that it could have even been a series if books. It was such a rich story line with so many possibilities. Now this does not mean that I think that the author failed in keeping it a young reader. This is a great book for kids. It could make any kid believe that there is magic out there. I know that it would have given libraries and museums even more of an air of mystery than they already had. Hell it did anyway, even in my 30s. I will always want to believe that there is magic out there somewhere.

A quick overview of this book without spoiling anything for those of you brave enough to read a young reader.

Elizabeth, the main character, is a high school student who doesn’t seem to quite fit in. Then she is offered a job at a repository. Which was like a library for things not just books. You could take out clothes, furniture, kitchen appliances, really anything that you could think of from any time period.

After working there for a while Elizabeth realizes that there are even more unusual things to borrow from this repository. Magical things. This is when the story picks up speed and gets interesting. Her and a couple of the other kids that work there end up getting themselves into a world of magical trouble. You aren’t quite sure if they are going to get out of their predicament when the most unexpected things happen. Are they good things, bad things? You are just going to have to read it and find out.

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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by: Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

The original Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite books. I love Elizabeth Bennet. And Mr. Darcy while being a little bit stuck up and horrible in social settings makes a wonderful character to be the one that ends up falling in love with her. I was very concerned that this book was going to deviate too much from the original and end up being a horrible rendition. I was wrong. Maybe it could have actually gone further from the original story. It was exactly the original story with a few added pieces. Also they cut a few less significant things out. While reading, you don’t even notice the omission. The lack of pages and the fact that you get to the end so much faster makes it pretty obvious though.

I wish that there were more zombies. I love that Elizabeth was a zombie hunter. But other than that the story doesn’t change much. They run into zombies on the road on their way to go places and Elizabeth is always the strong one that kills them all. Not to say that her sisters aren’t equally skilled in the “deadly arts”. It’s just that she seems to be the one that steps up the most. Even in the original book she was always the strongest of the sisters. This just also makes her the deadliest. Her next door neighbor friend, the one who married the twit cousin, turned into a zombie. I wish that it had been the cousin. What a schmuck.

There was something that I questioned. I guess that it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t find something. But this one was kind of glaringly obvious. How did a poor family like the Bennets afford to go to China to train “in the deadly arts”? How did they get there? How did they find their ninja master? And they built a Dojo on their property. None of these things seem like something a poor family would do.

Also, I can’t believe that Lydia was ok with being married to a man that was strapped to a bed for the rest of his life. But she was still beyond thrilled and gloating to everyone. I think that they had that in there just to stay with the original work. Ok, there was one place where I thought that it deviated a little strangely. Lady Catherine was a renowned Zombie hunter? What? She is supposed to be this little hunched feeble shadow of a woman who thinks that she is the most important person on the face of the earth. This rendition of her makes her seem to have a legitimate claim to that. So with things like this I believe that it had some strange parts.

My favorite thing was probably when Elizabeth kicked Mr. Darcy into the fireplace when he proposed. It was exactly what I felt she should have done in the non-zombie version. That was very gratifying. I bet it felt good for her too.