Even though P & P is one of my favourite books and I know it inside out, I wasn't offended or upset by the parody. I was able to let it be the piss-take Grahame-Smith intended it to be.
But Jane Eyre Laid Bare is another matter entirely.
Eve Sinclair has massacred Jane Eyre all for the sake of sexing it up.
I'm not a prude. I've read Fifty Shades of Grey.
The writing and plot line were ghastly - some of the most excrutiating dialogue and plot lines I've ever had the misfortune to read - but the sex!
The sex was hot (and controversial).
The sex in Jane Eyre Laid Bare tries to be hot and controverial - masturbation, young girls together in dorms, the butler and maid behind the grate, strip-jack charades in the drawing room - blah, blah, blah!It was tedious, contrived and so forced to be something that it's not, that it was like watching a slow-motion car accident! You could see the disaster coming, but couldn't get out of the way in time.
The Grahame-Smith books worked because they weren't meant to be taken seriously. He was poking fun - we were all in on the joke.
There is nothing funny about Jane Eyre Laid Bare. It fails as a classic; it fails as erotic fiction; and it fails as a parody.
The only reason I bothered to spend a whole half hour of my lunch break reading this trash; and the only reason why I spent another half hour writing this post was because of a friend.
She asked me to review this honestly for her work. To her credit, the favour was asked before she'd had a chance to read it herself! Once she did read it she expressed very similar thoughts and withdrew the request...but by then I was all fired up.
Wow, this sounds appalling. (Aside: P&P&Z has the best cover ever).
ReplyDeleteWell I've been warned! I haven't read 50 shades (no interest at all), but have read p&P&Z- and loved it! I wouldn't have had all that much interest in this book- although I have read Jane Eyre several times and always enjoy it. I'll stay away. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI read 50 Shades for work and could have done without it, but we (my colleagues and I) were all curious to find out what it was that got so many people excited. Now we know.
DeleteSo interesting! I didn't read P&P&Zombies but did read the writer's Abraham Lincoln:Vampire Hunter but that was only because my husband was working on the film. I enjoyed it for the comic factor but that grows old. As did 50 Shades. Some of the sex was hot - "oh my" as she says and says and says but I found myself putting it down about halfway through and not bothering to pick it up. The heads up on this one is appreciated. Poor Charlotte Bronte rolling over in her grave.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you shared. Yuck.
ReplyDelete