Read for the RIP VI Reading Challenge.
I wish I hadn’t so blatantly enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It’s caused me to get a few more books from that genre as gifts, and I’m sure this will come as a shock to no one, but the horror inserted into classic literature genre has hopped, skipped and jumped over the shark.
Jane and the Damned is actually on the less rip-offed in a really bad way side of this genre, because it’s about Jane Austen, and the story doesn’t have to follow the very set format of a particular book. (We don’t know enough about her life that there’s plenty of room to maneuver where you’re not playing fast and loose with actual action.) However, this book could have been written about any girl in the Regency period who happens to become a vampire. There’s absolutely no compelling reason to bring Jane Austen into it.
The action isn’t bad – Jane, her sister Cassandra and her parents are in Bath (because Jane was turned into a vampire and the waters there can cure her) when the French invade. Jane doesn’t want to be a vampire, but realizes it carries certain advantages that will help her fight alongside the other vampires in Bath to kick the French out.
The story wasn’t half bad until the end, which really annoyed me, because it was completely off character for the Jane that had developed throughout the book. Absolutely don’t read this expecting high art. It’s pure fluff, through and through.
The title to this book and the cover are quite the contrast…