There has been a publishing trend toward combining classic characters with zombies or other supernatural characters.  If you enjoy the original character and don't mind some monster interaction, you may have fun with this week's theme.  This week's challenge is to read one of these, or other books that combine classic literature with a little creepy fun.

Classic Literature--Now with 100% More Monster!

Brown, Eric and H.G. Wells. War of the Worlds, Plus Blood, Guts, and Zombies (SF)

Erwin, Sherri and Charlotte Brontë. Jane Slayre (F)

Grahame-Smith, Seth and Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (F)

Grand, Porter and Louisa May Alcott. Little Women and Werewolves (F)

Gray, Sarah and Emily Bronte. Wuthering Bites (F)

Nazarian, Vera and Jane Austen. Mansfield Park and Mummies (F)

Winters, Ben and Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (F)

Winters, Ben and Leo Tolstoy. Android Karenina (F)

Peter Grant is a rookie cop working the streets in London when, while guarding a crime scene, he meets a most unusual witness: a ghost. The ghost describes the crime to Grant in detail and Grant is able to determine that no one but an actual witness would know those details. While waiting out another evening for the ghost to show back up, Grant meets Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale.  Nightingale, though few outside the upper echelons know it, is a wizard working in a special branch designated to investigate crimes of a supernatural order…and he needs an apprentice. Since Grant has already demonstrated a sensitivity to the other world, he’s given the job. Now the rookie cop is also a rookie wizard, bringing his modern scientific outlook into the work. A murderer is stalking the city, killing seemingly at random—but soon, Nightingale and Grant are able to discern the pattern. Meanwhile, Grant has to learn magic, mediate a feud between the warring genius loci of the rivers of London, and try not to make too much of a fool of himself in front of the various women in his life.

Fast-paced, clever, and original, “Midnight Riot” is a promising series start. Sure to be a hit with fans of Jim Butcher’s “Dresden Files” series! 

In a future so distant that Earth itself is barely remembered, the universe has been colonized by humans, or Terre.  They have encountered multiple strange alien species, and made peace with most of them. Perhaps no species they have found, however, have been as strange as the Ariekei. The Ariekei, called the “Hosts” by those humans who live on their world in an enclave called Embassytown, have two mouths. Their language, called Language with the capital L, is contingent upon the use of both mouths, and therefore both portions of their minds, at once. They are literally unable to comprehend any language spoken by only one mouth and one mind. The Ambassadors of Embassytown are specially-bred identical clones, called doppels, who are trained from birth to be so empathically linked that they are able to speak Language with the Hosts and be understood as two minds speaking one thought together.

Avice Benner Cho, a young woman raised in Embassytown who became an immerser, or space traveler, never thought she’d return to her childhood home.  But when her husband, a linguist, becomes obsessed with the Ariekei and Language, she finds herself back in Embassytown, traveling in the Ambassadors’ social circles.  But trouble is brewing. One faction of the Ariekei have become obsessed with learning to lie—Language is incapable of encompassing anything other than strict, literal truth. Even abstracts like similes must be performed by actors so that the Ariekei can refer to them. But learning to lie would change the Ariekei and their culture, and not everyone is happy with that idea.  In addition, Bremen, the home nation of the colony Embassytown, has its own plan for wresting political influence away from the doppel Ambassadors.  When the plans of the liar Ariekei and Bremen’s agents collide, only Avice and a small contingent of rebellious Ambassadors and Ariekei can save the colony—and the Ariekei species—from total destruction.

A very slow-starting book, the plot neverthless picks up pace dramatically in the second half.  This title will reward those willing to invest the time to immerse fully in the detailed universe Mieville has created. 

Sometimes it's hard to determine just who the zombies are. This week's challenge is to read a book about a disfunctional character or family.  As always, we're giving you some suggestions to get you started.

Keep your enemies close!

Bartok, Mira. The Memory Palace. (B B288)

Berg, Elizabeth. The Art of Mending. (F)

Cadwalladr, Carole. The Family Tree. (F)

Hopkins, Ellen. Burned. (F)

Karr, Mary. The Liars’ Club. (B K 183)

McMillan, Terry. A Day Late and a Dollar Short. (F)

Meyers, Randy Susan. The Murderer’s Daughters. (F)

Tropper, Jonathan. This Is Where I Leave You. (F)