This is amazing - don't be put off by anyone telling you it's YA or fantasy - it isn't in my opinion. It has a child main character but I think it's YA in the same way that To Kill a Mockingbird is 'YA'. It's the sort of book you're made to read in school but you appreciate more as you get older. It's based on Maori legends, so not a 'fantasy' book but an insight into the richness that is Maori history. It also touches on the discrimination that exists between genders and races. You can learn a lot from this book - including how we should all respect the natural environment far more than we do. Give it a try!

I listened to the audiobook version, read by the author, and I really recommend it. His voice is perfect with the slow pace of the book. I suspect I might have been bogged down if I was reading, but listening is beautiful. So glad I finally got round to this one. It was well worth it.

Oh dear... I wanted to like this, I really did, but in my opinion it just didn't work. The 'zombiefication' was too clumsy. I hated the way some bits were left exactly as the original and some bits were so, so different. It felt like the author didn't quite know how to proceed so just slipped in zombie sections every now and again. He really needed to be more consistent and either rewrite the whole book as a pure laugh (it would have been so much more fun if Lady Catherine was the zombie leader!) or keep more of Jane Austen's text and have a much more clever and subtle approach. Either could have been great. As it was it swung from wacky to classic and I ended up glad when it was over. Such a good idea but not up to the mark in its execution.

I have to admit, I really ended up struggling with this book. I absolutely loved it to start with. It was beautiful. I could almost feel and smell the late 19th century. But I don't know much about that period, and I got completely bogged down with all the desciptions and the detail of all the different movements. I stopped at about page 260 and it took me months to get going again.

For me, the book never picked up after that pause. I still struggled with the history (and I love historical fiction), and the pure detail. I tend to imagine books as I read and I just couldn't do that with this. I nearly gave up but not quite - hence the 3 stars. It deserves more, and in places it was certainly worth 5 stars, but it was just too arty and too dry in places for me.

Maybe if it had concentrated a little more on the characters I wouldn't have got so stuck. Maybe if there had been fewer factual-type sections about all the different movements it would have flowed better. Maybe if I know more about the period and all the arts and crafts I would have loved it more. I'm rather sad I didn't.