Emma and the Vampires by Jane Austen & Wayne Josephson

Emma and the Vampires by Jane Austen & Wayne Josephson

Release Date: August 1, 2010
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Pages: 304

What better place than pale England to hide a secret society of gentlemen vampires?

In this hilarious retelling of Jane Austen's Emma, screenwriter Wayne Josephson casts Mr. Knightley as one of the most handsome and noble of the gentlemen village vampires. Blithely unaware of their presence, Emma, who imagines she has a special gift for matchmaking, attempts to arrange the affairs of her social circle with delightfully disastrous results. But when her dear friend Harriet Smith declares her love for Mr. Knightley, Emma realizes she's the one who wants to stay up all night with him. Fortunately, Mr. Knightley has been hiding a secret deep within his unbeating heart-his (literal) undying love for her... A brilliant mash-up of Jane Austen and the undead.

Emma and the Vampires was my first mash-up novel. I hadn't really heard of very many of them until I was offered Emma and the Vampires for review. It was interesting, I think? I am not very sure about how I should feel about this book since it is the first of its genre I've read.
Emma and the Vampires basically seemed quite like the classic, except the men were vampires. I had thought it would be more of a new take on Jane Austen's classic (i.e. an interpretation of Emma but now with the supernatural element) but it seemed more like the original with a few vampires inserted. Or the author could have parodied Emma with the added supernatural element? I'm not really sure, but this book didn't feel entirely satisfying. It's a good idea, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if it had been a bit more original--an interpretation, rather than a retelling with two species swapped.


Summary courtesy of GoodReads