NorthFanger: A Gothic Austen Mash-up by Jayne Bamber brings all our favorite Jane Austen characters together, with vampires, too.

This book is just so fun. It doesn’t follow any book in particular, although we get to see the couples get together in different circumstances (and there’s an extra couple — after Mr. Collins is tragically slain by a vampire, widowed Charlotte is free to seek a more genial second husband). This is really the themes and characters from our favorite Austen novels in a gothic adventure mashup.  Catherine longs for something nearly as exciting as her novels, Elizabeth and Darcy keep getting thrown together, General Tilney is pretty ominous, but is he actually a villain? Caroline Bingley is still a stuckup jerk, Isabella is still a sneaky climber, etc.  Plus, some of our acquaintance have become vampires or are hiding undead relations.

Our characters maintain their Austen-style dialogue through out the book, and it is such fun. Basically, if you were intrigued by “Austen vampire mashup,” this story really delivers.  Keeping up appearances while looking for a suitable husband meshes surprisingly well with keeping up appearances while looking for someone who can help cope with the curse of vampirism (or looking for the person responsible…). There’s a fun moment where one character uses a recent widow in residence as an excuse to escape social obligations, when he’s really hiding a vampire.

But one cannot observe all the Regency social conventions while hiding a vampire or while on other undead adventures.  I was shocked when a certain couple pretended to be married at an overnight stay in an inn. What if one of their acquaintance had heard of such a thing? She would be ruined! And later there’s a new acquaintance formed at Bath, without a proper introduction! Shocking! I guess while concealing various vampire relations, one might let a few of the conventions go. 

I don’t want to reveal too much, but I’ve always been a bit sad that Charlotte Lucas wound up with such a dud husband, and I was pleased to see her new life in this book. And I loved Catherine Morland getting to experience some horrid gothic creepiness instead of just reading about it.

You guys, NorthFanger is just so fun to read, and there’s something hilarious about a vampire adventure novel where the characters read “horrid” gothic novels. Fans of the fun gothic parody scenes in Northanger Abbey will have a great time reading the fun gothic variations on Austen’s novels, it’s the same spirit of cheerful imitation of a genre.

Fans of this one will also enjoy Disenchanted, a fun P&P retelling with magic, and The Bride of Northanger, another variation where Catherine gets to see some gothic horrors.

I received a copy of this book to review. Opinions on my blog are my own, as always.