Grave Expectations-Sherri Browning Erwin and Charles Dickens

Grave Expectations
Sherri Browning Erwin and Charles Dickens
Gallery/Pocket, Aug 30 2011, $15.00
ISBN: 9781451617245

With their parents dead, alpha sister Mrs. Joe being more than twenty years older than her brother has raised Philip “Pip” Pirrip the werewolf. She dominates her younger brother though not a shapeshifter (due to the X chromosome) and for that matter her kindhearted husband Joe Gargery a silversmith. Pip cannot wait to escape the she-tyrant. With that in mind he apprenticed for years as a silversmith under the tutelage of brother-in-law.

Now a journeyman, Pip leaves to London where he hopes to be a gentleman. However, he never forgot his childhood friend rowdy Estella. When they meet in London, he wants her, but though she reciprocates she has no time for a submissive werewolf as she is a kill first supernatural slayer mentored by Miss Haversham.

This is a fascinating paranormal parody of Great Expectations; Charles Dickens receives the same irreverence as other ninetieth century notables like Charlotte Bronte (see Jane Slayer by Sherri Browning Erwin), and Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith, Emma and the Vampires by Wayne Josephson). The well written but overly complex story line is entertaining but also at times slows down as the reader struggles to understand what is going on especially inside of Pip’s head. Still fans of supernatural re-novelization of the classics will enjoy the star-crossed romance between the werewolf and the slayer.

Harriet Klausner