Review: Undeadly

Undeadly by Michele Vail

Published by Harliquen Teen

Genre: YA paranormal

$9.99 (US paperback)

272 pages

Format I read: Netgalley

 

What it's about:

 

The day I turned 16, my boyfriend-to-be died. I brought him back to life. Then things got a little weird...

Molly Bartolucci wants to blend in, date hottie Rick and keep her zombie-raising abilities on the down-low. Then the god Anubis chooses her to become a reaper—and she accidentally undoes the work of another reaper, Rath. Within days, she's shipped off to the Nekyia Academy, an elite boarding school that trains the best necromancers in the world. And her personal reaping tutor? Rath.

Life at Nekyia has its plusses. Molly has her own personal ghoul, for one. Rick follows her there out of the blue, for another...except, there's something a little off about him. When students at the academy start to die and Rath disappears, Molly starts to wonder if anything is as it seems. Only one thing is certain—-Molly's got an undeadly knack for finding trouble....

My thoughts:
This book had such potential and yet fell short.

When I first started, it was the perfect pace. It explained everything just enough to not bog down the book but told you enough that you could follow along. I was really enjoying it and then all the sudden the pace sped up and there were so many story plots going on that it was becoming increasingly hard to focus on all of them. Some got left behind and then at the end had to be picked up real fast and explained. With all these story lines going on, it also meant that the characterization was starting to lack. I never really got to learn all the quirks of the characters, was never really able to connect with them. I found it odd that the second Molly gets to school, she all the sudden has these great friends and an enemy. I would have liked to see a lot more of this.

What I really want to say is that this book just needed to be longer. Take the time to fully explain what is going on, let the reader get emotionally involved in what is happening to Molly. It had some really good ideas, I loved the whole Anubis angle and how zombies are an every day thing. It reminded me of the end of the movie Shaun of the Dead. I just really wish the book was longer. It has a fantastic voice to it and Molly is a character that could have been a lot of fun to follow around. This book was just too short.

My rating: 7/10