November 13, 2012

Undeadly by Michele Vail


Title: Undeadly (The Reaper Diaries #1)
Author: Michele Vail
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release date: November 20th, 2012
Source: Netgalley
Format: egalley

Rating: 3/5

Buy onAmazon | B&N | BookDepository

Read first chapter here.
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....

Undeadly´s world is quite interesting, is based in Egyptian mythology and that was the first thing that caught my attention, the other were the reapers. On the one hand we have the god Anubis who long time ago gave out five gifts among humans, so at present there are zombies everywhere to help with domestic tasks, there are devices that trap spirits and there are necromancers everywhere and they do not hide their nature.

Molly is a necromancer in training with the gift of making zombies, she´s going to a regular high school where she does not hide her necromancer nature, she is almost dating a popular guy and all is well with her life, until the day she turns sixteen, and at her party Rick her almost boyfriend dies and Molly revive him without thinking, from this moment her life changes, not only by the fact that she revived Rick, but also because she is sent to an exclusive academy for necromancers to be trained.

The book is from Molly´s POV and several parts were like diary entries or manual for future necromancers, Molly is a bit shallow, annoying, immature and her teen slang was annoying. As for the other characters ....well let me tell you they hardly appeared. Rath and Rick are the love triangle but I feel I didn´t get to know them, Molly made four new friends at her new school that are forgettable characters.

Undeadly generally is not a bad book, but I feel it was too short and it felt like there were pages missing. What I do like was as I mentioned earlier is Egyptian mythology; Undeadly has potential and the ending has a minor cliffhanger.

I want to thank Harlequin Teen and Netgalley for this review copy.

17 comments:

  1. I hear the same complaints every where, especially the fact that Molly isn't such a great character. I will try out my copy from Netgalley, but I'm not very excited about it. Great, honest review :)

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  2. I'll try to get a copy from Harlequin for review. I can live with 3 star rating.

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  3. Love the Egyptian mythology part, Great Review! Can't wait to check this out!

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  4. Oh, that's disappointing. But hats off to you for the honest review.

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  5. liked your review. looking forward to read the book

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  6. This is already on my wishlist - sounds like a good read to me - thanks for the review

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  7. OOOHHH, sounds great! Haven't read anything with Egyptian Mythology. Can't wait to read this

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  8. Your review looks disappointing, but I'm looking forward on reading this.

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  9. Your review looks disappointing, but I'm looking forward on reading this.

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  10. Your review looks disappointing, but I'm looking forward on reading this.

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  11. great riview,,cant wait to reading..putting it in my TBR
    thanks ^^

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  12. Thank you for this review. I'm an adult but I still like reading YA books and reviews like this help me to know which books I should invest in.

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  13. Good to read an honest review, thanks! I'm actually hearing pretty much the same on other book blogs I follow too (most of them being a lot harsher than yours! :)). It's disappointing because this book does look really good and, like you said, sure seems to have potential. It's too bad that it's not living up to expectations - or its own potential. Thanks again for the honest comments!

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  14. It's too bad this was only mediocre, but I'm intrigued enough by the concept and the mythology to give it a shot. Hopefully my library has a copy.
    Thanks for the review!

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  15. Once I saw all of the reviews coming in for Undeadly I got excited, until I saw the contents of them. I was looking forward to this book so much. The Egyptian mythology part especially, and add in zombies? Heck yeah! Sigh. I don't like griping, whining, immature, idiot main characters. It just frustrates me. And it seems like the plot just isn't enough to keep it interesting. I don't know what to do. I think that I will just wait and see. If I happen across it at the library, I will bring it home. If not, I think I will pass and be just fine. Thanks for the review!

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  16. I wish this book had been better--I haven't read it yet, but the premise is so interesting I really wanted to delve into it. It sounds like a lot is missing, and that sucks when it happens, especially when the plot sounded good. I might still give this one a go. Wish it had been better for ya!

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  17. Going to have to check my Net Galley TBR list. Sounds like one I'd definitely pick up if only for the zombies.

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