Review: Undeadly by Michele Vail

Book: Undeadly (The Reaper Diaries #1)
By: Michele Vail
Published: November 20, 2012
Published By: Harlequin Teen

Description: 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: Undeadly was a nice twist on egyptian myth that, like many books of this type, gives regular humans godly power to use for good.

Ever wondered what it would be like if raising zombies or your dead parents and carrying them around with you as pets would be like? What about what it would be like if most of the world had some type or necromantic power over the dead. Well this story exploits this idea. We follow Molly as she is given a special gift, and consequently realizes her life as she knew it, has been a bit of a lie. She goes to a new school where she must perfect her new powers and help the others like her. Meanwhile, Molly would prefer to just be a regular person, with a regular relationship. Unfortunately, the boy she's interested in accidentally dies at her birthday party, but she brought him back to life, and now he's weird. He's not a zombie or anything...but something is definitely wrong.

I enjoyed this book, despite the excessive young "teen language" the author used. It was an interesting story that I couldnt wait to finish. Unfortunately, it was a bit too young for me so I couldnt completely relate. There isnt much romance in my opinion, though there is a bit of romantic tension. The appearance of one of the gods here is also a little weird. He just didnt seem "godly" to me. In addition, the ending ot this story seemed a bit rushed and random. Still, it was good.

I would recommend this book to an actual young adult, around 13-16 years old who likes zombies and necromantic magic. It was a good story with quite a lot of good reviews. 3 Stars.