Undeadly - Michele Vail

Undeadly by Michele Vail

Series: The Reaper Diaries #1

Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: November 20, 2012

Source/Format: Netgalley (Thanks!) || e-galley

[I received this book from the publisher. This in no way affects the thoughts expressed in my review.]

Molly Bartolucci just wants to be normal. But when the god Anubis chooses her to be a reaper, and she messes with another reaper's work, she ends up being shipped off to Nekyia Academy, an elite necromancer boarding school. When a student dies and one of her instructors disappears, Molly starts to realize that she might be finding herself in a lot more trouble than she bargained for.

The main reason I wanted to read Undeadly was because it incorporated Egyptian mythology into its story. The novel was cute, enjoyable and a quick read. There were, however, a few issues I had with the main character and the way that she was presented in this novel.

Egyptian mythology really does play a role in this story, though there wasn't nearly enough of it in my opinion. It was interesting to have the story focus mostly on necromancy though, and how it was related to what the Egyptians believed about death and life. I learned a little bit more about Anubis and Set, which made me a happy camper. And incorporating zombies into the mix was definitely something I did not expect, but that actually made sense!

The tone that the author employed is pretty funny, especially if you don't take it too seriously. I found that quite a few things that were said made me roll my eyes, but I attributed it mostly to the book feeling like it was written with a younger audience in mind. (Or perhaps the author meant it for actual teenagers and not twenty-something reading this book?) I'm totally willing to admit that I laughed a few times while I read, even though I'm not too sure that those scenes were supposed to be funny.

It was really hard for me to like Molly, which is what nearly made me skip to the end of the book. She felt a bit like a cardboard cutout to me - all the necessary parts to a character were there, but there was still something flat about her. We find out what she likes, what she doesn't like, what her issues are, what boy she's interested in, but there's still a disconnect in there somewhere. Plus, it really irked me when she would be acting dense - like when she couldn't figure out if the people that she was encountering were evil or not, even though it was blatantly obvious they were. She was definitely a frustrating person to deal with.

I don't even want to talk about the romance, because I was just not the biggest fan.

So, I enjoyed Undeadly - it amused me, and the way the mythology is woven in is definitely interesting. However, I am not the biggest fan of the main character, and that makes me unsure if I'll even want to continue with the rest of the series. I think there are readers out there who will enjoy it though, despite my reservations.