Review: Undeadly by Michele Vail

Title: Undeadly

Author: Michele Vail

Reviewed by: Cassie

Summary (from Goodreads.com)

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...

Guh, this one was a flop for me. I had a LOT of high hopes for this, and had waited a really, really long time. Like, I would check almost every day to see if it was on the way, and then squealed when I found it was.

And, while it may be just me, I think you may very well find this enjoyable. No doubt about it that it's a very unique and original twist on two elements, but I feel as if it was the writing that made me not like it.

The writing made me have headaches, see. It was very stop-and-go, insert-personal-thought, try-to-be-witty sort of writing. Molly, the main character, was decent at times, and I got sucked into the story. But then she would go off with some of her 'witty' thoughts, as if speaking to the reader, and I would get really disoriented and annoyed. If you're cool with these things (and no, she's not like Sophie from Hex Hall at all) then go ahead. I fully endorse you try this.

Secondly, the plot was pretty convoluted. What exactly was I reading about? Was it the problem at her school? Her quickly-approaching destiny? Her relationship issues? I really had no idea what the climax was, (okay I did but I thought it was so stupid) and I was getting a headache.

And lastly, the characters. Okay, so she likes to hang out with 'freaks' or outcasts. That's cool- no really, it is. I totally understand it. But see, I didn't even understand why she didn't try to hang out with 'normal' kids. All of these normal kids were surrounding her, but she totally ignored them, to hang out with outcasts that didn't have any endearing qualities to them. Oh, except one of them. Her name was Barbie.

And lastly, the romance was bang-my-head-against-the-wall-worthy. I really didn't understand either of them ('hot' trainer or cliche highschool football star... totally original) or the appeal, so I just... meh. You know in Half-Blood and Vampire Academy, the instructors were totally sexy and like, lemme get my paws on you types of guys? Rath was just there. And Rick, the football guy, was totally blah.

Now, I still think you should try it out if you don't care about the heroine's voice, because her voice portrayed this all in the wrong light. If you just read for the story, go for it. I like to get the feel of characters, and I didn't like it for this book.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cassie

(we're still gonna be really busy these next few months, FYI)