by Michele Vail
Paperback, 272 pages
Published November 20th 2012 by Harlequin Teen
ISBN 0373210469 (ISBN13: 9780373210466)
Blurb
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….
The Good
- The Egyptian mythology. I loved the idea of taking ancient Egyptian mythology and putting a modern twist on it. I wish there was a stronger focus on it in the book, but the bits and pieces we get here and there are awesome.
- The alternate history. At the onset of each chapter is a quote from a fictional book, usually involving alternate history or zombies. My favorite: “France’s annual Chase de Morts has been around since the French Revolution in 1793, when King Louis XVI was turned into a zombie, chased by citizens and then beheaded.” I wish some of these made up books that are quoted were real so I could read them.
- Nonna and her rolling pin. The idea of an old Italian grandmother striking fear into the hearts of grown men with her deadly rolling pin is just priceless.
The Bad
- Molly. The main character in this book was basically Elle Woods from Legally Blonde. She talks in text speak, is constantly worried about her appearance, and has an overall bubbly personality. This is all well and good, except that Molly’s overwhelming insecurity with herself leads to some weird inner monologues. She is always worrying about people looking at her and what they think, which doesn’t strike me as a very good role model for the younger audience this book was targeting.
- The shift in plot focus. Let’s take a quick peek back at the synopsis for this book. The first sentence boldly states, “The day I turned 16, my boyfriend-to-be died. I brought him back to life. Then things got a little weird…” This is a pretty interesting premise, but from this point forward in the book, Molly’s boyfriend issues are pushed to the side and we are taken on a trip through yet another boarding school story. I am so tired of authors doing this. Don’t rope me in with something interesting and then go off on a tangent.
- The ending. I have not read an ending that felt so abrupt and unfinished in a very, very long time. It felt like the book ended about 2 chapters from the end and someone accidentally included the beginning of the next book in the trilogy.
Overall Rating
While I really hated Molly and all her teenage, bubbly nonsense, I think I could have gotten past all that and still enjoyed the book a lot if the plot had stayed focused more on the zombie issues and less on boarding school drama. The Egyptian mythology and alternate history tidbits occasionally included were amazing, but there just were not enough of them to save this book.
