Review: Undeadly (The Reaper Diaries #1) by Michele Vail

Title: Undeadly

Series: The Reaper Diaries #1

Author: Michele Vail

Genre: YA, paranormal, urban fantasy

Publication date: November 20th 2012

Published by: HarlequinTeen

Source: Review copy from the publishers via Netgalley (thanks!)

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Synopsis:

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 pluses  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 rating: ★★★★★
I loved, loved, LOVED this book! There are so many things that I love in this book, that's why I loved it...if that makes any sense at all. The two main things:

1.) Mythology! I LOVE mythology! And although Greek is my favorite, I really love ALL types! And this book? It involved Egyptian mythology, which, ahem, may be my second favorite type of mythology...just sayin'.

2.) Reapers! Call me morbid, but I LOVE reapers! I don't know why, but they are one of my favorite supernatural creatures. I guess it's just amazing books like these that make me love reapers. So you can imagine my excitement when I find a book with two of my all-time favorite things! Reapers and Egyptian mythology? Hell yeah!

I just think Molly's world was creative, unique, and so very interesting! Michele Vail did such an amazing job mixing Egyptian mythology with the idea of reapers! Here is how these two things are connected: Necromancers in Molly's world are very common. Each necro is able to work with/control one part of the soul (I forget what they are...ba and ka are just two of the 5 parts). When a necro dies they become reapers (you know, like, transfer the soul to the other side). And the necros/reapers are said to be children (AKA direct descendants) of the Egyptian Underworld god, Anubis. Pretty cool, right?

I also liked the book's writing and voice. It truly felt like we were inside the head of a teenager, and, well, it was just very fun. There were some very unexpected and surprising twists and turns, which I always love in a book. And Holy Hades, er, I mean Anubis, it was awesome!

The characters (just to name a few):

Molly was a stubborn but strong leading character. She was sarcastic, sassy, and really, overall, a very likable character!

Rick: At first I liked him, then he started to freak me out...which I guess is understandable. I mean, he was brought back from the dead.

Rath: Oh my gods, i am seriously loving this guy! He is just so mysterious and kinda cocky, but really a softy on the inside. I'm really hoping to see more of him in the next book!

All this plus Egyptian gods, ghosts, and zombies just equals pure freakin' awesomeness! Michele Vail is definitely and author to lookout for!

Have you read this book? If so, leave me a comment telling me what you thought about it! If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read?