Undeadly by Michele Vail

Undeadly by Michele Vail
The Reaper Diaries #1
Release Date: November 20, 2012 (UK)
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads Stars: 4
Rating: Enjoyable

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.... - Goodreads

The plot of Undeadly was fun and fast paced. The Egyptian mythology was woven into the story really well, and there were no huge info-dumps at all, which I really appreciated. I find that some YA books, when including mythology such as this, often try to throw everything at the reader at once but that wasn't the case with Undeadly. The mythology was very unique, and it's something that I loved reading about. I've read books about reapers before, but the Egyptian aspect was new to me. It's definitely convinced me to check out more books based on Egyptian mythology!

Molly was a great protagonist. She sounded and acted like a sixteen year old girl, which was both realistic and entertaining. She was the perfect mix of snarky, friendly and polite. It made me really feel for her when certain things were revealed in the story. Vail's writing style worked really well with Molly's character, too.

The only thing I disliked about the novel was how predictable it was. I knew almost exactly where the story was going from about fifty pages in, and I knew who the bad guy(s) would be, and what the 'surprise' reveal was going to be towards the end. This took away from my enjoyment of the story, because I love being surprised while reading.

Undeadly was a great read, and I'll definitely be reading the next book in the series, Unchosen, when it's released next year.