Michele Bardsley

Okay FIRST, I must relay how much I ADORED Molly and her "voice"! She spoke my language dude. And I loved it hardcore!

Molly's in training to become a full fledged necromancer, of the ka heka (Zombie Maker) division.

On her 16th birthday, her boyfriend Rick, takes a nasty fall and DIES. Yeah. Dead as a door nail, instantly. Molly acts in a frenzied panic of "HOLY CRAP!", grabs his soul as its hovering over his body and shoves it back inside him.

Well, this did not turn out as beautifully as she show more had hoped and Rick comes back... Wrong. And that's all I'm going to say about THAT.

Throughout the beginning of Undeadly, we are privy to Necromancer history and different ranks in the Necromancer/Reaper hierarchy. Also how the war between two Gods shaped the modern day. It was super informative and I find myself wondering if it would be inappropriate to teach these "ideas" to my children. Just sayin.

"Most historians agree, however, that it was the Egyptians who perfected the art of raising the dead. No other culture can boast that their zombies built such magnificent monuments."

She works for her father, Big Al, at Big Al's Zomporium, doing awesome zombie related tasks for zombie-keeping people...

"Zombies required care. You had to comb their hair, cut their nails, oil their skin, brush their teeth and give them weather appropriate shoes." - BAHAHAHA! *dies* I love it!!!!

Her grandparents, whom she's never met, show up out of the blue and tell her of their `practically royal' bloodlines among the Necro community and inform her of the enormous responsibility she's about to undertake.

Off to Hogwart's Nekyia Academy she goes... where she'll encounter much to overcome. Especially since Rick followed her there, and he's acting all super creepy... Then people start dying.

I thoroughly enjoyed Undeadly! It wasn't at all what I expected, which was a welcome surprise! Undeadly is awesome, hilarious, suspenseful and intriguing - Molly is a brave, witty and wickedly funny heroine. Rath? Hmmm... I'm seeing potential here! Can't wait to find out more about him and how he came into the Reaping business! show less

Not perfect but certainly not bad. I liked this. I enjoyed the Egyptian mythology angle. The plot was alright. There were some funny lines. Molly was tedious at times - she could sound very young - more tween like than young adult but for the most part she was fine. The romance was okay. 3 stars.

Go ahead and add I'm the Vampire, That's Why to the growing list of lackluster paranormals that are clogging up bookshelves around the nation. This book is like vampire paranormal goulash - Bardsley just threw plot elements from other vampire series into the pot, and waited to see what would happen.

Bardsley gallups through the setup, where we learn about her alternate reality and her main characters. She's so busy getting to the good stuff she devotes no more than a paragraph to any of the show more following things: (1) The narrator finding out that vampires exist (2) The narrator finding out that she's dead (3) The narrator finding out that she's a vampire (4) The narrator coming to grips with the drinking of blood. The sum total of the narrator's reaction to these things is: Pretty crazy, huh?

Seriously, I don't care about the rules of her alternate reality if I'm not discovering it with the narrator, feeling it with the narrator, really getting involved in the STORY.

Her vampires are basically just superheroes with fangs. They have a laundry list of supernatural powers, they wake up from their Turning extra-gorgeous, and they don't seem to have any kind of noticeable personality change from their earlier, human selves - bloodlust is mild, no hunting instincts. So vampires either volunteer blood to one another, or else they feed off of donor humans, and it's all very civilized.

Jessica's romance with Patrick would be hot...if Bardsley hadn't pretty much spoiled it from the beginning. The reader discovers almost on the first page that Jessica is wearing a very special, very ancient ring and it has been prophesied for thousands of years that whoever next wore this ring is Patrick's soul-mate. Patrick believes in this prophesy, so he's instantly devoted to Jessica; and he's a really (almost tiresomely) nice guy. So there isn't a whole lot of tension to the romance; sure, it makes sense that Jessica needs a few days to think it over, and it sucks that they can't have sex while she thinks; and yes, she ought to wonder how her kids fit into the equation, but there's no real threat to their union, just a frustrating deferral.

What else? Too many characters, introduced too quickly, without enough personality. Over the top evil villains. Jessica pretty much ignores her kids throughout the novel (it's always, "Well, there goes another night without seeing my kids...good thing I know they'r safe!"), characters say and do things at inappropriate times and places (example: Evil Ex Girlfriend interrupts a war room powwow to tell Patrick, out of the blue, "We were good before, we could be again" - don't even Evil Ex Girlfriends have a sense of timing?). A real cop-out at the ending.

Bloodless? Absolutely. show less

After Molly saves her boyfriend from death by capturing his soul (well most of it anyway), she is sent to the exclusive and extremely creeepy Nekyia Academy. It seems that Molly has an unusual combination of powers that puts her in a class all her own.

I really liked this book. The use of Egyptian mythology was new to me and I liked that. I liked Molly and her family. The kids at the school are fun and despite their powers are pretty normal. And beside that, they watch Dark Shadows marathons show more (I love that show). Left the story in a cliff-hanger. Can't wait ti see what happens. show less