Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson (2018)

Teen Fiction | Paranormal Mystery
Blurb:

“Mila Flores and her best friend Riley have always been inseparable. There’s not much excitement in their small town of Cross Creek, so Mila and Riley make their own fun, devoting most of their time to Riley’s favorite activity: amateur witchcraft.

So when Riley and two Fairmont Academy mean girls die under suspicious circumstances, Mila refuses to believe everyone’s explanation that her BFF was involved in a suicide pact. Instead, armed with a tube of lip gloss and an ancient grimoire, Mila does the unthinkable to uncover the truth: she brings the girls back to life.

Unfortunately, Riley, June, and Dayton have no recollection of their murders, but they do have unfinished business to attend to. Now, with only seven days until the spell wears off and the girls return to their graves, Mila must wrangle the distracted group of undead teens and work fast to discover their murderer…before the killer strikes again.”
–Goodreads 

pooled ink Review:

Okay why was I told this book is hilarious? It had its occasional amusing moments like any book but I wouldn’t recommend it solely on its comedy lol So I was expecting a bunch of laugh-out-loud laughs and uh got none but that didn’t make this book less, just different. It’s essentially a witchy zombie high school murder mystery – fun idea with some creepy paranormal flavor.

Personally I didn’t really like the main character, Mila. She was stubbornly annoying. I mean I think she was supposed to be a badass witch/scary outcast high school kid but honestly she just seemed like a semi-goth self-made loner who wears a ton of eye liner. I think it’s a good thing (in a twisted way) that Riley dies because up until that moment Mila had almost zero self-identity, her entire everything revolved around Riley and what Riley wanted. And Mila could be such a jerk to people (some deserve it but others are just outcasts like her so way to call the kettle black). It also would’ve helped if we met the dead girls when they were alive and could witness them bullying Mila and Riley because we spend most of the time with their reanimated corpses and while they’re a bit snobby or dense, overall they ended up as my favorite characters in the book (they were also the only ones with a truly noticeable character arc). It just isn’t as effective to hear little hints and snippets of the mean things they said or did in the past (especially to Riley) so the anger and revenge stuff came off as unnecessarily dramatic a.k.a. overkill.

I thought the concept was pretty cool though, bringing back the dead to help solve their own murders. I also enjoyed how being murdered (and revived) had them reflecting on their lives and who they were when they were still alive. There were some great friendship moments for sure and plenty of fun little twists in the plot. All the witchy stuff was cool to read as well. Old spells, wild potions, deep incantations, etc. all gave this book some perfect spooky atmosphere especially as it always worked, if not always in the way they expected. So hey, I wasn’t Mila’s biggest fan but that doesn’t mean this wasn’t an entertaining read.

Overall this was a fun read that I would definitely recommend for Halloween! I mean it’s a murder mystery plus it’s full of witches, zombies, snotty cheerleaders, and more!

Cheers.

 Purchase Here: Undead Girl Gang

Meet Lily Anderson!

Lily Anderson is the author of THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN ME IS YOU, NOT NOW NOT EVER, and UNDEAD GIRL GANG. A former school librarian, she is deeply devoted to Shakespeare, fairy tales, and podcasts. Somewhere in Northern California, she is having strong opinions on musical theater.
-Goodreads

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