In the sixteenth year of a necromancer's life, parents used to take their kids to the Oracle and ask to know their paths. If the child had an Anubis dream, it meant they were chosen to do something important... 
 Molly has known for a while she was different. She is a necromancer, and she has the ability to reanimate dead bodies using a small part of the soul. She has learned it all in school, just like all of the other students do these days. Once upon a time, there was a battle between Anubis, god of the Underworld, and Set, god of Chaos. Anubis bestowed gifts of the soul to some humans, and these men and women could become reapers after death, helping souls pass to the afterworld. While Anubis prevailed the first time, legend says that Set will come back and overpower him the next time around, eradicating life and leaving only the world of the dead remaining... 
 Although she can essentially create zombies (and her father even runs a massive zombie shop for the creation, upkeep, and repair of zombies, which can be kept in this world as pets), Molly also lives like a normal teenage girl -- well, a normal teenage girl with the ability to raise the dead. She has a massive crush on a hottie at school, named Rick, and she wishes for nothing else than to have Rick finally become her boyfriend at her amazing birthday party, which is just around the corner. 
 During the party, Molly does manage to win Rick's heart -- and a kiss -- but then, unfortunately, he dies. A reaper named Rath shows up out of nowhere to reap Rick's soul, but Molly just isn't ready to see him die quite yet. She leaps into the air, grabbing parts of Rick's soul as they float away, and she manages to compile just enough of them to make Rick seem human again -- or, at least this is what Molly hopes. Nobody she knows can really bring the dead back to real living breathing, life, so what kind of crazy magical powers does Molly really possess? 
 After having Anubis appear to her in a dream, Molly realizes she is special, and she agrees to move to a special necromancer boarding school to learn the full of extent of the depth and breadth of her skills and gifts. But, thinks quickly take a turn for the worst when teenagers begin dying, their souls being mysteriously stolen each and every time. What's even more weird than that is the fact that Molly realizes she has dreamed about each soul-stealing scenario in detail before it actually occurred. Who in the world is stealing souls at a necromancer school? 
 The signs are pretty clear that Set is trying to come back soon, so if Molly is really chosen by Anubis, is she ready to be the one to save the world? 
 I'll admit at this point that I'm really conflicted at this point on my thoughts about this novel. On the one hand, I do think Vail managed to create a unique, creative, interesting universe that is a little different from most of the YA paranormal novels I've read in the past. While so many of these stories focus on angels, vampires, or werewolves, the author really takes things in a new direction, fleshing out a curious new adventure that is unlike anything I've experienced in other series of this type. 
 Additionally, I think the story was pretty well written and the author did a nice job keeping things moving from start to finish. The back story was presented through diary entries as well as a school paper, which worked well in relating necessary information required to understand the story. The use of Egyptian mythology throughout the story really added interest and depth to the plot, I think. 
 On the flip side, I just found that I couldn't connect with Molly as a character at all. She was written in such a way that she would sound like a humorous, relateable teenage girl, I think, but at the same time, she just seemed --- SLOW. I understand that this is an unfamiliar setting to the reader, but Molly has allegedly studied zombies and reaping from childhood, in her history classes. That said, she just didn't seem particularly bright or quick to catch on to anything. I think one of the points of the story where this was clearest was in a scene where a character announced to Molly that she was working for Set, on the dark side. After confirming this to be true -- which Molly *should* have realized WELL before she did, Molly still commented later that she just couldn't figure out if this character was friend or foe to her quest for Anubis. Really, Molly?! 
 Also, I think there were a few things that just left me a bit puzzled (although, to be fair, this is part of what makes it hard to review the first book in a series as a stand-alone novel. The loose ends may easily be tied up in a future novel, which makes me feel as if I should be a bit more open here...) For example, what exactly did Molly hope to accomplish by having the ghost carry Rick home after all the craziness and creepiness -- and right after he passed out, flat, on the ground? Was that intended to *fix* the problem? And, there was so much building up of the story line with the soul snatcher, and then -- what happened? I'm confused! 
 For whatever reason, I just couldn't click with this story. It was a great concept that was well-written, but things just felt muddled as the book got closer to the end, and I can't deny that I did lose interest in the series already. 
 That being said, I could see UNDEADLY having a great following in the YA paranormal fiction audience. For readers who are looking for a new and interesting world of magic and mystery, this is probably a good place to start. Think of it as House of Night for necromancers! 
 (I did receive an electronic galley copy of Undeadly for free, from the publisher, for the purpose of providing a complete and honest review. I wholly appreciate this and I always look forward to new titles from Harlequin Teen!)