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A review by loverofpages
Mina and the Undead by Amy McCaw
3.0
First and foremost, the book follows Mina and her journey in New Orleans to visit her estranged sister, Libby. Obsessed with everything spooky, Mina cannot wait to explore the city's darkest myths and legends - vampire tours, creepy cemeteries and absolutely everything scary. When Mina lands a part time job at a horror movie mansion, her dreams are coming to light... only to be destroyed when a body surfaces and somebody is out replicating New Orleans' most brutal supernatural killings.
This book is a super fun, old school YA gothic horror!
I absolutely adored many elements of this book and found the reading experience incredibly enjoyable. However, there were a few things I disliked about the story.
The setting of 90s New Orleans with their infamous myths and legends on vampires was super fun to read about. The spookiness of the setting really enhanced the story and was definitely a reasoning for me enjoying the book. The story also reads like old school YA, which I think is perfect for younger readers wanting to start experimenting with horror books and more spooky and gruesome literature.
What I didn't like however, was the pacing of the book. The novel started off very quickly with a lot of characters that we were instantly meant to grasp in order to understand the character dynamics. There would also be scenes where the characters would be doing an activity (ie. a sleepover) and we would get a brief summary of what was happening, only for the next scene to be after the event. It meant that there was very little character development throughout the story and I personally found it fairly hard to resonate with any the characters. I do however, think that this is another reason that younger readers would really love this book.
All in all, this book was definitely a fun, spooky book that was very reminiscent of old school YA.
This book is a super fun, old school YA gothic horror!
I absolutely adored many elements of this book and found the reading experience incredibly enjoyable. However, there were a few things I disliked about the story.
The setting of 90s New Orleans with their infamous myths and legends on vampires was super fun to read about. The spookiness of the setting really enhanced the story and was definitely a reasoning for me enjoying the book. The story also reads like old school YA, which I think is perfect for younger readers wanting to start experimenting with horror books and more spooky and gruesome literature.
What I didn't like however, was the pacing of the book. The novel started off very quickly with a lot of characters that we were instantly meant to grasp in order to understand the character dynamics. There would also be scenes where the characters would be doing an activity (ie. a sleepover) and we would get a brief summary of what was happening, only for the next scene to be after the event. It meant that there was very little character development throughout the story and I personally found it fairly hard to resonate with any the characters. I do however, think that this is another reason that younger readers would really love this book.
All in all, this book was definitely a fun, spooky book that was very reminiscent of old school YA.