Review: Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

Title: Undead Girl Gang

Author: Lily Anderson

Publisher: Razorbill

Publishing Date: May 8th, 2018

Pages: 320
Audio Length: 8 Hours and 20 Minutes

Genre: YA Paranormal Mystery 

Series: Standalone

Source: Audio

 

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.

What made me pick this book up: 

The cover definitely caught my eye. Also the title just screams "Ash!" 

What did I like about the cover: 

I love everything about it to be honest. I love the denim, I love the pins, and I love the bright colors. I think it matches the book perfectly. I think you should be able to order swag from this book, because I want the pinky swear and the "undead girl gang" pins! 

What made me read this book: 

Well, I had been wanting to read this book for a while anyway, besides the cover and the title being awesome, the synopsis most definitely sounded awesome. 

Death + witchcraft + murder mystery!? Whaaat.

Also Jenn read it and said it was awesome and I needed to read it ASAP. She's usually right.

What did I like the most: 

Oh man, everything. Seriously.

Let's start with the story. Three girls "commit suicide" within a week. One of the dead girl's best friends decides that no way would she kill herself. Someone had to have killed her.

So what does she do? She raises her from the dead to figure out who killed her. But oopsie, she accidentally raises the other two girls from the dead too. 

Then they go on this awesome, ass kicking, find out who killed them spree.

Amazing.

And then! The characters, let me tell you. All of the characters are so great. Lily really made each character their own. One is bitchy and rude, one is kinda dumb but so sweet, one is someone every girl wants to be. 

I mean really, it's great. 

And let's talk about Mila. The fact that she calls herself "the fat girl" and is actually curvy, and not your typical skinny girl. It's awesome. I love reading books where the main character or one of the main characters has more to love. I think it's so great that more and more authors are doing this, because it helps girls who do have more to love, know that they're being recognized and talked about, in a totally positive way.

Also the fact that she can call herself that, but doesn't totally hate her body, or whine about it, it's great. So so so great. 

Mila is also great in the way that she's smart, funny, smart ass-y and just does not give up. I think she's been one of my favorite MC in a while.

With June and Dayton, I loved how they turned out to be. You would expect them to be your typical stuck up mean girls, but honestly they were anything but. I definitely fell in love with both of them as characters, and I would have loved to have them as best friends.

Honestly this book had the best sarcastic humor, it had me cracking up. It has everything you could want from witchiness, to friendship, to a murder mystery. 

What didn't I like: 

Okay so I really did not like Riley. I mean she seemed so cool, like the type of girl you'd want to be. She was a bad ass. 

But honestly I just kept thinking "dude, shut up already" every time Riley talked. She just bugged me from the moment she rose from the dead.

I'm like seriously, that's your best friend? That's who you miss so dearly?

But I feel like she might have ended up being different when she was alive, at least by the way Mila talked about her.

Also the "whodunnit" Ugh, pissed me off. I kind of saw it coming but I was like "Nahhhh, there's no way."

*tear*

Would I read the rest of the series/more from this author?
YES YES YES!!!

I fell in love hard with this book. I did not want to put it down, and it's what got me out of my reading slump. So way to go Lily Anderson!

“A scoop of dried rosemary goes into the bag, followed by salt. Sometimes, magic looks a lot like how my mom prepares chicken.” 
― Lily Anderson, Undead Girl Gang

Lily Anderson is a school librarian and Melvil Dewey fangirl with an ever-growing collection of musical theater tattoos and Harry Potter ephemera. She lives in Northern California, far from her mortal enemy: the snow.