Unfortunately, this wasn't my favorite. I found the characters to be rather bland and the story moved too slowly for me. It was an interesting premise, but not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The idea for this book was phenomenal! For real!
But sometimes the real writing about was cringe worthy.

The idea of necromancy being a crime in one land while being celebrated in another country, which were in war times for ages was something I really wanted to read about. How this magic worked and why Naya was involved in it was also absolutely great.
But the characters weren't much for me.
Naya just never did what she was told and therefore everyone around her was turned and tangled in chaos. She always asked the wrong questions and did stupid things and that me so angry!

But the story idea in itself, the worldbuilding was great and everything was explained thoroughly. Most of the characters were hate worthy and liars, and the other half just didn't touch my heart that much. I hate to write negative reviews, so this isn't one - but the book didn't made me love it either. Still I want to know what's going on further on. The background story and world building was just exciting enough to keep me reading and wanting to know what happens next. Especially how the runes and necromancy magic worked was just so perfect and new to m, that I loved every minute reading about it!

This is a slow burning fantasy novel with an even slower burning lovestory :)

This was the second time that I attempted to read this book. Last time I was in a reading slump, and I forced myself through 20% before I stopped reading. This time, I powered through.

I enjoyed the premise of this book, and despite what a lot of people have been saying, I did enjoy the political aspect in this book. However, I saw the twist coming from a mile away. From the moment Naya woke up as an undead, I knew what happened and what was going to happen political wise.

I don't really see the need for this being a series, BUT I kinda do want to know what happens in the next one.
One thing I strongly disliked was how stupid Naya could be. She kept telling herself lies to make herself feel better. The fact that a whole group wanted to follow her baffled me.

3.5 stars in the end.

Oh my goodness this book!

I found myself on the edge of my seat at times.

There were ai many twists and turns that took place in this book. And so many discoveries and mysteries to be made and solved.

And I just couldn't put it down until that last page was read.

Would recommend to any fantasy fans looking for a 5 star read

This book was an interesting interpretation of necromancy, especially with the main character, Naya Garth, as a newly-turned wraith. I felt like the author creatively expressed her own interpretation of necromancy and made it much less dark of a topic than I’ve seen in most other situations. However, I think the romance between Naya and Corten wasn’t really necessary in this story, but I would like to see it develop in further books in the series. Although I am not sure if there are other books coming soon, I do think this series would be much stronger with the characters and political machinations flushed out in additional books. As a standalone novel, the story needs more details.

This had a great plot and great characters! I felt immediately drawn into the story and totally think this will be a big selling hit when it is released! I cannot wait for other works by this author and recommend this wholeheartedly!

An excellent YA book and hopefully the next one will be out soon as it leaves you wanting more and not all the strings are tied up by the end. It has the feel of Shadow & Bone, a petite female who learns through adversity that she is strong and capable and usual world saving. While most heroines are dying to do good and help others Naya aka Blue literally died before she even had a cause. Back stabbing, spy trade, necromancers, lies, first love, and political unrest. What more could one want in a story. Can't wait for Necromancer's Song Book 2!

One Sentence Synopsis: Necromancers, secret missions, and the realization that EVERYTHING is not what it seems.

Why You Should Be Reading: You get the opportunity to watch Naya, the daughter of a sea captain, grow, push past her prejudices, and come into herself after her death and resurrection. The fact that she’s not perfect, that she stumbles, and that she puts her foot in her mouth every once in a while, makes her feel honest and relatable. Oh, and I didn’t mention the love story yet. The connection that she has with a certain young man (No names cuz those are spoilers.

But trust me, you’ll know who he is) is grounded in love and loss. And the more time they spend together, learning about the other, the more they understand how this second chance at life isn’t something they should squander.

Take all this and mix it in with a looming war, lies, and the real reason why Naya died and you’ve got the makings of a great book!

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, POC Lead

Learn more about the author HERE.

Buy Twice Dead HERE.

Add Twice Dead to your Goodreads HERE.

Thank you netgally for the chance to read this arc... I tried reading this and after about 30% I had to put it down it just was not grabbing my attention and I found it a little confusing. I really wanted to like this one :( I may try and pick it up again one day but for now its a DNF.

Unfortunately, this book wasn’t for me. However, I’m sure many will love it! I may be tempted to give it another shot in the future.

Riveting plot.
Amazing world.
Fresh characters.

What's not to love?

I would recommend Twice Dead to anyone who is intrigued by Necromancy and is interested in a flawed, deeply human main character who doesn't disappoint. Also, a side romance is always a nice plus.

After trying and failing several times to come back to this book, I have to finally throw in the towel. I couldn't get invested in the story, and kept losing interest after a few pages.

I had hope for this book and I'm sorry I couldn't leave a better review.

Interesting concept, but slow world building. I didn't feel a strong connection with the characters and didn't feel as if there was much character growth. It unfortunately wasn't a book for me, but I think others would love it.

This book works because the central concept is great. We’ve done necromancy before- not personally, I assure you, but in YA literature- but Twice Dead takes a new idea and runs with it, and creates something fresh and intriguing.

The necromancy bit is central to the plot. Naya, the daughter of a sea captain, wakes up from being attacked in a strange place to find out that she’s dead. She’s a wraith: a spirit bound to this life by runes inscribed on her remains. And she’s now a pawn in a massive game of politics, war and deception that spans the world, all the way to her distant homeland of Talmir. Where necromancy happens to be forbidden.

The idea of being a ‘wraith’ is a great one. Finding out how the rules of necromancy work, how they tie into this world’s history of warfare and all the cool stuff that Naya can do now she’s dead is really fun, and I almost wished we spent more time exploring it. It’s definitely the best bit of the book, as is her slow-burning romance with Corten, who is a wraith like her. It’s not forced, and the relationship feels really sweet and organic, as two lost souls bond over being… actual souls.

The only problem I had- which became more apparent as time went on- was the actual plot. Now, I just thought that I was being lazy, or not paying enough attention to the writing (it has happened before), but reading back it still didn’t make a lot of sense, especially as we built towards the climax. The pace was slow and sometimes clunky, and the larger game of political chess felt a little… forced, with people being shuffled on and off-stage faster than I could keep track of them.

It didn’t help matters that very few people, with perhaps the exception of Corten, felt very likeable. I mean, Naya’s great, but she often comes across as bratty and immature, and somebody who tends to follow others rather than develop an opinion of her own. In fact, many of the characters in Twice Dead felt a little 2D to me, which was sad, as there was a lot of potential here for this to be a great book.

All in all, then? Twice Dead is a fun, enjoyable romp with a great central premise, that also veers a little too close to cliché YA territory to truly stand out. I’d love to hear more about the wraiths, though: here’s hoping there’s a sequel…

I love the plot of this book. It's such a fascinating concept! I loved how strong Naya was as a character, but I just couldn't connect with the book and it didn't hold my attention. It felt to me like the story, for all its dark tone, should have had an older character, someone a bit more mature. I am not sure how much I like dark YA stories, it's such a fine line to walk between making it too dark or not dark enough. Unfortunately this book wasn't for me, but I am sure other people will love it!

The problem with the story is the lag. There’s so much going on in the story, and yet there is insufficient character development. The story focuses too much on world-building than the characters. The story presents a world steeped in political intrigue, espionage, and magic, and yet the story takes too long to develop, and it takes too long to develop the plot of the story.

Following Naya, the unexpected happens to her, when on a mission for her father, she dies…and then comes back from the dead. It is an exciting way to start off a story, a compelling way to lure the reader in, but past that, the story does not focus enough on the exciting aspects of the story that would keep the reader interested. It is full of unnecessary detail regarding the world building, except it fails to make the story interesting. There’s history here, a history that buried for half the novel, which is regrettable because it is fascinating history, and does serve to make the last half of the novel compelling and tension driven. It also saves the characterization because, for the first half of the novel, Naya is not that likable, in fact, she is written as a somewhat two-dimensional character.

Many ideas are going into this novel, and they are many ways in which it can work, but the problem is the novel does not have a clear focus. The narrative should have a clear focus on the political Intrigue in the novel, turning the narrative into a more character-driven one, and yet it fails to create a captivating character. Naya is not a captivating character, she is bland when she is supposed to come off as angsty on some level, but the tone failed to capture that. She is a rather unlikable character in the beginning, and the narrative does not capture her conflict instead of sort of sidesteps many of the tension driven scenes I could have evolved into something but ended up falling flat. There’s one thing with her in a necromancer, and it seems like it could be a potent scene to showcase the internal pains of each character and the overlaying tension, but it is left undeveloped. Naya’s anger comes to the forefront and blinds her, diminishing what could have been an excellent scene for development and character dynamics. The scene and many after fizzle out. Much of the first half of the book is like that a lot of these tension driven scenes are just fizzled out without any development.

The last half of the novel is really where the story starts to pick up and comes together. The political Intrigue and espionage finally gets to shine. Naya gets to develop, finally, and through her, the character dynamics as well. The ending of the novel does draw interest to the sequel, so it at least does create energy and curiosity for the story’s future. Again the first half of the novel is very lackluster it has so much detail that isn’t important to the story or interesting to the reader and just weighs the story down. It is unfortunate because the concept is interesting, except it is weighed down by dull unessential detail, However, again that is only for the first half of the novel if the reader can tough it out they will be impressed by the second half of the novel which starts to get itself together.

I love character driven stories and this one is amazing. The plot is so unique with wraiths, pirates, murders and a former necromancer! Such an outstanding fantasy novel.

*I received a copy of this book via Netgalley. My thoughts are my own.*

I found this story to be quite enjoyable. The main character is a strong female lead and the supporting cast were all unique and entertaining. The idea, I found, was really cool with people being brought back to life with runes and ceremony. I liked how not many people found it wrong and there was great conflict. The only problem I had was that the relationship between the Naya and her father wasn't developed enough for me to care about how she talked about him a lot and stuff that happened. I wished I knew more about her life a bit first before everything happened. 

All in all, I give this story 4/5 stars!

This one took me a bit to get into but then I really enjoyed it! I wish we had more necromancer books out there in the world. It's a concept that isn't done in YA very much and because of that I thought it was a wonderful addition to the YA world.

Naya is a girl who is looking to impress her father and in the process gets turned to a wraith and enters the world of necromancy. The hard thing to love about her is that she does a lot of reacting to the story and not a lot of taking action in the story. That was the hardest part of getting into her character.

Ultimately I would say this book was a solid entertainment read. If you're looking for a good time and a distraction I would recommend it. The characters are all solid in their motivations if not a bit typical.

The world took some wrestling with but then it works really well. If you loved this I would recommend a lot of Rachel Vincent's work from her My Soul To Steal series. It has a lot of the same themes and tension.

I loved the magic in this, the idea that the dead can be brought back and be themselves, not an evil reanimated corpse like you might expect, but functioning, themselves.
The writing wasn’t bad and the story had a lot of promise, my issue was with the mc, Naya, and just how naive she was. She was also judgemental, racist and pretty sure of her own superiority.

It’s understandable that when you are raised to believe only one thing about someone else, you go with that, but I think because it made such an obvious story arc, I found it annoying. Naya was so busy looking down at everyone and everything, that she missed everything going on around her. All she had to do was look up and around once and she might have seen what was going on.
Plus, Naya was on her mission, she believed fully in what she was doing, she had been groomed to fear these people, so when her beliefs were thrown up in the air I just didn’t believe her reactions. I just don’t think her 180 was executed well.

There was a lot of cool things happening, the necromancy, the political intrigue, the romance, but I couldn’t really get passed the MC and her self righteous ways. I really liked Corten though. He was such a nice guy. If i’m going to be completely honest, I couldn’t remember whether or not I had finished the book. I hadn’t marked it on Goodreads, so I had to have a look at the end. That’s probably not a good sign.