If ‘The Good Place’ had high school level drama you’d get this book. 

“Dead School” is a place one goes after they die in order to better sort them to their afterlife jobs that range from muses to sprit guides who all have the power to pass on what they’ve learned in life and death onto the living and influence their lives in ways that will bring them happiness and peace but for Tina it’s a final opportunity to prove her worth as this isn’t her first time attending classes but it may just be her last. 

This book has a lot of similarities to TGP with a reluctant to change character finding herself dead and confronted with all the ways she messed up during her life that lead her to this moment where she’s forced to relive it all in her chart and work to become a better person. It also features a Tahani character that is very much the entitled queen bee but unfortunately doesn’t share in her tv counterparts growth to become a well rounded character that we root for which was upsetting. 

There’s a good deal of fat shaming both by the bullies in school towards Tina’s final project but also by Tina herself with the descriptions she puts on this poor girl who is already suffering and now has a spirit guide who refers to her weight and overall appearance with similar distaste despite the fact that she herself is suffering from body image issues. 

Unfortunately wasn’t one I necessarily enjoyed but I think that is due to the characters because the plot is a solid idea and the surrounding players do their job well but the main group that we spend time with aren’t enjoyable at all.

Thank you to NetGalley and Black Rose Writing for sending me a free advanced reader copy of this book for an honest review.

I requested this book on NetGalley in large part due to the beautiful cover and the title. Dead School? How cool of a concept is that?

Unfortunately, I didn’t even make it to Dead School. This book reads like a rough first draft; I’m a bit confused about how this is considered to be a manuscript in finished form. There are punctuation and verb agreement errors aplenty, as well as some exceedingly strange word usage. Characters “waver” papers in the MC’s face and “clog” down the stairs. (And I don’t believe this is referring to clog dance, but in this book, anything is possible, I suppose.)

All this can be forgiven if the story is good. For example, I have been extremely forgiving in the past of translated works. Metro 2033, which is shoddily translated but utterly fantastic, is one example that springs to mind.

Yet there is nothing to redeem the story in terms of substance. The MC is unlikable and acts nonsensically, as do all the characters flitting around her. We start the opening chapter with the MC in the car with her parents on Valentine’s Day. They are heading to Red Lobster to eat dinner, toting along their cat. With a bit of handwavium, we’re led to believe that the local Red Lobster manager is super cool with animals and will allow such nonsense at the table.

Okay. Fine. Second page of the book, my fingers are already starting to desperately tighten around my suspension of disbelief, which has grown oddly slippery… But let’s press on.

Wait, stop! Fuck Valentine’s Day and turn the car around, Dad—we have to go back to school! The MC suddenly has a blinding desire to beat her stage fright and perform in the school talent show, which is taking place LITERALLY RIGHT NOW. The MC’s parents oblige her, because… you know… the author wants them to.

And then our MC nails her performance, even though she hasn’t gone to any of the rehearsals. (Not joking.) The students in the audience, all of whom the MC despises, are moved to tears—she’s just that amazing. All is looking up—soon the MC will be the school’s new Queen Bee. Because she attends a prestigious performing arts school, our intrepid MC knows that there are talent scouts in the audience, pens at the ready to sign her for a record deal. Too bad a stage decoration then falls on her and kills her.

All this ridiculousness happens in the first chapter. I read a bit of it aloud to my husband, and his assessment is that the book has an uncanny valley feel. The characters just all act so bizarrely, as if a thousand YA novels got mixed together in a blender and an algorithm spit out the common elements it thought define human behavior. Needless to say, I only made it a few chapters in before I had to call it quits.

Let me be clear: I normally try to find the positive in things—sandwich method, etc.—but I cannot be charitable with this book. There is nothing to be charitable about. Even the famous quotes from historic figures attached to each chapter heading are cringey; what does Shakespeare have to do with any of this? I’m reminded a bit of how the infamous indie game Crying Is Not Enough (epic Let’s Play right here) stuck famous quotes on its interminable loading screens… But that game was bad yet had heart, and this book is just terrible.

Nice cover, though.

DNF @ 30%
I had pretty high hopes going into this, I have a kind of ghost thing going on this month for some reason so I was looking forward to starting this. The cover was really pretty and I had high hopes. 
Unfortunately I so far haven't been able to connect with the story and the thought of forcing myself through another 70% gives me hives. 
Of course I'm only judging this off of the small amount I read but I felt like the beginning could have been developed more, maybe gotten to know the character more when she was alive, that might have helped me connect and care more instead of BAM she dead. 
Also the "dead school" aspect I wasn't understanding and didn't like the writing. 
Super sad to DNF, possibly in the future I might pick this back up to read a few pages of to see if I like this but at this current moment there's so many other things I want to read and prioritise over this book.

No.
Just no.
Unfortunately, this book isn’t really very good. And I’m gonna tell you why.
First of all, let me say that the premise is fine. I was looking forward to reading a book in which the main character dies and then has to join a school of the dead.
I was excited, dammit!
It’s a shame that the writing was so very disappointing.

I DNF’d this book pretty early on, about 20% of the way through, but in that time I’ve still manged to got a plethora of things to be unhappy about. Let me explain what I’m talking about.
The book begins in the family car where Tina, her mom and dad, and their family cat are heading towards a restaurant. Yep, you heard that right. Apparently, Tina is such a colossal loser, that every Valentine's Day, the family head out to dine with their cat instead of harboring any mistaken fantasies that Tina might have something else to do. Okay, fine. Dinner with the cat. Let's carry on.
Who could forget a cat dining at a table? 
Halfway there Tina suddenly starts saying that she wants to go back to school RIGHT NOW, because they're having a talent contest we've literally just heard about. Her dad is so shocked by her outburst that he nearly swerves the car into oncoming traffic.
It's a shame that didn't kill her, to be honest.
Her dad comes out with perhaps the lamest (and weirdest) argument to stay on track for the restaurant— Valentine’s with your family, or back to school for a show that will never make those kids any less ignorant. Once a kumquat, always a kumquat. —But then gives in and changes course. 

Okay, so we arrive at the school where it's immediately obvious that Tina is bullied pretty badly. This is overshadowed by the fact that Tina has unpleasant personal remarks about literally everyone she encounters. She refers to one of her bullies as fat jerk and later on in the book she remarks incessantly about the way someone smells. Try this quote for example— If smell could kill, I just might die again. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, let alone someone who expelled fish farts up my nostrils. 
I hate bullying in books. It totally triggers me and I usually don't read on, but in this case I've got to say, maybe Tina kind of deserved it? She's basically a bit of a bully herself with all her vicious comments.
Anyway, she races off to enter the talent contest where she's going to be singing. Something we didn't know she was capable of until exactly this moment! Okay. Fine. Whatever.
She goes out on stage after a few stage fright jitters and then manages to belt out a song that is so beautiful that even her bullies applaud her when she's finished. *sarcasm* Oh my god! This is going to change her life! She's bound to be spotted by one of the talent hunters hiding in the audience. Amazing! *retching noises*
We're still basking in the glow of a job well done when one of the stage hangings—a big cardboard, or whatever it's made of, Valentine's heart—falls on Tina and kills her outright. Oh, yeah. That's right. Killed by a prop! Call the papers 'cos this shit is unbelievable!

Then Tina wakes up outside her parents house and tries to get inside to her mom and dad. First she knocks on the door. I mean, who knocks on the door to their own house? Why doesn't she just try, I don't know, opening the door instead? But no, she knocks. No answer. She yells at her mom through the window, being just rude enough to remind me that I'm glad she's dead, and gets no reply. Her mom doesn't seem to be in mourning at all, so maybe they're just glad to be rid of her?
Then this bus pulls up and the driver tells her he's taking her to Dead School. Okay, you say, it must pick up a bit from here, right?
You would be wrong.

At the school Tina is informed that she failed at life, which means she didn't find anyone to love. Apparently, lives are measured in the amount of human (not cat) interactions you make.— A cat, Tina, is not a human. A life path is defined by human interaction. —Well, I guess most of us fail life then, right? It seems like a great way to alienate most of your target audience, to be honest. You don't talk to people to much? You fail at life. You've never been in love? You fail at life. You only love your pets? You definitely fail at life.
What the hell?

This is the point where I pretty much gave it up as a bad job, but I did flick forward to the ending , and let me tell you, it's not a great one. Basically it all ends up with a 'here we go again' vibe.
Please, god, no. Not again.
Let me tell you a few of the other things I hated:
(1) There was a reference to a real allergy to stupidity. Tina even started sneezing. I mean, what? We're all allergic to fools, but if it was a real condition this book would have taken me into anaphylactic shock. I sneezed behind the curtain as my allergies to stupidity started to flare up again. 
(2) This quote— Holy sh%t! —What does this mean exactly? I'm sure you're imagining that the percentage sign was used to mask a naughty swear word, right? Well, here's the thing. There are other swear words in the book that haven't been censored. Do we really need to do this? Does it mean shit, or shoot? How do you pronounce a percentage sign in the middle of a word? I cannot hate on this enough. If the word shit is too sensitive for you, please just use a different word!
(3) There are more punctuation issues than I would like in a book, but this is a minor grievance compared to everything else.
(4) At the start of every chapter there is a quote from some great historical or literary figure. It just seems like padding that's unnecessary and, pretty much, pointless.

If the afterlife was a library of books written like this one, I would assume I was in hell.
Hated the way the book belittled people for having sparse human interaction. Hated the way Tina was personally insulting. Hated the way the afterlife was portrayed. And hated the writing style.
Not for me, and I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.
Death is not The End. 
God, I sure hope it is.

The premise alone caught my attention. I like reading books about the afterlife and the different versions that authors come up with. The school itself is why I rate this 3/5 stars. Once you get to Dead School you find out what you're going to do with your life or current life as you can be reincarnated. Tina ends up being a Guide, which means she'll help a living soul essentially reach their life mission, and since Tina's failed her own life mission 5000+ times, there's more pressure for her to pass her classes so she doesn't end up with a miserable next life.

And with that being said you'd think it would push Tina to do well, to study hard, and create a better future for herself. 

Nope. At first, Tina messes up purposefully because she's paired with someone she doesn't like. She also doesn't want to help the soul, Anna, because she didn't get what she wanted in life so Anna should suffer. Tina's a hard character to like. Although she does soften up towards the end, she still makes remarks that turn you off. 

The other characters don't seem to have enough to them. 

Overall, the premise is great and the world is well thought out and put together. But when your main character is snarky every chance she gets and makes rude comments about the soul she's supposed to guide, it's a turn-off.  However, if the premise catches your eye enough, I would still give it a read.

This book is meant to be an easy read and fun escape into a new world... and it REALLY was! The main character, Tina, is a say-it-like-it-is kind of girl.. (or rather, "think-it"). Her thoughts are hilarious and bold. We go onto this journey seeing how she changes from repelling Anna, the slob, to really caring and rooting for her. It's an anti-bullying novel, with growth in all characters, particularly their insecurities and ability to look at each other differently than they initially did.. The author really has a wild imagination, and it reminded me a lot of Tim Burton, Lewis Caroll, a modernized Roald Dahl with a potty-tongue. All in all, it was super fun, and very different from what this genre typically is. Its unique. I enjoyed it

Thank you to Black Rose Publishing for the arc of this book, 
This book started off strange, family in the car with the cat going out for Valentine’s Day meal, I really liked the sound of this book, but it just didn’t hit the mark with me, it never really took off, and it was such a great concept.

I have no idea what to say. This book sounded AMAZING! I was excited to read it, but when I started, the disappointment came really fast and unfortunately never left. 

I'm going to give this one extra star for great potential. ⭐ It really pains me that I disliked the book so much, but it was mostly caused by characters. If Tina was different, it might have been a fantastic book. I liked the complexity and possibilities of the Dead School! (I want Oscar de la Renta dress for prom!) 

So, where this went wrong?
Tina. The main character was very unlikeable. Okay, in the whole book there was not a single character I liked, but this is about Tina right now. 
She starts as this timid, unsure girl who is obsessed with playing the guitar. When she dies, she mentions the guitar two times (maybe three) but in her time on the other side does not try to obtain a guitar to play. (She can get a dress from Oscar de la Renta, you can get anything there!) And she had to throw a huge tantrum for not being placed with crafters since she is this amazing guitar player, who does not play very often. 
And the nerves? Nowhere to be seen. Suddenly she argues with everyone, does stupid things, is all focused on herself and does not listen. I have a feeling that the author tried to make her funny, snarky with clever comebacks (A bit like Sophie from Hex Hall) but it fell flat. I'm sorry, I was rooting against Tina. I wanted her to fail and just be over with.

Then who? The Alexei who is mentioned in the blurb? Well, I don't even know why he was in the story. Was he supposed to be a bit of romantic interest? Did not work. 

Melinda? No feelings, really. 

Anna. I had no idea if I should feel sorry for her or what. There was nothing. She was so much ridiculed that like with Tina I did not care at all how she's going to end. 

Carl. How can you like someone who speaks for the whole book like this? "Butitmightbetheendofyoursifyoufail!" 

As for the storyline, I don't know if I missed some things or what but I kept thinking that it does not really make sense.

I liked the concept for this book - teenagers attending dead school after dying and helping out in the afterlife. Unfortunately I wasn't as keen on the execution. The main character was quite unlikable, as were many of the other characters.

Was a likeable book mostly, but I wasn’t happy with some of the way the characters acted, the fat shaming in this book and other attitudes I didn’t like, yeah i know like real life but I feel there’s enough in the world without books doing it too. I think it could have been better but I think this put me off and coloured my mood to the book. 


Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion