Early Review: Mina and the Undead

Mina and the Undead
By Amy McCaw

Published By: Uclan Publishing
Publication Date: April 1, 2021
Date Read: February 27, 2021
Genre: YA – Thriller / Mystery / Horror
Source: eARC from Uclan Publishing and Netgalley
Format: E-Book
Pages: 300

From Goodreads:
New Orleans Fang Fest, 1995.
Mina’s having a summer to die for.

17-year-old Mina, from England, arrives in New Orleans to visit her estranged sister, Libby. After growing up in Whitby, the town that inspired Dracula, Mina loves nothing more than a creepy horror movie. She can’t wait to explore the city’s darkest secrets – vampire tours, seedy bars, spooky cemeteries, disturbing local myths…

And it gets even better when Mina lands a part-time job at a horror movie mansion and meets Jared, Libby’s gorgeous housemate, co-worker and fellow horror enthusiast.

But the perfect summer bliss is broken when, while exploring the mansion, Mina stumbles upon the body of a girl with puncture marks on her neck, clutching a lock of hair that suspiciously resembles Libby’s… Someone is replicating New Orleans’ most brutal supernatural killings. Mina must discover the truth and prove her sister’s innocence before she becomes the victim of another myth.

Mina and the Undead is one of those books that I was really looking forward to this year. The author, Amy is a great friend of mine and I am so very excited that her debut novel is releasing. I’m probably not the audience that this book is aimed at, as I’m not really a huge horror fan, however, when I was offered the ARC, as Amy is a great friend I really wanted to give it a go. I did like Mina and the Undead. It’s a really unique and different take on a vampire book and I liked that.

Mina and the Undead is a Young Adult Thriller/Mystery/Horror. It’s perfect for any fans of Point Horror books. If you’re a huge Point Horror fan then I think this book would be perfect for you. As I am a complete and utter wimp when it comes to horror I just feel like this book wasn’t for me. I near on had a heart attack when there was a character dressed up as a clown (thanks Coulrophobia) so I was very reserved in reading this one because I knew that it was probably going to terrify me.

As I am not a Point Horror fan, I don’t know if this is a typical thing for this genre of book, but I personally felt a lot of the plot points happened too quickly and too close together. There were a few times when I was just confused thinking okay how did we get from there to here? How did that happen? I just felt like I would have liked a but more explanation and narration to pad the story out a little bit more in between these main events. Sometimes, there was so much going on I kind of felt a little like I had whiplash.

Mina and the Undead is a great, unique and intriguing storyline and I have no doubt that fans of YA Horror are going to eat this up and adore every single moment of it. For me it just needed a little bit more. I am glad I read it and I can’t wait to see everyone fawning all over this one and loving it, but unfortunately this genre just doesn’t seem to be for me.

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