Twice Dead by Caitlin Seal is a YA paranormal fantasy that brings a unique story about a young girl named Naya who is murdered and becomes a wraith. It's intriguing and worth a read.

Disclaimer: I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher and then bought my own copy. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Twice Dead

Author: Caitlin Seal

Book Series: The Necromancer's Song Book 1

Rating: 3/5

Publication Date: September 18, 2018

Publisher: Charlesbridge Teen

Recommended Age: 16+ (romance, violence, gore, death)

Synopsis: Naya, the daughter of a sea merchant captain, nervously undertakes her first solo trading mission in the necromancer-friendly country bordering her homeland of Talmir. Unfortunately, she never even makes it to the meeting. She's struck down in the streets of Ceramor. Murdered.

But death is not the end for Naya. She awakens to realize she's become an abomination--a wraith, a ghostly creature bound by runes to the bones of her former corpse. She's been resurrected in order to become a spy for her country. Reluctantly, she assumes the face and persona of a servant girl named Blue.

She never intended to become embroiled in political plots, kidnapping, and murder. Or to fall in love with the young man and former necromancer she is destined to betray.

Review: Overall, this was a good book. It's your typical ya fantasy but with a dead twist. I liked their inclusion of wraiths, as I haven't seen that before in books and because I just fought one in my monster of the week campaign, so it's nice to see a nice wraith. I liked the plot and the characters were also fun.

However, I did wish that the book had more world building and detail. I also felt that the book heavily leaned into the romance aspect and not so much the action bits. Also, I do have a concern about the use of a wraith. Lore wise wraiths are basically revenge spirits from once alive evil beings, so it confused me greatly to see a sweet character be a wraith but I think more lore in this book would have combatted that. Also, they don't normally retain their bodies from what I know of them, that's more of a wight in lore sense.

Verdict: A decent start to a series but needs some work.

I love books about necromancy! However, after the learning about necromancy bit, this book was a bit predictable and then slow for me. I feel like if I was a teen I would have enjoyed this more, but not for me.

Twice Dead was a good read. I enjoyed reading Naya's journey and I look forward to reading the sequel and seeing the story evolve from here..

Unfortunately i wasn't able to finish this book. I started reading but the story didn't get me. Most of the times though I just need to keep reading to dive into the story, but this time it didn't happen, so i had to abandon this book, but maybe one of this days i'll get back to it and i will love it, who knows.

Twice dead was a very refreshing read and i found the plot and consept very original and creative. I loved it and would recomend it.

This book started off ok however it really slowed down around the halfway point and started losing me. I had high hopes for this one because the synopsis sounded so intriguing to me. I did really love the magic system however the slow pace of the book really took away from the experience for me.

Kill Me Once, Shame on You…Kill Me Twice, Shame on Me
When Naya leaves her father’s ship on the day she is killed, he warns her to trust no one, because the city is full of liars. But at the time, she has no idea how true those words are, and that one of the biggest liars may be her own father. Twice Dead starts out at a fast pace, with Naya being murdered within several pages, and then slows down to a crawl as she struggles to accept her new reality as an unwilling member of the wraith community. She has been taught her whole life that such beings are monsters, worthy of scorn and fear. Yet her own government’s ambassador has ordered her turned into a wraith, to use her as a spy and operative, even though this will surely result in the damning of her soul. Despite the slow unfolding of events through the middle of the book, I found it engaging and thought provoking, due to Naya’s inner battles to reconcile the world she sees with the world she was taught to see.

Naya’s quest for self acceptance stems from the fact that her people (the Talmirans) view wraiths as souls trapped on earth, and more specifically as evil abominations. Meanwhile, the Ceramoran necromancer’s believe that only souls with unfinished business can be successfully resurrected. Therefore, rather than going against the will of the Creator, as the Talmirans see it, the necromancers believe they are providing a valuable service. While I’m not sure if it is what the author intended, Naya’s predicament had me pondering on religious rifts throughout history, including the modern day suspicion of Muslims in some segments of American society. As Naya begins to understand, religious views are often very similar, varying in certain historical details and views on mortality more so than morality. She begins to realize that the Talmirans and Ceramorans have more in common than they might want to admit, and that the question of right and wrong when it comes to war, and the state of the soul, is far more complicated than she had been led to believe.

See the source imageSince this is a YA book, part of her revelation involves falling in love with the very likable Corten (I’ll take this as the opportunity to say that Naya is not at all likeable until about 60% through the story…don’t give up on her!). Corten is kind for the sake of being kind, and it is his innate goodness that makes Naya realize that wraiths can’t all be monsters. More conflicted is Naya’s relationship with Lucia, the necromancer who sang her soul back from death. At first, Naya loathes her. But then, when she sees Lucia heal patients for free, and tend to the families of the recently deceased, she is again forced to question her beliefs. Woven through this story of human relationships, is a growing tension of political intrigue, as Naya struggles to understand why the Talmiran ambassador had her turned into a wraith, and whether her unquestioning loyalty to her people is the correct path.

See the source imageThe finals chapters of Twice Dead are as fast paced and frantic as the opening sequence, and possess a rather soul crushing climax. It is this climax, centering around the fate of a soul that is twice dead, that promises to lead Naya deeper into the world of the necromancers in future installments of this series. I’m waiting with bated breath!

I was offered this book for an honest review via Netgalley.

Necromancy, spies, and action in YA? Hell yeah! Or so I thought, The action in the dialog was okay and barely held my attention. This is the tale of te daughter of a sea captain who finds herself back from the dead to become a spy. Our MC is a follower and appears to have no thoughts of her own. Unless you count her puppy love for other characters that is. I had the ending figured out and was not very impressed with the over all story.

I wish the author well in the future and hope the series can grow into something much more than the current state it was left in.

I love a good necromancer book. The blurb got my attention and the promise of a great new series to read. The start was great and the first few pages followed along. But, then, it fell through. Right off the bat Naya runs into some trouble and has become one of the undead in a matter of a few pages.
Naya of course wakes up confused and worried. Where was the package she was to deliver and why is she naked?! Numerous things are running through her mind, let alone waking up to seeing that there were people in the room with her. Once she has had a few minutes to calm down and get dressed, then things were explained to her.
The man she was to meet, is already in the room with her and is explaining to her what she is and what happened to her. He also explains the real reason behind a number of things and that they need Naya’s help.
Give a few more chapters after that and the book started to just not hold my attention as much. It did grab me back a bit at the end. But the whole middle of the book lost me and just took too long to get anywhere. I’m hoping the next book is better.

I received this ARC from Charlesbridge Teen on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
It took me so long to finish this book; I can’t recall if it’s been a full year since receiving the ARC. To put it simply, this book was boring. It did have promise, the plot would’ve been great if there had been likable characters and devices to drive it forward. Very little effort was put into fleshing out the characters. I found them all lackluster and pointless. Especially the main character, I really couldn’t stand her! A whole lot of nothing happened in this story. Sure, there were some action sequences and political plots thrown in, but no saving grace. Nothing made me want to come back to this world and see what becomes of our pointless heroine on her quest to *super dumb spoiler*. I should have dnf’d this book. It should not take me a year or more to want to complete something just so I can write a review about it.

I have never read a book from Caitlin Seal and I was pleased with this gothic novel. I love when a book can cause me to look over my shoulder and want to keep the light on. A perfect read to keep you riveted to each page.

Only got 3% in and was not able to continue. Not really sure why the MC was “killed” and only at the beginning of the book. Too much too fast with the plot. Never got to know the MC and why she was involved in it. She really had no “fight” in her. It was pretty much, ok, I guess this has happened.

Twice Dead is a story about Naya, the daughter of a sea merchant captain who is trying to win the acceptance of her father. Naya has died and comes back to life after being murdered by trying to save her country. She has come back as a wraith. Naya now named Blue has to decide whether to betray the man she loves to save her country.
One thing I enjoyed about the book was the concept and where it could have gone BUT the characters were just so blah! The characters could have been better or at least more memorable. Not enough action for a fantasy book in my opinion. Would rate a 2.5

I read about 10% of this and I just couldn't get into it. The premise sounds really interesting but it just didn't grab my attention. I may try again in the future, but it's just not what I'm looking for at the moment.

Twice Dead seemed to have so much potential to be dark, exciting, and unique, but it fell a little short for me. I enjoyed some of the world building involving necromancy, wraiths, the undead, and reapers, but it seemed like the excitement kind of stopped there. The pacing was slow to moderate. The world building fell a little flat, and the character development just wasn’t there.

I really wanted to love this book. I mean, it wasn’t boring enough to make me stop reading it, but it wasn’t intriguing enough to make me want book 2. I never felt like I quite grasped how the setting looked, and I never felt like I connected with the characters. There was only scene that really struck me as unpredictable, while the rest of the plot just kind of fell in to place quite typically.

I just wish I wasn’t so disappointed with this one. The writing wasn’t terrible. The concept of the book really grabbed me, and the idea behind the necromancy was intriguing, but that was about it for me, unfortunately. I wouldn’t say to avoid the book, but it wouldn’t be at the top of my recommendation pile.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with this free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The synopsis had great potential and I was excited to read it. Unfortunately the book did not live up to my hopes. The story was slow and felt as though the author was world building more than plotting. None of the characters were fully developed and I just couldn’t connect with any of them. All of that made for a rather boring read.

This is not my usual genre, so I was excited to dive into something new. While I am not as familiar with necromancy, the book did a good job of setting everything up well, especially the different aspects of the war and how the characters all intertwined together. The magic and world in this book did take me a bit to grasp, but once I did, I felt like I was able to keep up and enjoy the story. It was such an interesting read and I look forward to reading the next book in the series. I would recommend this book to a friend.

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 :)