[Book Review] Undying by Corina Bishop

Holy cow! The storyline of this book was so captivating! I definitely had some Divergent feels going on here, but to compare it fully to that trilogy would be incredibly unfair. I felt that this book was darker, much more suspenseful, and honestly… more memorable!

Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way. 

Shout-out to Corina Bishop for being so lovely through this process!

Not only did she fill out my honest review form and send me a lovely paperback copy of this book, she was also so patient with me. Our first snag occurred when the poor book got lost in the mail. Once it finally arrived, it came with this letter:

The poor book was so damaged 🙁 But luckily, still readable!

Then I fell into a two month reading slump. I held off reading this book because I didn’t want my slump to affect my rating… But after reading the book, I am totally kicking myself! I so did not need to wait to get out of my slump! I enjoyed this book so much that I believe it would have helped boost me out of it. But oh well, better safe than sorry!

Let’s dive in!

My Thoughts on Undying by Corina Bishop

First of all, I think the premise of this book is incredibly eerie and the plot was very well done! I really enjoyed the suspense factor! I loved that we were dropped into the story just as the main character was; confused and terrified. Then as the story continued on, we gradually learn about the people, the situation, and the history of their world just as the main character does.  But won’t say much more than that to avoid spoiling it.

I thought that the storyline flowed very well and the pacing was wonderful! I loved the bits at the beginning of each chapter that were cited as “Thoughts of a machine” and that as a reader, I didn’t know where this was coming from until I finally figured it out somewhere in the last half of the book.

I loved the characters! Whether they were good or bad, I thought they were all incredibly well developed. These are the types of characters that I know I will remember for a long time; especially Sentra, Marcarious, Callie, and Katarina. Though I do wish we got to know Brad and Trishna just a little bit more.

The creatures were really interesting! We got to know the Kneavox and the Canary beasts pretty well. But it was clear that there were other creatures out there, like the Sweepers. I would have loved to find out more about those and whether or not there were any others!

The action scenes were incredible! I loved how fast-paced and descriptive they were. There were also a lot of them, and I was so thankful that each one was even more exciting than the last!

This book was also a total emotional rollercoaster for me! Some parts made me anxious or afraid, some bits made me cringe, while others made me laugh or tear up. It was really a great journey!

Beware, the negatives:
While there was so much about this book that I really loved, I just couldn’t look past the fact that it really needed a strong edit. There were many typos, grammar mistakes, and issues with formatting, punctuation, apostrophes, and capitalization.

Usually if I find myself editing a book as much as I did with this one, I would have DNFed it. This is the very first case though where the storyline and writing style in general was wonderful enough to allow me to look past the editing.

Another small issue I had was with repetition and info-dumping. Most of this happened in the very beginning of the book, so it took me a while to really get hooked into the story. But again, with some editing, I think that issue would be cleared up.

My Favorite Passages from Undying

I lie there, mostly with a mixture of fear, confusion, and downright discomfort battling in my brain, as I try to think clearly. How did I get here? Who is this man? Who am I? Am I going to be locked in this frozen body forever? More importantly, why am I still naked?

The dark shadows under my blue eyes made my already pale skin look as if I had died a week ago and that this fact and not caught up with me yet. Yeah

“It is just best if you accept it now. They have complete control of who lives and who dies on this ship. If you want to live, you will have to bend to their will and find some way to hope that all of this isn’t for nothing. Hope for your future.”

My Final Thoughts on Undying

I want to give this book five stars so badly. I think it really has the potential to be a five star book for me. But unfortunately, I had to stick with just four stars because of all the editing I found myself doing…

But again, I would most definitely recommend giving this a read and I urge you to try to look past the mistakes. The storyline and characters are really incredible.

I absolutely cannot wait to see where this author goes! She definitely has a major talent when it comes to storyline, character creation, and plot. I really hope to see this book take off! I’ve also got my fingers crossed for a book two! But if this is a standalone, I would be just as satisfied.

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Snag a copy using my Amazon Affiliate link or inquire at your local indie:

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Side note: This was also a buddy read with my friend Heather at Heather’s Reading Hideaway! Check out her review here.