Book Review: Peter Green and the Unliving Academy: This Book is Full of Dead People by Angelina Allsop

Author: Angelina Allsop

Series: Book 1 in The Unliving Chronicles 

Cover: This is such a cute cover. Love the art work of this design. I gotta say poor Pete xD He looks so terrified.

Rating: 3/5 I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Overall, I did enjoy the book. I do feel like this book is intended for someone a bit younger than I am. It reminds me of The Children of the Red King series, although they're two very different books.

Review: Like always, the first part of my review is going to be non-spoiler and the second part will be full of them. Generally, I talk about things that bother me in the second half or things that I feel may ruin the ending of the book. So, I give this book a 3/5 because I felt like it was missing some extra PIZAZZ. Like if this book was a roller coaster, it would be a very slow and gentle one. I usually like looking for some excitement while reading books. 

PGATUA follows Peter Green through his dead high school life. He does normal things such as studying, dating, making new friends, etc. There are also a bunch of supernatural beings in the school as well such as vampires, witches, werewolves etc. While trying to live his teenage life in the world of the dead, Pete also wants his memories back. Can he get them? What will he do with them?

I really enjoy the concept of living after you die. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a world after you die where you basically continue your life? So, when you die and you're underage, you basically get 0 memories and you get enrolled into a school. If you have relatives in the world of the dead, you go live with them instead. There is a whole bunch of afterlife magic and rules that I'm pretty sure can be it's very own book. 

There are quite a bit of characters that Pete eventually meets and become his core group of friends. Personally, I love how different Alex, Max, Charlie, Scoot and Pete are. At first I just felt meehhhh  about them all, but as the book went on, they grew on me. Allsop does an amazing job at developing these characters and making them all unique and lovable. I feel as if every character could have their own story and it would be just as good to read.

I believe I would have loved this book a lot more if I was younger. Maybe if I read this book 10 years ago, I would have been ecstatic about it. The difference between a book like this vs the Harry Potter series or Children of the Red King series, is that no kid wishes to attend a dead high school. Does that make sense? When you're younger, you hope to receive an invitation to Hogwarts or to wake up with super powers one day, but in Pete's world... he woke up dead lol...

One thing that did bother me in this book is the plot. There were a lot of events that I don't believe should be in the story at all. Some sections were dragged on and others were done in a couple of pages. The beginning felt the worst to me. It took me so long to completely finish the first couple of chapters because everything felt so slow. I haven't read any other works from Allsop, but I do see the potential in her writing to get much better!

Overall, I think this book would have been better suited for middle school readers. I think I might pass this book down to my younger cousin and see what she thinks of it. I do love the characters and the friendship portrayed in this book, but the plot makes me want to take a nap. Although it was an okay book, I felt as if I could have had more fun reading another book instead. Oh well! It was an experience.

!!!!!!!!!! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD !!!!!!!!!!

First major problem for me in this book is why have the characters memories wiped? They're dead already. There's really no point in them not having their memories. I feel that if you've already lost everything, the least you can keep are your memories. I get that you don't want the dead to go mad trying to go back to the living, but it should be an easy way to stop them right? I guess not because Pete could steal the memory files and go to the land of the living easily lol...

Towards the end where Pete and his friends were porting to Earth, I just.... lol... what? You're telling me that there are no protocols for 14 year-olds traveling to dangerous places? Is that normal? I felt like either one of the porting agents should have been 100% against this. Especially since these teens could die (again). It really shouldn't be that easy to go to the land of the living.

Also, it took ALL of Pete's strength to appear to his family. I just find it funny that all of him and his friends were able to just pop in and out of existence towards the end. There should have been some sort of consequence. You could die staying in the land of the living, but Pete & Co were just tired afterwards. There are some strong plot armor going on in this book. 

I am glad that Pete got kicked out of school. He did something very stupid and deserved all the punishment for it. I am curious how long do people in the dead "live". Also, how many people are there? What's the population. Also...the dead can create dead babies? I feel like over population would be a huge problem there...I think... Am I looking too much into this? 

Also, wouldn't it suck for you to die and then have to go back to school? I feel like if I died, I would rather do other things than go back to school. Also how would applying for jobs be like in the world of the dead? "I have a degree in shadow walking and minor in basic love potions. Oh.. I also survived going to the land of the living without wearing any gear." Wouldn't there be billions of people also applying? Lol... I have too many questions for a fictional book. 

Also, did Pete's parents not investigate how Pete died? Sure, Pete was sick, but I felt like a doctor or coroner would have been able to see something different from a sickness vs murder. Oh well...

Favorite Line: 

"So," L.J. said finally, "we are dying to know, no pun intended-" A few people snorted. "-are you joining our group?"

Top 3 Favorite Characters

Charlie - Charlie is an absolute QUEEN. I love best friends in every book. They always support their friends even in the dumbest situations. I also love how he put so much thought in every outfit he wore. I would have loved to see the Unliving Academy through his point of view. Think of all the gossip you can hear.

Scoot - She is a character that grew on me. I wasn't a huge fan of her at first, but she has a good head on her shoulders ;)))))))) (Get it? I guess if you haven't read it you don't get it, but if you did hehe...)

Lizzie - Shout out to the smartest 10 year old in the world. Man, I feel like if my brother came back from the dead, I wouldn't have gone full detective mode like she did. Props to her.  

Welp, that is the end of this review. That was an interesting book. Definitely took me out of my comfort zone. I don't regret reading it. I hope to see more of Allsop's works in the future. Next book review will be on Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young. See you then! 

Here is a link to the book:
http://geni.us/petergreenbook1m

Here is a link to the publisher's website:
https://www.tckpublishing.com/