Undead & Unfinished – MaryJanice Davidson
July 13, 2010 in Reviews
- Hardcover: 320 pages
- MaryJanice Davidson’s Website
- List Price: $24.95 US/$31.00 CDN
- Publisher: Berkley Hardcover (July 6, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0425234355
- ISBN-13: 978-0425234358
Buy Undead & Unfinished at:
Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor is having a tough time getting through the Book of the Dead-until the Devil strikes a bargain. She offers Betsy a chance to finish the cursed (literally!) thing, and finally discover all its mysteries. There’s just one catch…
Betsy and her half-sister Laura have to go to Hell long enough for Laura to embrace her dark heritage (after a rebellious youth of charity work) and finally make nice with her mother, aka Lucifer. That means interacting with their family’s past. In doing so, they’re impacting the future in ways they never anticipated. Of course that’s what Mother wanted all along. Damn her.
Undead & Unfinished is the 9th novel in the Queen Betsy series & I can honestly say I wish I had skipped straight to the last few chapters. If there was ever a character I wanted to stake, after reading Undead & Unfinished without a doubt I would have staked Betsy.
Betsy wants to read the Book of the Dead, but it kinda makes any vampire who reads it insane. So when her half-sister Laura wants to go visit her mother (Satan) in Hell (Laura is the Antichrist) Betsy tags along & makes a bargain. She wants to be able to fully read the Book of the Dead, since the book has always been right about everything in the short glimpses she’s had of it. Satan agrees & Laura is sent with Betsy to figure out how to jump time, little do they know they are impacting their futures, which is exactly what Satan wanted.
At the start of the book & really for the first 100 pages, we get a recap on what has happened in the previous 8 books. Fans really didn’t need that, this is supposed to be a light PR which doesn’t require a recap so intense, mostly filled with Betsy’s ego. The book ends up coming off as boring & truly annoying…it pains me to say that as a fan, but I have to be honest with you all. I can usually read an MJD novel in hours, this took me near three days, nothing gripped me & made me want to keep going other then the fact it was an MJD novel & I couldn’t DNF it.
I was happy to get my hands on a copy of this book a few days in advance, little did I know this was one of the hardest reads I’ve ever had to struggle through. I am a huge fan of MaryJanice Davidson, but something happened & this book just killed me to read. Between Betsy’s constant designer name dropping, to a whole new level of “It’s all about me”, I really hated Betsy in this novel. She was so self-centered & full of herself, by the 100th page I was ready to quit reading. I couldn’t do that to MJD, she’s been one of my favorite authors since I started reading PR but by god this was killing me.
There wasn’t as much of MJD’s humor, while there was humor most of it just wasn’t funny. While I understand why this book had to be written, it really could have been made into a short story which would have made Betsy not as annoying. There is a shocker when you find out just who wrote the Book of the Dead, but again this could have all been done in a short story, it dragged too much. Did I mention Betsy is so completely self absorbed in this book that you may want to stake her?
If you are a fan, I’d wait for the paperback edition…cause really it was a disappointment.
Hi
I just finished the 9th Betsy book and I felt it was a waste of time and money. In eight books Betsy and Eric would rule for a thousand years suddenly it is changed to five thousand years. There certainly wasn’t much of a plot or story a lot of rehashing that was needless. Time travel which was pointless, and kind of dumb. Really a 19 year old youth is so badly stricken with grief that you would mistake him for a man of 30 to 35 be real. Also why would Betsy bitting him make him strong. I could see if she gave him her blood but just bitting him. Then in the future Betsy is turned into Marjorie the Librarian. That is what it seems like, because Betsy is no longer the Vampire Queen I have enjoyed reading about. Not to portray Marc that way, and the epilogue sucked big time. I guess Ms. Davidson has gotten tired of the series this was the last book and she was moving on to other stories. It is a shame she couldn’t have ended Betsy with a little style she deserved better.
Hey Felicia, where did you read Betsy 9 was the last book in the series, I can’t find that info anywhere!
Read MJD’s website. The next Undead book is coming out in July. It’s called Undead and UNFINISHED for a reason.
This makes me so sad. I love the Betsy series. I have to say though that I recently read Me, Myself, and I (not sure when this comes out-read a bound manuscript). It was very hard to read-not the writing I expected from her. Thanks for the review. This will go on the bottom of my library list (if at all).
That one is September, what would you rate it Elie? Worth buying you think? Unless it’s HC in which case never again.
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I loved, loved, loved this series when it started and enjoyed it through book 6 until she switched gears a little. I’m sad they aren’t getting any better, I was hoping it was just a rut and things would improve. Great review though!
Hopefully book 10 is much better, I understand this had to be done but it dragged badly
Oh I am crushed. I love the serie but I can’t stand another bad book. I guess I will have to go back and read the first 6 books to get my Queen Betsy instead
You and me both
I just finished Book 5 and already my rating have dropped one star. The humor is still top notch at this point but Betsy is getting on my nerves.
Then something obviously occurred btwn book 4 and Book 5 with George the Fiend because all of a sudden he has a girlfriend- huh!?
Anyhow, thx for the review- I am going to keep on reading because I am very curious but I will have my stake sharp and ready.- I just hope the library doesn’t charge me if i happen to stake the book
)
LMFAO Chas!
Oh noooo, I’m sorry you didn’t like this one. I love this series at the moment but then I have only read the first two books, but I’ve bought the rest of the series, so will get to reading them all pretty soon. I do hate it when series go down hill….
You are still on the good books
I enjoyed all the other book and I liked this one till the end. But I thought the end was horrible and I will read anymore
I love Betsy, and last night I finished book 9 and I was so angry at how she turned out!! I was so angry that I went online and found the authors website and THANK HEAVENS!!! there will be another book coming out July 2011 and there’s the Prologue and it shows Betsy trying to change the problem! Oh I was so happy. I couldn’t believe Betsy would turn to be such a horrible person, totally out of character, not like the Betsy I’ve read about and grown to love throughout the past 8 books. I hope the 10th book will fix things. I want a happy ending!!!
I, too, was so angry over the epilog that I have searched out a fansite just to gripe about it & to see if others felt the same way. I feel that she totally RUINED the entire series with the epilog of that book. No matter what happens in however many more books she writes, she has already set up this horrific ending in the future that did not change after present Betsy left it. Why did she even go there? She could have left it up in the air. There is no way that I want to read any more about Betsy, knowing where she ends up and what she does. Trying not to be too spoilery, but, how can I read more about this romance, knowing where it’s headed. UGH!!!
OK, thanks for letting me vent!