This was the perfect book for fans of YA who like a little bit more gore and an action packed story!
I enjoyed the plot and the magic but I feel that there could have been a lot more world-building and back story for everything to truly make sense.
I loved the suspense and the intrigue and am definitely excited to read more by this author in the future.
Thank you to netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this.

Magic and monsters has quickly become the norm in London, after a spell went wrong 4 years ago. Ivy devotes her life to protecting kids, but discovers they might be able to stop it all.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

After one of their tight-knit group is killed by a hit-and-run driver, Ivy and her friends try to raise Violet from the dead. Not expecting anything to happen, it all goes wrong - one of them is killed, and a rift from hell is opened. Suddenly, London is the hotspot for paranormal activity. Children can all access magic, and teens in particular are causing trouble with their angst.

Four years later, Ivy's access to magic is fading (as with all adults); but she is working as security in a school, to protect them from hell hounds, phantoms and anything else that the kids might conjure. All she has is her trusty machete, and a drive to fix the chaos she started.
A chance inspection leads to fighting off hell hounds, dealing with a powerful teenage witch, and her bull-headed older brother.

This was like, the perfect teenage read, and as a teenager, I would have totally lapped it up.
At the centre of the story, is how much pain everyone is in, even if they don't show it. Teenagers seem to feel it most acutely of all; and these teens in London suddenly have the power to do something about it. Which makes them incredibly dangerous.
It's only been 4 years since magic has been a part of their lives, and it still feels new and uncertain. No one knows how to deal with it, and people are holding things together as best they can.
I thought the teenage characters, and the drama driving them, was really well-portrayed and realistic.

The not-so-good.
The lack of world-building.
I never truly knew what was going on, and why. It goes from action scene, to gory action scene, and throws in the odd comment about the government quizzing Ivy, but nothing is explained.
Why is Ivy a bad-ass demon-killer? Who trained her? How does she know to do exorcisms? She went from an average teen, to Buffy. Yes, there were 4 years in between, but no info.
I get why the school hire her; but what about the other security dude - why isn't he trained? Are the people guarding other schools just as useless?
For a while, I didn't even realise that it was Ivy's cocked-up spell that started all this.

The second half had more chaotic fight scenes that got hard to follow, and I couldn't understand most of Ivy's choices.
At one point she does consider sacrificing innocent blood, for the greater good. It just seemed to go against what the character believed.
And then the zombies... <spoiler>deciding to use the Emporium as your base, because it gives you the best advantage in a fight. Except they don't figure in the two zombies start a hoard of them, as they cross London at rush hour.Again, goes against Ivy wanting to protect people, that she'd sit back and wait for the monsters come to her, at the cost of so many lives. Oh, and that base has no other exit...</spoiler>

Overall, this was a gory and entertaining story, and I'm interested to read the author's future works.

A delve in to YA for me and away from my usual kind of read. Black magic, demons, zombies, hell hounds you name it this book has it. Think Buffy meets supernatural and you’ve got a good idea of the book. Well written with characters you either love or hate. Read the blurb if it sounds like you’re thing then your in for a treat.

Move over Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ivy the zombie Slayer is in town, London town to be precise. A refreshing UK based urban fantasy with a sassy female lead named Ivy. Following the death of their friend Vi, three friends, Ivy, Elena and Danny perform a rite to bring their friend back. Unfortunately they manahe to raise her in the form of a crazed zombie and also leave a chasm in the earth that allows the under 20s to perform magic and chaos and monsters to break through. Ivy feels it is her duty to fight back against the mayhem since she helped create it. A humorous and pacy read, jam-packed with a machete wielding protagonist and a talking cat. A superb read. Thank you Netgalley and Bryony Pearce for this arc.

This was not what I expected it to be. It was… okay. It was a super quick read, it was an interesting set up, but some motivations just didn’t seem to make much sense to me, and some of the logic just did not add up. In this kind of story, while you expect some liberties, I’d still like the rules in this world to add up. Also I really could have done without what these days seems like the almost obligatory romance subplot that is rammed into every single thing. There was no real chemistry, it wasn’t even one of those adrenaline-fuelled end of the world situations. So, yeah, fun quick romp but lots of eye-rolling and not one that I’ll revisit.

This is a beautiful book that will take you on a wild ride.

✨2025 London
✨One gal causing the end of the world
✨ Grandmothers inhabiting the body of kitty cats

Our pal Ivy is what you'd call a normal teenager until she decided to perform a ritual to resurrect her mate with few other friends. Things go a little tits up and they accidentally open up a portal to a different realm which throws magical things into the UK.

Naturally, Ivy feels a tad responsible for the shenanigans now rampaging through her country so takes it on herself to protect as many as she can from the evil in the world.

This is a fast-paced book that doesn't feel overly insane even though most things happen over a day or two. If you're a fan of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina or good ol' fashioned Buffy the Vampire Slayer, then this is definitely for you.

Despite a fair bit of gore, I really liked this YA horror. The premise was quite good, a magical rift that only teenagers can manipulate, frequently with dire and horrific consequences. What lifts it to better than average was the way it highlighted the dreadful power of grief, how political factions will often seize any opportunity to advance their interests and how ultimately it all comes down to sacrifice. I liked the characters, I felt they developed well though the novel and there were enough twists to keep up a good pace. I found this an easy read and as someone who likes horror, I also found it enjoyable.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ivy is a security guard in a school. She carries a machete. She's pretty bad-ass. Then she tries banishing a hellhound, and gets fired. Then she has to save the world. Standard day for her, really.

When Ivy was fourteen, she, her friend and her boyfriend try and bring someone back from the dead, because, you know, reading a Necronomicon while drunk is always a good idea, right? So when it actually works, and the spell opens a rift to Hell, Ivy realises she has to try and make things right.

This is a world where only teenagers can work magic, so Ivy has to do as much as she can before her time runs out and she becomes... (dun dun duuuuuuun) an ADULT!

In some ways this is your average dark magic/necromancy adventure, but having only teenagers able to cast spells is a nice twist in the genre.

I've not read any of Bryony Pearce's other books, but I enjoyed this one enough that I might check out some of her other work.

Also, Gran rocks.

A really interesting take on zombie mythos with guilt and redemption at its heart. Ivy is likeable by the reader (though loathes herself) and she's just trying to get by and right the wrongs she caused. There's a bit of light gruesomeness but this is mostly a story about people.

What a fun YA gem!

Ivy Mann and her friends carry out a ritual at their recently deceased friend's graveside with hope of bringing her back to life, a shock to them all, but it actually worked! Well, sort of. She comes back from the dead as a zombie. As a result, a magic rift has been opened where the supernatural can now freely roam. Ivy, feeling guilty, becomes a security guard at the school protecting teenagers from hell hounds. She's not thrilled about it but is getting on with things, that is, until the Ortega siblings get involved and things spiral even more out of control!

This was fun from start to finish. A good teenage zombie a story with lots of action. I loved the humour in this from the beginning and Ivy is a great protagonist. A fast moving plot, an enemies to lovers storyline and laugh out loud moments. What's not to love?

I only wish this had been longer! I hope this is going to be part of a series!

Thank you to Netgalley and UCLan publishing for providing me with a copy to review.

Thank you, NetGalley and UCLan Publishing for the Arc in exchange for an honest review.

I went into this book completely blind - and I was no disappointed! Perhaps a little confused at first but once I got to understand what was happening I was fully enthralled.

Ivy is a great character, and plenty kick-ass! The jokes about “John Wicks” made me giggle, and the angst of the book was on point.

Great read.

It says something about the times we’re currently living through that urban fantasy with multiple gory deaths and zombies counts as fluffy escapism. But that’s pretty much how I approached this book. Taking place in a 2025 where the events of 2020 were very different, but no less world-changing, the book follows Ivy Elizabeth Mann as she attempts to atone for her part in that catastrophe by dealing with the repercussions in her present. Ivy was a very ordinary London teenager, when she and two of her friends performed a ritual aimed at resurrecting the fourth member of their group recently killed in a tragic accident. None of them expected it to work, but it did, and they also opened a portal to other, much more dangerous, realms. Nearly five years later, Ivy is working as a school security guard, stopping the current crop of teenagers from taking magical artefacts in to their classes and from performing life-threatening rituals between their classes. Her week gets off to a bad start when she fails to stop one particular student from releasing a bunch of hellhounds into the world, and it gets worse when that student’s big brother gets her fired from her job for, essentially, doing her job.

Ivy is dedicated to her cause, however, and sets out to track down and banish the remaining hellhounds before they turn on and destroy their summoner. She is aided in this, reluctantly at first, by the aforementioned big brother, who happens to be wealthy and handsome, with a lot of resources at his disposal. It’s just unfortunate that he’s spent more time on his family’s business than on taking care of his little sister and noticing her interest in raising the dead. Also helping are the spirit of Ivy’s grandmother, now inhabiting the body of a cat, the ghost of her boyfriend – one of the original rift-opening trio – and the girlfriend of the girl the trio was trying to raise from the dead – now involved in various dodgy dealings involving the sale of magical items to teenagers. Plus another student Ivy caught performing illegal rituals.

The group uncover a not particularly secret conspiracy to overthrow the government – and to take over the world – by a new British political movement that has emerged following the opening of the rift. And then a zombie apocalypse starts up, which can only be stopped by Ivy and her companions returning to the scene of the initiating events and performing a new ritual that will hopefully close the rift once and for all.

This was a fast-paced and gripping story, although I had a few gripes regarding plot-holes and backstories that weren’t fully explained. It’s potentially the first in a series, however, so maybe all will be revealed in later books, and I liked some of the additional new complications in Ivy’s life that were revealed right at the end.

An enjoyable read by Bryony Pearce. Only just discovered her after being invited to read "The Girl on the Platform" so grabbed this title when I saw it and it doesn't bother me that it's aimed at Young Adult when I'm an Older Adult.

Hounds and Zombies that start to appear after a group of teenage friends try and bring back to life a friend by whispering a spell from a magic book. All hell breaks loose! It's then up to Ivy to save the children at a High School as she is security to protect them. Talking cats and dogs are in this story too which I just love.

Oh but Danny!! Going by the ending though, I feel a second book coming as there was a build up of something happening and the book suddenly stopped. I'll keep an eye out...

Released 3 June 2021

Thank you, NetGalley and UCLan Publishing for the Arc in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, this book just drags you straight in from the first page and you just can't let go. Ivy is such a kickass character and for it to be set in the UK was a perk for me.

This was such a wild ride and I enjoyed every part of it and it was nice to see the main character who appears strong but deep down you know she's not and she is showing cracks from trying not to fall apart. This is a must-read and I'm hoping there is more to this.

Thank you to Bryony and Graeme of Uclan Publishing for my #gifted copies (digital via Netgalley and a finished print copy) of this fantastic book, in exchange for an honest review.

This book is hilariously witty, gorey and full of characters that you just love.

Ivy is the one left behind after a drunken spell with her friends goes a bit wonky. I say a bit, basically it opens a portal that is now allowing dark matter into the world. More specifically the UK.

Now ivy feels that she has to try and stem the tide of evil that is caused by the portal. It’s her duty to protect as many as she can.

The book definitely has Buffy-TVS vibes but is also a uniquely funny story that pulls you in from the get go.

Filled with Black Magic, Hell Hounds and Ivy’s Gran as a fat tabby, you will not want to put this book down.

The story is fast paced and woven so seemlessly that sometimes I forgot I was reading..... the story seemed to play out before my eyes.

I loved the symbols at the head of each chapter. Just so much attention to detail from cover to cover!

This book is the epitome of why I LOVE YA still, at 36! We all need a little bit of magic in our lives - even if it is black magic!

Bryony! Is there a book 2? I NEED a book 2!!

Pick up a copy TODAY, you won’t regret it!!

5 Word Review: Danger, responsibility, magic, snark, family.

Content warnings: Death, blood, religion, violence.

I didn't know that I needed this in my life quite so badly. Raising Hell is a wild ride, fast paced and exhilarating. I read it in a single sitting, ran out of page tabs, and wanted to start it again as soon as I had finished.

Ivy is an excellent character - she's messy and complicated and wracked with guilt. She's a little bit broken, but she's determined to absolve herself. I loved her snark, her distrust, her anger. She's as driven by her anger as she is her guilt, and the result is a little intoxicating. I want her to be my friend (and protector) but also I'm a bit afraid of her if I'm being honest. Her life is extraordinary and yet Ivy is deeply relatable, and when we first met Nicholas Ortega I was bristling alongside her.

Can my favourite character be the cat? I loved Gran. She gives no shits, she's full of snark. I just want to feed her some salmon and give her scritches under her chin. Her scenes had me laughing.

More than anything, Raising Hell is fun. It's a romp. It's like Buffy, with a dash of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but very British all at once. I almost felt nostalgic at times while I was reading it. As dark as the story was at times, it was also comforting, and it was fun. The action is breath-taking in its intensity, and it made me read even faster.

This is the kind of book that I want to read fanfiction of. I want to read about others doing Ivy's job, the chaos of hormones and magic clashing in teens. As short as this book is the scope of the world is enormous.

I already want to read Raising Hell again. I have tabbed so many passages, so expect a favourite quotes post soon. It was an amazing read.

I'm not a big fan of the fantasy genre, but I wanted to read this because I'm a big fan of Bryony Pearce's writing.
I was pleasantly surprised how much I did actually enjoy this book. I found the concept really interesting, and loved the impending doom that was following our central characters. This book is YA and therefore the pacing was super fast, and that certainly helped with keeping my interest. I really liked the central character of Ivy, but I was so intrigued by Norah. I could picture her so clearly in my head.

One of things I didn't like about this book was the random love sub plot towards the end. I thought that it came out of the blue, and didn't add anything to the overall story - this really bothered me. I didn't think it was needed - not every YA book needs a romance people!!!!

Overall I enjoyed this reading experience. I found the first half of the book a lot stronger than the latter half. Bryony Pearce always amazes me - she writes so many different genres, and for a variety of ages. She's an absolute wonder!
Bring on the next Pearce book - god knows what genre it will be next haha!

Meet Ivy Elizabeth Mann:
“I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not half faery, or demon, or angel or anything like that. Mum’s a Body Shop consultant living in a bungalow in Birmingham and Dad enters crossword competitions.”
Once upon a time, Ivy and her friends did a very stupid thing and now there’s a rift letting dark matter into the world. Dark matter that manifests as black magic which actually works. Now every teenager with access to the Internet is raising hell. Literally.
Ivy’s doing her best to stem the tide, but her new job working school security barely pays the bills and there’s only so much one girl with a machete (and a cat possessed by her own dead grandmother) can do against the forces of evil.
Now she’s facing a teenaged goth with an attitude, a dark cabal with a terrifying agenda and a potential zombie apocalypse.
Ivy losing her job might be the best thing to happen to the world!

Supernatural shenanigans? Yep.
Charmingly British? Yep.
Occasional Tory bashing? Yep.
Good golly wee, this was fun! If you’ve been missing episodic paranormal programmes like Buffy, Supernatural or Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, then you need this book in your life. Basically, some grief-stricken teens tried to raise the dead and accidentally opened a rift leaking magic into the British Isles and giving other teenagers the ability to summon hell hounds and other nasties. It’s a properly fun, gung ho adventure full of redemption, demons and a talking cat.
So, if you’re salty about Netflix cancelling Sabrina or the way Supernatural ended, this might just soothe those wounds.

This book had a really interesting premise and the book did hold up to this, and gave us a bit more. I loved the hell hound parts and was a bit confused by the zombie aspect but it worked well within the book. I really liked the main character ivy, and how she helped fix something she messed up when she was a child. There were a few issues I personally had with this book which stopped it from getting a higher rating. At the start of the book it referred to girls as overweight, I’m not sure why this would be their defining feature, size didn’t need to be mentioned. I also didn’t like the stereotyping of goths, with them being more likely to use the magic. The romance went a little bit too fast for me as well, you can’t go from threatening to destroy someone’s living to thinking they’re a living angel in space of a day. Other than that this was a funny book but it may be in need of some trigger warnings.

I got this as an eARC from NetGalley.

I really liked this book! It had supernaturals, magic, hell hounds and the underworld, so if you like all that you're going to love this! I thought the book was well paced and very easy to read. Ivy, the main character, is very sassy and no nonsense and I love it. In fact, I liked most of the characters in this book. An incident happened four years ago that caused a supernatural rift to open, causing teenagers everywhere to use magic against adults and other teenagers alike. Ivy is employed as a supernatural bodyguard to help prevent the use of magic at a school and she's very good at her job. That is until a student tried to unsuccessfully manifest a hell hound on the students, causing it to hunt the student instead. Ivy decides that it's her job to protect the girl and she also decides to try to close the rift, which has not been successful previously. Throw in a good looking man who just happens to be the protective older brother of the hunted student, and a talking cat...what's the worse that can happen?