Synopsis:

Sam leads a pretty normal life. He may not have the most exciting job in the world, but he’s doing all right—until a fast food prank brings him to the attention of Douglas, a creepy guy with an intense violent streak.

Turns out Douglas is a necromancer who raises the dead for cash and sees potential in Sam. Then Sam discovers he’s a necromancer too, but with strangely latent powers. And his worst nightmare wants to join forces . . . or else.

With only a week to figure things out, Sam needs all the help he can get. Luckily he lives in Seattle, which has nearly as many paranormal types as it does coffee places. But even with newfound friends, will Sam be able to save his skin?

(Via Goodreads)

My Impressions:

About the Author:

Lish McBride lives and works in the Pacific Northwest as a Young Adult novelist.  She’s written two books about Sam LaCroix and she has another series she’s writing that starts with Firebug. While I haven’t read this one of hers yet, Leigh Bardugo — whose book Six of Crows was the subject of one of my more fangirly previous posts — publicly acclaimed it on Twitter, so Firebug is going straight onto my to-be-read list. Hold Me Closer, Necromancer is McBride’s first novel.

About the Book:

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer is a character-driven urban fantasy set in Seattle, Washington and populated with a plethora of magical creatures, namely some witches, a mess of werewolves, and, of course, a couple of necromancers. It’s not the John Dies at the End story I expected based on the description. (Why would I think that? I don’t know. That’s just what I got out of it.) More like something in the vein of The Dresden Files books, but for young adults.

Though the book is designated as Young Adult, the main character, Sam LaCroix, is really a new adult, just post-graduation and stuck in a soul-sucking fast food job with little to no hope of a fulfilling career. His wry attitude makes such all-too-familiar agony bearable though, as he’s a guy capable of rolling with the punches with good humor. He has a handful of solid friends who have his back when his entire life takes a turn for the weird. I dig how the villain, Douglas Montgomery, is constantly in motion, not sitting on the sidelines or waiting for Sam to bring the fight to him. The narrative style is quick and punchy enough to keep me turning pages, the wit snaps, and the characters are quite lifelike. I’d definitely hang out with this bunch of goofballs and have a good time with them.

There were some parts that didn’t thrill me too much. For example, the really cool, kickass chick spends nearly all of her time in a cage magically designed to keep her half-breed self locked up, and the rest of her time flirting with Sam. She does get one awesome and well-deserved fight at the end, but that’s it. The romance isn’t mushy, as my local library promised (half the reason I picked this up, aside from the word necromancer on the cover), but, as is my main complaint with most YA romances, it comes off a bit forced. Also, while Sam’s narrative is in first person point of view, we get the point of view of several other characters, all of those in third person. Switching between first person and third person bugs me, but that may just be a personal peeve. I really liked getting into Sam’s head, but I found myself less interested in the other characters and looked forward to when we would get back to his part of the story.

McBride takes a decent amount of time with her wrap-up to tie up any loose ends, which I appreciate. Her execution struck me as kind of odd, however, until I found out there’s a second book in the series, for which she was setting up. I think she could have put most of the ending content at the beginning of the next book and it would have been a good deal neater. But it was just intriguing enough that I think I’ll be checking out the sequel, Necromancing the Stone.

Goodreads rating 3.95 stars
My rating 4/5 stars