Me on Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

Title: Hold Me Closer, Necromancer
Author: Lish McBride
Release Date: October 12, 2010
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

Sam has a pretty normal life for a college dropout working at a fast-food place, but it's better than nothing. He's doing all right, until a 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 learns he's a necromancer too, but with latent powers, and his worst nightmare wants to join forces. Or else. With a week to figure things out, Sam needs all the help he can get. Luckily, he lives in Seattle where there as many paranormal types as there are coffee places. But with all his new friends, will Sam be able to save his skin?

This book was funny, interesting, it kept me reading and flipping the page. Lots of twists and turns and unexpected characters. So much fun to read, another welcome edition to the 'horror/humour' genre.

I loved Sam. He was trying to make the best of his dropping out of college, then tried to make the best out of a bad situation once Douglas finds him and tries to lure him 'over to the dark side,' as it were. Sam's the quintessential maybe slacker hero working a garbage job who had something happen to him that no one could control and then ended up involved in the dark side of town that only the right people know exist. He's just trying to get back to normal, trying to fix everything, trying to figure it all out.

Then come the chapters that aren't in Sam's point of view, the third person parts that cover Douglas and his less than moral activities, Brid and her imprisonment at the hands of a rouge and his new master, Ramon and his journey to help Sam when everything goes to hell. It added another layer, the background to Sam's journey up in the foreground of the book.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer is funny, maybe scary, and so awesome. It's a journey for Sam, a way for him to learn the truth, to learn about himself, to learn that it's possible to be more than just a dropout flipping burgers and working the register. Sometimes you live life and it isn't what you thought it would be but it works for the moment, and then life throws you a curve (or a potato) and you learn the truth: you're meant for so much more than you imagined.

(I borrowed this book from the public library.)