Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride

This book is amazing. Absolutely amazing. "Hold Me Closer, Necromancer" by Lish McBride is about a 19 or 20 year old boy, Sam, who is a bit of a loser. He works at a fast food restaurant, dropped out of college, lives in a small apartment, doesn't have a lot of money, and is just awkward all around. Soon, strange things begin happening to him and his friends and weird men start to take notice of him. And as it turns out, he's a necromancer; a person that can conjure up the dead. Now he must stop Douglass, the most powerful necromancer around, and figure out how to control his powers.

As I said, I think this book is amazing. It never lost my interest, even if I was reading a scene that was just the characters talking to each other. Now, on the cover of the edition I read there's a blurb at the top describing this book as "a scary funny book." This is sort of true, but I wouldn't use the word "scary." I thought this book was dark but definitely not scary. I can't handle anything remotely scary but I found this book beyond enjoyable. Like I said it is on the darker side of YA and I feel like it would have been a lot darker had it not been for the characters.

The characters of this novel are by far my favorite part. They are all so well developed and have awesome personalities and they're the kind of people you'd want to hang out with. Sam, like I said, is a loser. But a lovable loser. And he has the most amazing friends. So his best friend is Ramon and he is like the cool big brother. The kind that I imagine telling his younger brother, "Some day you'll be as cool as I am. No, not really. But you're still alright." He is confident, borderline cocky, but has his heart in the right place. Frank plays the lame-ish third wheel without really being a third wheel. He wants to help his friends but is a wimp so he can't do much but still ends up helping in a big way. Some how. Finally, we have Brooke. She is awesome. Brooke is the typical popular girl but much cooler. She could have easily come off as a...lets say female dog, but didn't. She can be both manipulative and sweet at the same time. Honestly, the best part of these characters is that they aren't just co-workers like they're introduced. They are true friends and it shows.

I loved this book, mainly for the character's dynamic, but also because the plot was so entertaining and HILARIOUS. If you can read this book and not laugh at all, I'm impressed. It wasn't perfect. The only problems I had with it were that it sometimes felt like the bad guy was spelling out his evil plan like in little kids' movies and that there was slight love at first sight which I really don't like. It wasn't too bad, but the attraction was too strong, too fast.

I think anyone would like this book. It's dark but the characters will immediately change that into a much lighter tone. You will absolutely laugh while reading it and you'll end up loving the characters. If you want something to read for Halloween but don't want something too intense, I think this is a good book for you. 5 out of 5 stars.