Review: Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

You're probably wondering why I haven't been posting lately. One word: swim season. Okay, that's two words. But when you're suffocating from a lack of sleep and lack of oxygen, in my case, it's hard to get enough time to actually finish a book. As always, you can subscribe to my Goodreads account via the link in the sidebar because I'm better at updating that account than this. Plus, I have to delete spoiler tags from my original reviews to post them on Blogger, so you get that extra little something if you read these on my Goodreads. Memes will start again next week when I get the hang of my new schedule. 

Title: Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

Author: Lish McBride

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Part of a Series?: First in series

Goodreads Summary:

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?

Review:

It took me a while to actually start this book, but once I started, I couldn't stop (hence, why this review is being written at 1:21 am). I can sum up the story in one sentence: A fun paranormal romp that sacrifices realism for the sake of awesomeness.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer proved to me that it's possible to have a bucketload of supporting characters and balance all of them in a somewhat satisfying way. I thought at first that McBride was overshooting when the initial 4 character cast was added upon with 2 bad guys, 1 love interest + family, and a convoluted family backstory. Some might even argue that she did indeed overestimate her abilities. I, however, can't see it that way. I thought that the supporting characters all got their own development or at least hinted to a new story line in the sequels. Honestly, this was the only time where I could actually stand the "average human sidekick" trope; Ramon is possibly my favorite sidekick in a PNR that I've read recently.

Sam could've turned out to be a generic protagonist. McBride certainly didn't do any favors by giving him the "my mother didn't tell me about my true paranormal powers and now it turns out I'm uber powerful" trope. Yet all I can say is that Sam is certainly a character I could root for. He's not the smartest guy when it comes to school, but he is rational and likeable. He thinks like a normal human being shoved into a ridiculous situation. He's not perfect but he doesn't pretend to be. I actually think he is the most believable out of all the characters (although realism on a plot level is...sketchy). However, I don't think that I could've read a whole book about Sam. It helped immensely that McBride actually changed the POV each chapter, alternating between Sam's first person POV and supporting character-centric third person POV. The way this book was formatted helped flesh out each facet of the story without overwhelming me with too-much Sam or too-much Ramon.

I have a lot of other minor good things to say about Hold Me Closer, Necromancer like the world-building and action, but I took off a star because the realism in some aspects was really lacking.  On the other hand, in McBride's defense, I probably would have made the same move she did. Sometimes, readers just like to get to the fun stuff, and if that means skimping on the realism sometimes, so be it.

I think this is a pretty fun book to get a hold of. I'd recommend it if not just for having a nice way to pass the time.