Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride

College dropout Samhain LaCroix is sort of a failure at life. He's stuck in a dead end job without a lot of prospects, but at least he has his friends. That is until one of them ends up nothing more than a talking head after Sam accidentally crosses paths with one of the most evil, paranoid necromancers in the country. And this necromancer sees that unbeknownst to Sam, he's a necromancer too. And now Sam is not only a threat, but he's also managed to make the necromancer very angry. So now, with one of his friends undead and involved in an evil plot involving werewolves, Sam is forced to figure out how to deal with the fact that he can raise the dead.

Genre: horror; humor; supernatural

Rating: 4/5

This was a funny book. Surprisingly so. I'll admit the title was the main reason I picked it up and the tongue in cheek humor carries through most of the book. Sam and his friends are deadpan and snarky and trying hard to figure out how to deal with the fact that Sam can now raise the dead. That's not to say that the book isn't also a horror novel. There's plenty of realistic horrible things going on, starting with the sadistic Douglas, necromancer for Seattle and major bad guy. I've never seen a protagonist get beat up as much as Sam does. He's abused throughout the novel and rather than shake it off, he feels it. There are several points were he just can't do stuff because he's hurt too badly. He's realistically angry at his mother for lying to him about his powers. He has an absolute jerk of a father who walked out on his mom to start a "normal" family after he suspected Sam was a necromancer even though the necromancy genes came from his side of the family (and there is a moment of deep irony when Sam meets up with the "normal" wife and kids and meets his two half sisters). And Sam is up against a horrible bad guy in Douglas. Everything about him is cruel and angering, yet he's not over the top, just evil.

The weakness of book came with some of the humor becoming sparser by the end and also a sex scene that just felt thrown in and unnecessary for a YA novel. It honestly felt like that part was supposed to be in a normal paranormal novel, not a YA one. No, it wasn't graphic, just out of character and not what I think would even be normal for a situation such as the characters were in. That said, I'd read more books if this was made into a series. The humor alone was worth it and Sam was a likable character.