NECROMANCER SERIES BY LISH MCBRIDE… A REVIEW, SORT OF!

Hello everyone! Christmas is almost here and I hope you all are ready to relax and enjoy some time with your families, and this goes both if you celebrate Christmas and if you don’t. Relaxing and quality time with families are always good, right? And if you add to the mix some good food (maybe a lot of good food) things get even better, right? Anyway… today I am not here to be Santa’s Elf, but I am here to try and talk to you about a duology that I loved and that deserves a lot more love and visibility! I’ll try to write something that makes sense, but I am not making promises here!

Since this is a duology, we have two books in it: Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, and Necromancing the Stone. And have also two short novellas: Heads Will Roll and Necromancer.
So, it is a pretty short series, but it is one that you should be reading!

I always say, and I know that I have also written it a lot of times even recently, that I am not a YA fan. It is not that I hate them, but usually, I don’t really enjoy the YA vibes and tropes, and teens are usually not my favorite kind of characters. But it is a general rule, not something set in stone, and this year I have to say that I read some pretty amazing YA, that I loved to pieces. And this series is one of them. To be honest this year I have read Necromancing the Stone. I read the first book and novellas last year, but this is not the important part. The important part is that I loved these books! And you should give them a possibility!

It is true that it is not the newest series out there, I think that the first book was published in 2010 so… well, it is not really old, but it is not new either. So I may understand why this has not as much visibility or hype as other series or books, but it is a shame, really, because these are just so fun! The author has a peculiar sense of humor that is pervasive and so refreshing. And so you are carried along, following all these characters doing things, fighting battles, and more, and all the while you are entertained as hell. Be it from the dialogues, the internal monologues of the MC, or the way in which something is portrayed or narrated. They are not really happy books, well… it’s not that they are sad or scary, but we have a full plot, where a lot of things happen and some of them are bad, some are traumatic, some are scary, some are sad (and sure, some are happy and sweet and beautiful and so on…) but you get the gists, but the atmosphere is always somehow light, because of the humor woven everywhere in these pages.
And this was the main thing I loved in here. That these books were just so much fun! They are brilliant. They are genius! Really!

And there are some other good things going on, too. We have an interesting cast of characters, and they all are well-developed and quite complex. I especially loved Sam, our MC, and our narrator, but also a newbie necromancer, and his brand of self-deprecating and dark humor was always on point (but he has other qualities too, he is a sweety with a big heart and he tries his best to do the right thing, for everyone) and Ramon, one of his best friends. But there are a lot of interesting characters to meet between these pages, especially in the second book, when you’ll meet some freaking amazing gnomes with the most amazing names ever! (And also a small chupa-cabra!). We really have a lot of interesting characters, and I think that almost all of them are worth meeting, and trust me, they all would keep you company for a while, even once you finished the series!

If the characters are pretty amazing, let’s not forget about the villains, or the villain since we have one main one (even if he is not alone). He is quite scary and quite bad. Douglas is a badass necromancer, and he is really an amazing villain! Mind me, I am not a fan of him, because he is bad news all around, but I have to say that he is one of the best villains, especially in YA books.

And then we have the plot. We have a lot of things happening, you won’t be disappointed. To be completely honest the first book is good, but since it is also the book with wich we are introduced to this world and to these characters, it is somehow not as entertaining and gripping as the second one. The second one is a jewel! But I am not saying that the first one is forgettable or bad. Not at all! It is interesting and the plot, as a whole, is really compelling. I wasn’t bored at all, and I was always more than hooked!

So if you are in for some fun, and you want a short series, lighthearted yes, but that carries a punch, with amazing characters and that would make time fly by while you are reading… wait no more! Make yourself a Christmas present, and go read this series!!!

What about you? Have you read this series? Have you read other books by this author? Or are you interested?? Let me know!!

Happy reading!
S.

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