Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

High School Fiction

G/A. McBride, Lish. Hold me closer, necromancer. Henry Holt, 2010. 342p. 978-0-8050-9098-7 $16.99.

Sam is a college dropout working at a fast food hamburger restaurant. He appears to be an ordinary guy with an ordinary life, but all that soon changes. Usually during break times, he and his friends like to challenge each other to a game of potato hockey. Unfortunately, one night the potato gets away from them and ends up hitting someone’s taillight. The owner of the car turns out to be no ordinary man, but a powerful necromancer and he can sense the power that Sam too has a necromancer. He issues Sam an ultimatum—join him or else. To demonstrate the seriousness of his message, he kills Sam’s friend, Brooke and sends him her head – alive and talking. Sam has one week to become Douglas’s apprentice or Douglas will go after him, his family and anyone else he cares about. Sam finds out that his mom is really a witch and he comes from a family of necromancers. His power was bound when he was born to keep him safe. However, before the week is up he finds himself a prisoner in Douglas’s home and in a cage with a beautiful were-hound named Brid. The two quickly become friends as they work together to escape Douglas’s clutches. Sam must learn to harness his latent powers to help them all before it’s too late. -C. Campos, LAPL, Angeles Mesa