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October 15, 2012

Cari Rerat: Story just as good as its title, cover

By Frankie Meyer Globe Columnist

JOPLIN, Mo. — As a librarian, I judge books by their professional reviews. As a reader, I judge books by their cover, and I’d be willing to bet you do, too.

To a certain extent, I also judge books by their titles, which may be less common. “Hold Me Closer, Necromancer” earned a couple of starred reviews, so it is an easy pick as a librarian, but it also hits a rare double whammy on my snap-judgment reader scale.

The cover is cool and creepy, with its monochromatic red and black, and the title is right up there on my list of best titles ever. Add to that the song lyrics and titles used as chapter titles, and my expectations were pretty high.

“Hold Me Closer, Necromancer,” by Lish McBride, has been on my very long to-read list for quite some time. It finally got to the top of the list because it is an easy book to recommend for this year’s Teen Read Week theme, “It Came From the LIBRARY!”

I grabbed the audiobook and started my favorite tradition of listening to a book in my car during my lunch break. I got about a third of the way through the book when I realized that the audio just wasn’t going to get me there fast enough.

I went back and grabbed the book. I then spent the next several hours ignoring family and meal times to finish it.

“Hold Me” is old-school paranormal, as opposed to sparkly, love-triangle paranormal, with a little realism and snark thrown in for good measure. Sam, our hero and main character, is your average skateboarding college dropout.

Sam is pretty miserable working the counter at a Seattle fast food joint, but he has a good time with his co-worker friends: Ramon, his oldest and best friend; Brooke, the pretty blonde he and Ramon spend more time protecting than hitting on; and Frank, the clueless but well-meaning boy next door.

When Douglas, a power-hungry necromancer, identifies Sam as a fellow necromancer with very weak powers, he magnanimously declares that if Sam is willing, he will be Sam’s teacher. Douglas’ persuasions are subtle Ñ first he sends Sam a package containing Brooke’s severed but reanimated head, then he locks Sam in a cage with a half-werewolf half-fey princess.

Sam’s reluctant training reveals that his powers are nowhere near weak. That’s when the fun truly begins.

McBride’s work lives up to the expectations set by her cover and title. The story has lively and unique characters, a speedy, action-packed plot. and enough thrill and humor to satisfy a broad spectrum of older teen and adult readers. Younger teens might enjoy it, too, but with college-aged characters doing college-aged things, such as drinking and a fair amount of violence, parents may want to read it first.



Teen Read Week

We are interpreting the theme of this year’s Teen Read Week in two ways: For books, a creepy, echoey kind of statement, and for programming, an amazed, exclamatory kind of statement. Because I’m highlighting these creepy titles by putting their covers on a bulletin board (near the reference desk), I probably ought to have read most of them.

The program includes “You did WHAT with that book?!” from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday in the teen department. We’ll upcycle old books into flowers, paper beads, bookmarks, poetry and secret compartments.

 

Cari Rerat is the teen librarian for the Joplin Public Library.

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