See also our review on the first book Hold Me Closer, Necromancer.


Oh, how nice it is to see Sam and the gang in action again. What I love most about this series is the cast, so I am happy to read about them doing just about anything and eavesdrop on their conversation.

There is a good story in the sequel Necromancing the Stone too of course. Now that Sam has killed the evil Douglas, he has to adjust to his new life as he takes Douglas' place on the magical council as the necromancer. Unsure of his power and guilty about the changes he's caused in his friends (after all, one of them has been turned into a ghost and the other a werebear), he is not feeling any love either from the magical council, his girlfriend's entire clan, not even the garden gnomes in his new mansion.

When a mysterious murder happens, everyone is looking towards Sam to prove himself by finding the killer, and he better does it quickly, since the evidence all points to the victim dying at the hands of a necromancer. Now, wait a second, isn't Sam the only necromancer left?
Yes, he is.

As crazy as Necromancing the Stone sounds, with a full ensemble of any paranormal creatures you can imagine (and some you never dream of), the book is ultimately about a boy growing up, being thrown into a strange world of responsibility, and trying to do the right thing.  McBride's writing is plenty funny and witty and the dialogue is spot on, and yes, there is swearing but never excessive. The additions of James the house spirit and Minion round up an already charming cast. You'll smile when you figure out who Minion is supposed to be.

Visit Lish McBride's website and follow @TeamDamnation on Twitter.

And what do you guys think of the redesigned covers?

(We're going to take a reader's suggestion (thanks!) and start reviewing books for the preteen crowd too. Here's our first review.) 

"It was over coffee and biscuits that Grandma Ives offered to return Cameron’s father from the dead."
Okay, who can resist and is not be intrigued by a first line like that?

When his dad was found dead by the beach, Cameron went to live with his grandma, whom he's met maybe once or twice. Before they get to know each other, she offers to resurrect his dad.
Grandma Ives is not your ordinary grandmother type. There is nothing warm and fuzzy about her, but she does know about The Daemon Parallel, a hidden world that co-exists with Edinburgh, and she knows spells that can raise the dead. That's just what Cameron needs. He misses his dad, and he wants to figure out the cause of his mysterious death, but first, we'll have to see if Cameron has inherited the special powers that will enable him to travel back and forth between the two worlds, to deal with the daemons, and to help his grandma get the right ingredients to complete the resurrection spell.

This impressive debut novel has just the right blend of action, mystery, adventure, magic, supernatural, humour and character development.  Most of all, I was surprised at how "right sounding" the voice of Cameron is. The things he said are exactly the kinds of stuff I'd expect a kid to say. Despite the title and perhaps the cover, the book doesn't rely on just grossness or goriness to carry the story, even though you will encounter many daemons in the book, and underneath all the fantastical elements is a boy who is trying to figure out if he's doing the right thing or not. And what a gutsy ending! Not going to spoil it for you, but throughout the book, I was thinking, is the author really going to do that? No way. It's just a red herring I'm sure. No, wait, he's really going there. Nice.

Chaos Walking Series Book One

What if people can hear what you are thinking right now?  That you can be saying something and they can just look at you and know if you're telling the truth or not? That's the kind of world Todd Hewitt lives in. Noise, they called it. Everyone's thoughts are broadcasted to everyone else constantly. When the settlers first arrived on the planet, they fought a war with the natives, who released a germ that killed all the women and made the men hear each other's thoughts.  Animals talk too, but as Todd pointed out, there's a reason why they shouldn't. His dog Manchee seemed to only have a few things to say: "poo, Todd, poo", "squirrel", "run". That's pretty much it.
A month before he turned 13 and could finally become a man like everyone else in his town, Todd was taking Manchee for a walk and he heard a silence. A silence, like a hole, in all the noise. Excited, Todd tried to walk back home as calm as he could as if nothing had happened, but as you can imagine, there is no such thing as a secret in Prentisstown. As he walked past the church, he could hear Aaron the preacher asking for him in the Noise. Todd ran back home, and the minute his guardians Ben and Cecil saw him, they knew it's time for Todd to leave the town. They produced a bag that was packed long ago and told him to go. Run now, Todd, and don't come back!
A heart-wrenching read. A don't-talk-to-me-I'm-reading read.  Ness' writing is impeccable for the story. Nothing flowery, just raw emotions. All the characters are as good as you can get, and Booklist called Manchee "the finest talking-dog characters anywhere". It's also one of the best fugitive stories I've read. So good, you've got to read this.
And now I'm scared. I'm scared to read the sequels. What if it ruins it like other sequels do so often?
p.s. Came across Frank Cottrell Boyce's (author of Millions and Cosmic) review of this book in the Guardian. I like his comments about the young adult genre.