Necromancing the Stone

By: Lish McBride

Narrated by: Chris Sorenson, Jonathan Todd Ross

Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

With the defeat of the evil Douglas behind him, Sam LaCroix is getting used to his new life. Okay, so he hadn’t exactly planned on being a powerful necromancer with a seat on the local magical council and a capricious werewolf sort-of-girlfriend, but things are going fine, right?

Well...not really. He’s pretty tired of getting beat up by everyone and their mother, for one thing, and he can’t help but feel that his new house hates him. His best friend is a werebear, someone is threatening his sister, and while Sam realizes that he himself has a lot of power at his fingertips, he’s not exactly sure how to use it. Which, he has to admit, is a bit disconcerting.

But when everything starts falling apart, he decides it’s time to step up and take control. His attempts to do so just bring up more questions, though, the most important of which is more than a little alarming: Is Douglas really dead?

©2012 Lish McBride (P)2012 Recorded Books

Funny, smart, original

A YA novel that wakes up an increasingly of tired genre. Unique characters, funny dialog, highly original premise.

Dead things can be fun too!

A fun look at the fantasy world that doesn't make Necromancy a completely terrible thing.

This sequel continues the fun antics of a new and powerful necromancer and his friends as they try to make sense of the world both magical and mundane.

love the book.

I love this series I hope for more. but so far no such luck. but it was amazing

Great Sequel

I LOVED this book!! The story was great and all my Co-workers were looking at me and wondering what iwas laughing about!! I loved the 2 narrators and can't wait for the next Samhain LaCroix novel. try it you'll love it!!

Don't let this book slip through the cracks!

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer (in Elton John’s voice, go on, sing it) and Necromancing the Stone were fantastic...don’t let these books slip through the cracks!

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer and Necromancing the Stone by Lish McBride took me by surprise. It was one of those series I had in my wish list for a couple months, bought it on sale, and I’m kicking myself for not listening to/discovering it sooner. It’s a book that you shouldn’t let slip through the cracks. Another review states it’s ridiculous the first book has any ratings under five stars and clearly the other people are wrong- I agree with this 100%. I hadn’t planned on writing a review on this book as it was going to be one of my casual listens, but promptly changed my mind as I could not put this series down.

What to expect (for both books): necromancy, evil and good characters, sarcastic humor, development of powers, witches, close friendships, fae, shifters, different worlds, a Goddess, strong female love interest (not in an annoying way), a detective, fight scenes, emotion (don’t want give spoilers but people close to Sam die), garden gnomes, ghosts, blood magic. Yeah most things are predictable, but some are not. It’s fast-paced and contains darker themes. The chapters are told through different view points- I didn’t have any issue figuring out who was who and at times couldn’t wait for each character to have their turn.

The narrators, Jonathan Todd Ross and Chris Sorensen, helped to make these books special and I’d highly recommend the audiobook.

(minimal spoilers below, you’ve been warned)
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With the first book, Sam accidentally discovers he’s a necromancer, from there he enters the world of paranormal and has little choice in the fallout that follows. He makes new friends and enemies. I thought character development was great all around. You get to see Sam (and others) go from a normal person to someone with developing/evolving powers.

The second book takes place after Douglas’s death, or what we thought was Douglas’s death. Similar to the first book in regards to powers, adjusting to new life of necromancy and relationships, Sam continues on as best as he can. He has now inherited Douglas’s estate, on the council, and Brid and his relationship has some complications for reasons I won’t give due to major spoilers. It’s a great continuation of the series.

I couldn’t get Elton John’s voice singing Hold Me Closer, Necromancer out of my head...the song lyrics added amusement to the beginning of each chapter.

Overall, I recommend it. If you appreciate this type of humor you, will love the book. I cannot wait for additional books to come out.

Parental guidance/trigger warnings: severed head (that talks), locking people in a cage in a basement, assault multiple times (beating up), family problems (absent father, lies told to the children when they were younger, dealing with those lies and the after-effects as adults), experiments on paranormal people, death, physical fighting, sex (not told in detail but indicated and unprotected sex), bringing people back to life (sometimes speaking to them or using them for the evil guys needs- the main character helps to off set this by attempting to good things with those who are brought back), some swearing. It’s possible I’m missing some things as I had not planned to review this book as stated above so I apologize for any thing I missed. This is a darker story and definitely not for the kiddos or faint of heart.

If you love the first book

This second book in what I hope is at least trilogy. These books are funny and engaging making this version of the world plausible but believable. I'll never forget sexy Gary the Bigfoot or that Sam father is the biggest jerkwad on the planet for the way he treats the people he supposedly loves. The only issue I had was Sam constant guilt bugged me . But other then that it's something I'm going to relisten to .

The humor was lost on me

I loved this book sooo much but the humor was lost on me, the whole novel was amazing

And I think James is my favorite character of this month

Narration awkward long pauses… weird inflections..

One of those weird instances where the narration isn’t necessarily bad… just awkward long pauses… weird inflections.. overall slow pace. Couldn’t get past that to get into the story… bummer :(

worst audio editing I've ever heard

Was this audio production edited by a middle school AV club? so many issues. Apart from production problems, the story was lackluster. I rwally liked the first one, but this sequel was just boring and didn't have a lot going on.

Is this meant for tweens?

Around chapter two I started listening at 1.1X speed. (Thanks for the more granular narration speed choices - now I see why.) That got me to chapter four, at which point I caught myself thinking “what a great story this would be if only it were written for adults”. Usually I’ll stick with a book that has this much potential. Not sure why I’m finding this one such a difficult listen...