Book Review: Hopeless Necromantic by Shiloh Briar

Genre(s): Fantasy / Cozy Fantasy

Book Synopsis:

Sticks and stones may break their bones, but he’ll just resurrect them.

Four years ago, Sikras ‘Catseye’ Nikabod had it all: a beautiful wife, friends and family, and the endless luxuries that came with being the all-powerful necromancer to the queen.

Now, his brother-in-law is a walking corpse, he’s wanted for tax evasion, his oldest friend, Vessik, has slaughtered thousands of the queen’s people with a skeleton army, and his wife is dead. Sort of.

With the kingdom under threat, it’s only natural for the queen to task Sikras with the totally normal, not-at-all-cruel chore of brutally murdering his dearest friend. Sure. Great. It’s not like he already failed to stop Vessik’s reign of terror twice or anything.

Turns out, it’s hard to kill a monster when you can’t stop remembering the good man he used to be. Harder still when you’re pretty sure his descent into madness is kind of, sort of, hypothetically … all your fault.

Raise a glass. Raise the dead. Just don’t raise your hopes.

Review:

I was a few pages into this book when I knew it was going to be a great read.

There are two main characters: Sikras and Helspira. Sikras is a necromancer with a dry sense of humor and a complicated past. He isn’t well-liked by most, in part due to his profession and in part because he’s a complusive liar, but those he considers friends are there for life—and sometimes death. Helspira is a demon enlisted in the Red Sentinels (this world’s version of a royal guard or army.) She and her parents fled the underworld to find a better life above, and despite their demonic heritage, they’re really normal people.

I could spend several paragraphs going into the details of each character, because they’re both so complex in the best of ways. Their pasts have shaped them into the people they are at the beginning of the book, and that comes into play for both of them. Demons aren’t readily welcomed in the kingdom, Sikras’ past looms over him, and Ben—Sikras’ long-suffering companion and undead brother-in-law—is a source of fear for most people, because he’s, well, dead.

But what I loved most about this book is that it’s about acceptance and finding friendship (and sometimes love) in the most unlikely of places. And it’s also about managing grief.

There are some hilarious moments, but there are also some incredibly emotional ones too. I really loved the depth of the characters, the way they interacted with one another, and ultimately, how they learned and grew from their mistakes. It was really well done.

I initially thought this book was a standalone going in, but the ending made it pretty clear there is more to come. And I’m glad for that, because I want more of these characters.

Author website: shilohbriar.com