I have affiliate relationships with Bookshop.org and Malaprop's Bookstore in beautiful Asheville, NC. I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase merchandise through links on my site. Read more on my affiliate page.
Title: The Necromancer’s House
Author: Christopher Buehlman
Narrator: Todd Haberkorn
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal
Audience: Adult
Format: Audiobook
Content Warning: Animal death/abuse (Mostly “offscreen”)
My Review:
If I had read this in print, I think I would have rated it higher. Don’t get me wrong–I absolutely enjoyed Todd Haberkorn’s narration. But I don’t absorb detail as well when listening as I do in print so I need things to move along quickly without getting too complicated.
And Andrew’s life is incredibly complicated.
Buehlman juggles a lot of seemingly disparate plot points that don’t really come together until somewhere near the end. I found myself pretty frustrated and tuning out sometimes. There were a lot of allusions to Andrew’s time in the Soviet Union but, again, we don’t find out what happened there until near the end. There’s another seminal event in his life that he constantly refers back to but we don’t get that full story until late in the book either. I just wanted the plot to move on to a place where things started to come together and make sense.
I did like the cast of broken characters. Andrew and some major supporting characters are all alcoholics who meet in AA. He’s a necromancer who has some major grief issues. His friend/apprentice has a complicated history that leaves her happily secluded from society. Now that I’ve finished, I find myself wishing that I could read more books about this pair–in print.
There were a couple of other things I should mention. One character is a warlock whose powers seem to come from hurting and killing living things. His kills are hinted at more than described, but he (and another character) do kill some animals. I’m fairly sensitive to that kind of thing but it was vague enough that it didn’t bother me too much. There were a few negative stereotypes too. The only Mexican character used to be a sort of enforcer for drug lords and his large family is still in the drug business. There were a couple of “Magical Negro” characters too.
There were elements of the book that I did really like–Andrew himself, a couple of the other characters, some of the magical objects and the system of magic. I was even going to rate the book three stars but I talked myself into lowering it as I wrote this review (the negative stereotypes were the deciding factor). I’ll recommend Buehlman’s other work instead. I read The Suicide Motor Club and Those Across the River on my blogging/reviewing break and they worked much better for me.
Synopsis from GoodReads:
“‘You think you got away with something, don’t you? But your time has run out. We know where you are. And we are coming.’
“Andrew Ranulf Blankenship is a stylish nonconformist with wry wit, a classic Mustang, and a massive library. He’s also a recovering alcoholic and a practicing warlock. His house is a maze of sorcerous booby traps and escape tunnels, as yours might be if you were sitting on a treasury of Russian magic stolen from the Soviet Union thirty years ago.“Andrew has long known that magic is a brutal game requiring blood sacrifice and a willingness to confront death, but years of peace and comfort have left him more concerned with maintaining false youth than with seeing to his own defense. Now a monster straight from the pages of Russian folklore is coming for him, and frost and death are coming with her.”
Similar Books:
If you liked The Necromancer’s House, you might also like my reviews of
- Maplecroft by Cherie Priest
- Horns by Joe Hill
- Graveminder by Melissa Marr
Reading Challenges:
Purchase:
Buy The Necromancer’s House from Malaprop’s Bookstore in beautiful Asheville, NC or
1 Comment
I just finished The Necromancers House alternating between written and audio. I am an avid reader and audio book listener and this review feels quite a bit too low. The book is better in print. 100% It is creative on a level not often crafted and this is lost in the translation to audio. It’s stand alone from the beginning to the end and stands up on its own without the need for a prequel or sequel. A good yarn that wraps us nicely. A part of me also resonates with this book having spent some time with AA and as a non drinker now. That angle of the book is accurate, though the high bottom/low bottom discussion is a contentious point. I also spent time living in New Orleans and while the characters from that section may come off as stereotypical, there is accuracy in the painted picture. You are probably spot on with the Mexican stereotyping though. Overall I would rate it a star higher in print, but take it for what it is: a grim dark read that drops you in a fantasy world you can quickly wrap up but leaves you with a lasting lens to view the world in for a few days after.