The Necromancer's House by Christopher Buehlman

A sorcerer/necromancer lives in a highly warded house, with a butler created from the heart of a deceased beloved dog. His good friend gets into trouble with a very powerful witch, and he tries to help her, enlisting fellow sorcerers. The book evokes powerful emotions, the characters are great, and the dog/butler alone makes the book worth reading.

CAWPILE SCORE
C-9
A-9
W-8
P-9
I-7
L-9
E-8
TOTAL-8.43/10

It will be covered on Libromancy on 4/23/23

[a: Christopher Buehlman 4712375 Christopher Buehlman https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1350057325p2/4712375.jpg] is one of my favorite active storytellers. [b: The Necromancer's House 17674968 The Necromancer's House Christopher Buehlman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1391891511l/17674968.SY75.jpg 24678703] carries on his ability to create compelling characters, dangerous antagonists, and some really dark and twisty story turns. Modern settings, an interesting magic system, a literal witch hunt, and a few things that go bump in the night, this book is an easy recommendation.

This is a bit of a weird one as it almost feels like it's avoiding the main conflict. Thematically this fits given that's basically the modus operandi of the main character (even before they know there is a conflict).

We're pulled in close, flirting with the path to understanding, then quickly pulled backwards into confusion as we slowly spiral towards knowing what has and what will happen. This is the kind of book that once it grips you, you'll want to keep going and going.

From a character perspective, we're treated to quite a colourful cast that is painted vibrantly. While we don't spend a lot of time with some of them, due to their vibrancy they feel more fleshed out than they might have otherwise. Not all of the characters are good people, hell, most of them aren't, but they're well-defined.

We build our way to a crescendo leading to the finale, which sets my favourite sort of pacing for a horror novel. We spend the majority of the book learning of the characters, their history, their present and are left wondering, followed by a finale which not only caps off the questions we've been left with, but escalates into the conflict we'd been avoiding the whole time.

Overall, there wasn't really anything I disliked about this book. I didn't really mind that there were some references to very old animations which I had to look up. However, I can imagine some people wouldn't like that, or the way it's paced as it takes a while to reveal its hand.