Review of The Young Necromancer’s Guide to Ghosts by Vanessa Ricci-Thode
Vanessa Ricci-Thode’s The Young Necromancer’s Guide to Ghosts (2024) is a young adult novel set within her Fireborn universe, filled with dragons and magic. It’s a charming and sweet look at sisters, found family, grief and loss, and necromancy!
Lusi and Marsi lost their mother when Lusi was born, and though their father remarried, he has been distant. And no one has ever believed that Lusi can see and speak to ghosts, thinking she has a mental illness instead. So when their stepmother’s relative, a man they refer to as Uncle, wants to marry his nephew to Marsi, their father and stepmother put up no resistance. The sisters take matters into their own hands and run away, with plans to reach the Guild for magic users, where they’ll be safe from Uncle. Along the way, they meet ghosts, dragons, and a multitude of magic users, and they navigate danger and joy.
I loved the characters of Lusi and Marsi particularly, because I’m a sucker for sibling relationships in stories. These two sisters did not disappoint! The secondary characters are also wonderful, though there are quite a lot of them in the latter parts of the book, which can be a little confusing now and then. But the main characters and the most prominent of the supporting characters are clearly distinguishable. (And Lusi isn’t always entirely clear on many of the lesser secondary characters, so it seems fitting, as she’s the point of view character.)
If you like stories about young adults learning about the larger world they inhabit while taking care of one another and helping others even when there’s danger afoot, you’ll enjoy The Young Necromancer’s Guide to Ghosts. You don’t need to be familiar with the Fireborn universe to enjoy it, though Ricci-Thode notes that there are spoilers for the main series within this book. But it’s a perfectly reasonable stand-alone novel, especially for younger readers who love dragons and magic!
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