Inget Shakespeare om det, men Håll mig närmare, Necromancer av Lish McBride passar alla andra punkter. Tonårsprotagonist, som jobbar i snabbmat, vindar upp med en kvinnlig varulv, blir kraftfull, snarkig. Omslaget har en rav.
Take Samhain Corvus LaCroix — skateboarder, vegetarian, college dropout. He's also a fry cook at the fast-food restaurant Plumpy's and has no idea he's a necromancer until he plays a game of potato hockey in the parking lot and inadvertently plants a tuber into the tail-light of a stranger's Mercedes-Benz.
Sam isn't happy to be a fry cook. "Working here just proved that the only thing separating me from a monkey was pants," he quips in the book's opening chapter. He's even less happy to be roughed up then kidnapped by the Mercedes owner, who, unknown to him, is the most powerful necromancer in all of Seattle — a necromancer who forces Sam to train with him or be killed.
There's inherent humor in a teen who's leading an ordinary American life, suddenly discovering his world isn't what it seemed. Sam's mom is a witch, it turns out. His deadbeat dad? A necromancer. The girl with whom he finds himself caged? A "friendly but possessive nymphet" who happens to also be a werehound (half werewolf, half dog).
Similar to Rick Riordan's "The Lightning Thief" and "The Red Pyramid," "Hold Me Closer, Necromancer" exploits these comic juxtapositions, having Sam react the way any slacker would when confronted by what he learns: with sarcasm and sass. His interactions with co-workers, friends and enemies are chock full of humorous one-liners that are, more often than not, wittily matched by whomever he's talking to.
Det följdes upp av en uppföljare, Necromancing the Stone , där Samhain har att göra med ett ordnat äktenskap, döda varulv royalty, sexiga sasquatches och gladiatoriska gnomes.