Freaks & Other Family

Freaks & Other Family (2016) Lish McBride

You Make Me Feel So Young
Halfway Through the Wood

This collection is two stories about the characters from Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, Sam and Ramon. Sam is now a necromancer. Ramon is now a were-bear. Luckily, Sam’s inheritance also included a house and money, so he’s able to help Sam with some of the issues that came from the change.

You Make Me Feel So Young finds Sam and Ramon attempting to discover who or what is leaving desiccated corpses around town.

Strange human remains had been discovered— and by strange I mean that we’d found thin, dry husks and nothing else. All that had been left was skin, like people had started spontaneously molting.

It’s also about how much Sam has not yet learned about what he can do.

The second story, Halfway Through the Wood, is about Ramon and how things have changed with his family after his change (since he can’t tell them what happened).

Which is difficult, because his family is very close.

I followed them deeper into the house, which was full to bursting with family and friends that had earned that status. My family has been known to rope in people who we’ve decided need food and family or those that simply can’t run away fast enough.

Ramon’s problems are not of the supernatural nature, but they are still serious problems–especially since Ramon still feels he has to protect his mother and sisters.

One of the things I like about Lish McBride’s writing is that it’s evocative AND fun. For example:

There was a sound then, like the death rattle of a milkshake when you’ve sucked up the last of the ice cream with the straw and start pulling in air.

And her characters are very well-depicted young adults: they make mistakes because they lack experience, but they aren’t stupid, so they don’t make the same mistakes twice.

If you haven’t read Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, don’t start here. Get Necromancer: A Novella, which is free, and which is what got me to read the first. It’s free, so you’ve got nothing to lose. But these two stories were a nice reminder of why I liked Sam and Ramon so much.

Publisher: Devo-Lish
Rating: 8/10

• Browse the archives:
  
• Voice of the Violin, Audio Edition » »
• « « After the Wedding