Lucy Kline, Necromancer by Tom O'Donnell

The quick cut: A girl whose twin sister disappeared two years ago finds her life upended when a girl who looks similar to her sister disappears in the same fashion.  

A real review: 

Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing the arc for an honest review. 

  When family members die, it can be incredibly devastating. What can be worse though is when they disappear without a trace. Where did they go? Why can't they be found? All questions that most would ask in this situation. For a teenage girl named Lucy though, she decides to pull herself out of her grief and solve the mystery. 

 The Lucy of today is a dynamically different person than she used to be. When her twin sister Louisa disappeared two years ago, she had friends and was a generally happy person. Now she comes to class late, chooses not to complete class assignments, and is generally seen as a dark person. When news comes that another girl has disappeared just like her twin disappeared, she's shocked out of her loner state. Did this latest disappearance show that someone is out there taking girls? Or is Lucy just looking for connections that don't exist? 

 I do so love a dark story with a snarky character. Call me morose, but I think experiencing difficulties early in life gives you a more dynamic sense of humor. Sarcasm can be fun when used in a different way. While I can see why Lucy is the way she is now, I also had a really hard time liking her as a main character. I can see how the author tried to make the main characters feel like a new version of Buffy, but it didn't make me like them any more due to that. It just made me sort of annoyed that they tried to recreate a dynamic rather than inspire their own. 

 Lucy followed all the clues when her sister disappeared and even got a confession. She did the whole detective thing and solved the mystery. Yet years later she is still seemingly haunted by her sister's ghost and now someone has taken another girl. She looks similar to her sister Louisa, disappeared in a similar fashion, and even has the same boyfriend that her sister Louisa had when she disappeared. All the connections are there with so many similarities. How is there a connection though when Lucy got the killer to confess? It's this need to no longer be haunted by her sister that drives her to solve the mystery. 

 The necromancy is definitely an interesting twist. Makes this a unique element in the plethora of young adult books available, but it also makes it only suitable for the older end of the audience range in my opinion. The story moved quickly enough, but it didn't entirely keep my interest. The character development felt a little cliched and I kept wanting to see something that made her unique. No, seeing your dead sister in your dreams doesn't count as unique to me. It feels a little bit Veronica Mars from when she was seeing her best friend while trying to solve her death. 

 A mystery book that gives a character dynamic that is similar to classic teen tv shows. 

My rating: 3.5 out of 5