Hailey Edwards: How to Save an Undead Life
Dear Author,Your necromancers paint sigils in blood to raise the dead as vampires, heal wounds on the living, give themselves more strength in a pinch and probably a lot more. Sigils on skin apparently lose their effect when they rub off. But vampires last for years and don't drop back dead in the rain. I'm curious how this brand of magic works. You give little background in the first volume. Will there be more? I hope so.
Grier, the protagonist, just got released from a horrible prison where she spent years innocent. Does she go investigate what really happened to her dead aunt? Does she go investigate why they suddenly let her out? No. She gets a job and tries to rebuild her life. A legit option.
In this new life, a vampire approaches her, a vampire from a rare breed that can render a necromancer helpless with a touch. Does Grier take precautions? Is she wary? Nope. She lets him into her kitchen and makes him a sandwich. Is the whole community of necromancers wary of those super-vampires? Do they hunt them down? Do they take precautions that none can rise? Nope.
The super-vampire, it turns out, wants something from Grier. As a token of goodwill he gives her a bangle that will make her immune to his power. She wears it, the sensible girl. But when it turns out he wants to marry her, she takes it off. She doesn't give it back for the time being. When the super-vampire appears at her door again, does she slip on the bangle just in case? Does she wear it up her sleeve so he doesn't see it and get his hopes up? Nope, she steps out to him unprotected.
Boaz waits hidden in a hedge for two weeks straight, he says. How does he eat, sleep, shit without getting noticed?
Despite these plot holes, and despite Grier's complete lack of common sense, I enjoyed How to Save an Undead Life. Grier is a bore, but Boaz is fun. So is Grier's haunted house. The whole Society of necromancers and vampires intrigues me. If the vampires need the necromancers to reproduce, and some super-vampires can turn necromancers into helpless thralls, why don't the vampire clans keep pet necromancers? And if Deathless have risen before, why bother with necromancers at all? A Deathless could sire a clan all by himself. Questions upon questions. I'll read How to Claim an Undead Soul. Maybe you give some answers there.
Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran
How to Saven an Undead Life: The Beginner's Guide to Necromancy, Book 1 by Hailey Edwards
published in 2017
ISBN: 1985855437
Available on Amazon.co.uk.
