Hopeless Necromantic by Shiloh Briar

Hopeless Necromantic

by Shiloh Briar

This has got to be one of the wittiest books I have read this week.

Memorable characters!!! 

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice Rating: 🌶🌶

Synopsis:

Sticks and stones may break their bones, but he'll just resurrect them.

Four years ago, Sikras 'Catseye' Nikabod had it all: a beautiful wife, friends and family, and the endless luxuries that came with being the all-powerful necromancer to the queen.

Now, his brother-in-law is a walking corpse, he's wanted for tax evasion, his oldest friend, Vessik, has slaughtered thousands of the queen's people with a skeleton army, and his wife is dead. Sort of.

With the kingdom under threat, it's only natural for the queen to task Sikras with the totally normal, not-at-all-cruel chore of brutally murdering his dearest friend. Sure. Great. It's not like he already failed to stop Vessik's reign of terror twice or anything.

Turns out, it's hard to kill a monster when you can't stop remembering the good man he used to be. Harder still when you're pretty sure his descent into madness is kind of, sort of, hypothetically ... all your fault.

Raise a glass. Raise the dead. Just don't raise your hopes.

My Review: 

I picked up Hopeless Necromantic because I needed a funny book,  and wow, did it overdeliver. Imagine if someone threw Dungeons & Dragons, emotional damage, chaotic humor, and a heart-melting moral compass into a cauldron and said, “Yeah, this seems fine.” That’s the vibe.

From page one, this book had me cackling, cringing, and clutching my chest. The wit is sharp, the action is wild, and the characters? They’re the kind that move into your brain and refuse to pay rent. Sikras especially.

This man is… a disaster. A lovable, catastrophically maladjusted disaster. Someone once said he’s “mostly faults,” and honestly? Valid. Absolutely valid. Yet through every blood-soaked, bone-rattling moment, he clings to love, light, joy, and hope with a frantic, white-knuckled determination that should not work but absolutely does. It’s unhinged, ill-advised, and, somehow, deeply inspiring.

I’ve always adored stories about goodness, not moral perfection or saintly behavior, but goodness that’s messy, hard, and sometimes downright chaotic. This book refuses the idea that goodness is boring. Instead, it shows you characters who want to do the right thing even when they’re exhausted, traumatized, or arguing with each other at inopportune moments. Being good isn’t easy, and these characters prove it on every page.

And please. Let me be clear: this story is not clear. The jokes are inappropriate. The coping mechanisms are atrocious. There is violence. There is swearing. There is more sex talk than I typically tolerate. And that’s exactly why it’s so damn fun. It’s like watching your favorite party of DnD idiots try to save the world using emotional issues and questionable banter.

The core trio is where the magic really happens.

✨ Sikras “Catseye” Nikabod - necromancer, scammer, heart-of-gold menace. He could easily be the most powerful mage alive if he wasn’t funneling half his magic into keeping his undead brother-in-law’s soul tied to a skeleton. Priorities.

✨ Ben - the said skeletal brother-in-law, easily the heart of the story. Except, you know… he doesn’t have one. His humor, warmth, and ride-or-die loyalty keep Sikras from spiraling into the abyss, and every scene he’s in is pure delight.

✨ Helspire (Hels) - a Red Sentinel warrior torn between duty, logic, and the growing loyalty she feels toward these two absolute disasters. The emotional slow-burn between her and Sikras simmers beautifully without ever hijacking the story.

Together, these three form a tiny fellowship you can’t help rooting for as they try to fend off Vessik’s invading army while juggling trauma, trust issues, and jokes that should not be as funny as they are.

This is, at its core, a character-driven novel, and one of the best I’ve seen in the indie fantasy realm. Their banter, their unraveling, their healing, their fierce affection for each other… that’s the real story. The plot has twists and intrigue for sure, but the emotional bonds are what make the book feel alive.

Technically? It’s polished. Smooth pacing, no grammar gremlins, and action scenes placed just right so you can breathe before screaming again. The trauma arcs are handled with actual care,  no cheap depth here, just genuine character work that hits in the way it’s meant to.

Hopeless Necromantic rises above so many fantasy releases because it gives you characters who are broken, funny, loyal, chaotic, and so wonderfully good at the core. They’re the kind you want to adventure with. The kind you want to protect. The kind you remember.