A Necromancer Called Gam Gam was the 2nd place finalist in BBNYA 2024!
About BBNYA
BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists (16 in 2024) and one overall winner.
If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads
I was delighted to discover these awards a couple of years ago, through @The_WriteReads and have been lucky enough to take part in several blog tours since then. It has given me the opportunity to read stories that I might have otherwise missed, particularly those that are readable by a large age range.
Whilst this story is listed as being adult, I think that it will be enjoyed by quite a number of Young Adults. This is a novella of just over 100 pages and follows 12 year old Mina, as she desperately tries to escape from the solders who had just killed her father. She finds refuge in the caravan of an old woman called Gam Gam, who manages to get rid of the soldiers, at least temporarily. Mina discovers that she and her saviour have more in common than she could image. Whilst Mina is a neuromancer and can read and remove people’s thoughts, Gam Gam is a necromancer and can raise the dead, even if only for a short while. The events of the story take place over just a few days.
The two unlikely companions, plus a ghost and several of the ‘undead’ find that they have formidable enemies and they have to use all their magical abilities to overcome the sergeant, who leads the soldiers and who actually had killed Mina’s father. There are some quite blood thirsty elements to this story and it is best not to read it just before bedtime; but horror novels are particularly in fashion at the moment, even among quite young people, so it should prove popular.
What really strikes me about this book is the relationship between the living and the dead, but also about how victims very often feel to blame for what others are doing to them and those around them. When Gam Gam has sent the soldiers away and Mina is feeling responsible for her father’s death, Gam Gam says “ I have learned in my time that if two men are chasing a young girl, it is never the girl’s fault ” throughout the book she is constantly reassuring Mina that she is actually the victim, something that really needs to be shown to the readers of this book. We live in a world where people are bullied and threatened into losing their feelings of self-worth. All in all this story has several threads that will act as starters for discussions about empathy, feelings, death and self-confidence.
Author Bio
Adam Holcombe daylights as a programmer and moonlights as an author. After spending years toying with the idea of writing, he decided to fully commit and work toward releasing his first novel. Then Gam Gam got in the way, and his first novel became his first novella. The novel will come later. When he’s not locked in a cold basement, typing away, he can be found hanging out with his wife, his dog, and his tortoise or playing D&D or board games with friends
Book Details
Length: 110 Pages
Genre: Fantasy
Age Category: Adult
Date Published: May 30, 2023
Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/5PLyfAS (Canada) https://a.co/d/5OLFqPX (USA) https://amzn.eu/d/2ItLDuC (UK)
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/122994594-a-necromancer-called-gam-gam
The Story Graph Link: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/29693154-e3c8-4297-aaa3-b65a63af6046