I didn’t enjoy this and almost dnf’ed it, but it’s not necessarily because the main character was disturbing or how matter-of-factly the tone was when talking about graphic violence or other pure weirdness (girls being tied by their wrists and characters bleeding out are mentioned often).

The main character Sequoyah was obsessed with death (especially with other people dying) and Rosemary, an older girl at the foster home. I think this was the first time I’ve seen a male character obsess over a woman in a non-sexual way (well, to an extent, he fantasizes about sexually-assaulting his foster sister though it doesn't arouse him; yes, this story is a lot.). At times, he mentioned that he wanted to be her. I couldn’t tell if Rosemary was going to be the manic-pixie-girl or something entirely different, but honestly, I never cared for her or any of the characters. I liked George most of everyone.

I’ve read narratives similar to Sequoyah before and enjoyed them, so I just didn’t mesh well with this story. The recurring theme of death slightly interested me, and I wanted to see where it led but I felt like I was forcing myself to finish this. I’m sure if I were assigned this book in English class, we would dissect it, mention the symbolism and analyze the characters closely, but, on its own, I just didn’t get or like it. This story is just dark and murky.

with all the exact death dates of certain characters, I legit thought Sequoyah was going to grow up to be a serial killer.

1.5