Where the Dead Sit Talking by Brandon Hobson
Fiction
Published: February 20/18. Soho Press.
With his mother in jail for continual alcohol and drug abuse, fifteen-year-old Sequoyah has spent his time in and out of foster homes and shelters.
Unhappy, alone, and both emotionally and physically scared from the past, all Sequoyah wants is to be liked and accepted. He might get that chance when he’s placed in a new foster home with the Troutt family.
There’s Harold, a bookie who has stacks of money hidden around the property, and his wife Agnes. They’re not bad foster parents, and try their best to make sure Sequoyah and the two other kids they’re fostering – George, who struggles with autism, and Rosemary – are comfortable.
Immediately Sequoyah is drawn to her. They begin their friendship by bonding over their shared cultures (he’s Cherokee and she’s Kiowa), staying up into the night smoking cigarettes and reminiscing about their past and experiences in the child welfare system.
Maybe it is the fact he is finally connecting with someone who shares a similar past, or maybe it’s because he has that familiar female presence in his life since his mother got locked up, but this friendship turns into some kind of deranged obsession for Sequoyah. This, along with their turmoil past, trauma and suppressed feelings will lead these two on a collision course that will only end in more pain and destruction.
Author Brandon Hobson has written and very dark, and at times unsettling novel. This is not a book for the faint of heart. Some of the context, and thoughts that go through Sequoyah’s mind are disturbing and can be uncomfortable to read.
Touching on topics such as substance abuse, mental illness, being put through the foster system and sexual awakening, Where the Dead Sit Talking always carries an underlying sense of sorrow and dread. Readers will find, if they choose to pick up this novel, that it will linger in the back of their minds.
Kirsten Lowe studies at Athabasca University.