Where the Dead Sit Talking by Brandon Hobson

 Placed into a foster home as a result of his mother's substance abuse, 15-year-old Sequoyah struggles to connect with his peers.  That is until he meets Rosemary, a troubled teenage artist that bonds with Sequoyah over a shared Native heritage.  As their interest in each other grows, so does the precariousness of both their lives and their pasts threaten to unravel both of them.

Loneliness and pain feature front and centre of this coming-of-age novel that explores the lives of unwanted or forgotten children.  The novel certainly addresses some of the concerns about what it is like to be an Indigenous person living in North America today, but it is a rather hopeless account to be honest.

I agree with other readers that while the themes of the novel were powerful, the narrative was vague and uncertain.  There are dramatic moments but they seem to be for shock value rather than to serve the narrative.  The tension suggested in the "blurb" never really presents itself.  You can see the danger these teenagers pose to themselves and others right from the get go and how this might affect their lives.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did, but I persevered through just to see if it got any better. 2/5 stars- and only because being inside Sequoyah's head is so deeply troubling.