And neither can anyone else he loves.Īll Jared Martin had ever wanted was to be normal, which was already hard enough when he had to cope with Maggie, his hard-partying, gun-toting, literal witch of a mother, Indigenous teen life and his own addictions.

When David finally catches up with him, Jared can't ignore his true nature any longer. He also still hears his father in his head, and other voices too. He sees ghosts, he sees the monster moving underneath his Aunt Georgina's skin, he sees the creature that comes out of his bedroom wall and creepily wants to suck his toes. Though she smothers him with hugs, Mave is blind to the real dangers that lurk around them-the spirits and supernatural activity that fill her apartment.Īs the son of a Trickster, Jared is a magnet for magic, whether he hates it or not. He figures that in order to be safe from both magic, addiction and David, he's got to get his grades up, find a job that doesn't involve selling weed cookies, and learn how to live with his Aunt Mave, who has been estranged from the family ever since she tried to 'rescue' him as a baby from his mother. And Maggie, a witch as well as a badass, can't protect him like she used to because he's moved from Kitimat to Vancouver for school. He's being stalked by David, his mom's ex-a preppy, khaki-wearing psycho with a proclivity for rib-breaking. But his troubles are not over: the temptation to slip is constant (thanks to his enabling, ever-partying mom, Maggie). Jared Martin, seventeen, has quit drugs and drinking. Mind you, ravens speak to him-even when he's not stoned. And he puzzles over why his maternal grandmother has never liked him, why she says he's the son of a trickster, that he isn't human. But he struggles to keep everything afloat.and sometimes he blacks out. Jared is only sixteen but feels like he is the one who must stabilize his family's life, even look out for his elderly neighbors. He can't rely on his dad to pay the bills and support his new wife and step-daughter. Jared can't count on his mom to stay sober and stick around to take care of him.

Jared does smoke and drink too much, and he does make the best cookies in town, and his mom is a mess, but he's also a kid who has an immense capacity for compassion and an impulse to watch over people more than twice his age, and he can't rely on anyone for consistent love and support, except for his flatulent pit bull, Baby Killer (he calls her Baby)-and now she's dead. Everyone knows a guy like Jared: the burnout kid in high school who sells weed cookies and has a scary mom who's often wasted and wielding some kind of weapon.

Eden robinson trickster drift