Ruwanda is the son of a serial killer, left almost completely alone with just his nannies his entire life when his mother is finally arrested he does what any child who has spent their life cleaning up bodies would do: He runs. However, it doesn't take Ruwanda very long to realize that he's not the same as other children, the only thing he finds fun for starters is murder. And so with nothing to his name Ruwanda sets out to find a friend. A bird of a feather that flock together with him.
First of all, this is extremely violent. So let's get that out of the way right now. Not for kids, not for the faint of heart and there are multiple trigger including sexual abuse and drug use, not to mention lots of murdering.
Moving on.
On the surface, this appears to be an extremely violent series, which it is, but we've got a couple of deeper conversations taking place here. One and the most obvious is given the environment in which Ruwanda was raised was there ever a chance for him to be anything but a deranged killer? To be fair I don't think so. He's flat told he doesn't exist by his mother and then forced to clear away the bodies of the people she killed, quite frankly if Jesus Christ himself was raised under these conditions he'd be a tad cracked too. And we do see instances where Ruwanda does realize that there is something very wrong with him but thanks to existing in a society where children are not seen as people he figures out rather quickly that he can actually find adults that embrace his violence instead of attempting to help him. While it appears this is set in Victorian England, and Ruwanda's nature may be extreme, there are children trapped in similar circumstances today.
Which brings us to the second conversation; the absolute hypocrisy of adults. When Ruwanda does finally meet a young girl who seems to share his same predilections we discover that her parents have told her that she's abnormal, that she's basically a broken human being. Fast forward a few pages and her parents make Ruwanda look as gentle as a lamb. Again, this may seem extreme but it truly isn't. Convincing a child that they are "wrong" or "bad" is an abuse tactic as old as humanity itself.
Finally, we have Ruwanda being roped in to a drug dealer's ring. Again, we have a tactic not only used often I've met the children of drug dealers who were raised to assist in the trade. Who is going to expect a 10-year-old to hand off opiates? Not many people. In Ruwanda's case in particular, it's like a bonus for the drug dealer; Ruwanda has a sense of right and wrong whatever portion of him that made him *care* about it is gone though. A perfect tool for a man who only cares about money.
This was an extremely interesting start to a promising series and I will definitely be picking up Vol. 2!
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