How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I tried to take some pride where I could. If I was going to be a dropout loser, then I was going to be the best dropout loser. That pride came with some complications because it always depressed me to spot anyone, short of a manager, working fast food over the age of eighteen. I didn't look in any mirrors until I got home and out of my uniform. It was better that way. (1.12)
For someone who aspires to be "the best dropout loser," Sam sure seems ashamed of his job. He does have a point though: What twenty-year-old wants to be working in the fast food industry?
Quote #2
My room isn't what I'd call a haven. Right now it's more like ghosts of Sam's past […] Most people felt lost after high school. Sometimes I felt like I'd never really been found in the first place. (4.60)
Drifting aimlessly through life without direction is probably pretty normal for a lot of twenty-somethings, but in Sam's case, there's a reason for it. With his necromancy powers bound, the thing he's actually supposed to be doing is off limits, making all other attempts at interests and careers fail.
Quote #3
[Ramon] picked up some books on voodoo, death, and the spirit world. If he'd waited until after my meeting, I might have been able to narrow down his choices. He just had to borrow books on necromancers. I swallowed thickly. We weren't only researching Douglas anymore. We were researching me. (9.38)
If you were to mention necromancy to Sam before this whole ordeal went down, he probably would have laughed in your face. Not anymore. As he begins to accept it as part of his identity, he also acknowledges that it exists—and that the literature on the subject is legitimate.
Quote #4
I'd never wanted so badly to be by myself. There were lots of times growing up when I felt isolated. Being the lone boy in a family can do that. Your biological dad showing no interest in you only shores up the feelings. So I'd felt alone a lot. But this was the first time I really wanted it. (14.32)
Sure, Sam's powers are bound, but being abandoned by your dad doesn't exactly do very much for an only son's self-concept. Finding out that your mom is actually scared of your powers doesn't help much either. No wonder Sam wants to be alone.
Quote #5
No wonder I'd always felt lost. I actually was. The knowledge felt terrible, but in a strange way, it also felt good. Now I knew why I'd never connected to anything. Why I felt like I was outside the world around me, moving at a different speed from everyone else. That amputated piece of me explained everything. (21.43)
It's interesting that necromancy is such a part of Sam's identity that when his powers are bound, he totally fails at everything he attempts to study or take an interest in. He even feels completely separate from the pace of normal life. Considering that he spends a lot of the book mad at Tia for not telling him the truth, the time he's lost just wandering through life probably doesn't help.
Quote #6
Even among the anomalies, I was an anomaly. I took some pride in that. Or I would have, if my source of pride hadn't also been my death sentence. (21.45)
Considering that Douglas's creepy house is one gigantic freak show, the fact that Sam's binding makes him feel out of place really says something. There's nothing normal about his situation—not even himself.
Quote #7
I screamed then, an unending peal of torment. The pain was excruciating. The pain felt glorious. I could feel every nerve in my hand, every cut in my back, every sensation magnified until the line between good and bad blurred into something so awesome, so awful, that I had to open my mouth and let it out […] My gift was tearing me apart. (29.16, 18)
Necromancy may be what Sam was born to do, but that doesn't mean it's all fun and games—when he kills Douglas, he literally becomes fused with the pain of all the creatures and people his nemesis has tortured and killed in the dungeon. Having such close identification with the dead has to be one of the downsides of entering the trade.
Quote #8
"Since you've leapt from Plumpy's Employee of the Month to fancy necromancer—" Ashley said.
"Hey!" I pointed an indignant finger at her. "I was never employee of the month." (30.108-109)
Talk about a wakeup call about how lame your life was before becoming an official necromancer. Sam can't lay claim to a thing in his previous existence. Not even employee of the month at a fast food joint.
Quote #9
"You don't have anything to be sorry about. Yeah, I'm sort of dead, Ramon is sick, and you got the s*** beat out of your. You also met a girl, got strange mutant powers, and kicked some ass." (31.20)
And that, dear Shmoopers, is what we call a character arc. Sam's identity fundamentally morphs throughout his character's journey, taking him from loser fast food worker to seducer of werewolves and slayer of evil necromancers. Not bad.
Quote #10
Now, if only I could say that with a straight face. (31.110-112)
It's funny how although Sam accepts his identity as a necromancer, he's still amused by the bizarre nature of the whole thing. The whirlwind of the last several days has to be surreal, and it's our guess that the truth of who he is hasn't sunk in yet. Again, we'll have to check out the sequel to see whether necromancy loses its humor for him.