Being 16 sucks. Being 16 and running away after you burn down a library with flames you shoot from your hands, trying to carve out a place in the world for yourself while understanding this strange curse double sucks. Getting interrupted from figuring out magic completely on your own by an evil witch with plans to take over the world by doing *extremely* gross things to dead bodies triple sucks. Add in a pet mouse, a hot boy who shows up halfway through and amounts of emotional suppression never before known to mankind and you get a rough approximation of Max's life.