it honestly just seems like the series was just a cash grab because YA dystopian literature was popular at the time

That’s exactly it. It’s irrelevant, meaningless tripe that exists solely to ride the coattails of a shitty trend.

Considering that the main character of Catcher in the Rye is a whiny, entitled angst-lord who inspired real-life murderers, my opinion of J.D. Salinger’s characters is very low.

The only book Christians read is the Bible, and even then there’s Christians who don’t want other people to read it so that they don’t interpret it any other way than through their own hateful lense.

This is so great for the children to have an opportunity to attend a small, Christ-centered school

And there’s your reason why your school doesn’t value books. Books might introduce the kids at your school to ideas that the people who run it say Jesus wouldn’t want them to believe, ideas such as that members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community AREN’T the spawn of Satan, or that critical race theory is an important and vital thing to know if equality in the U.S. is ever going to become reality. I hate to tell you this, but putting religion in education does nothing but harm, and the fact that you’re only recognizing one of the ways it harms people now means you’ve drank the Kool-Aid.

Is this normal or are my comprehension skills just poor?

It’s normal. How Cormac McCarthy’s publisher allowed a book with no punctuation to be released is beyond me.