Reading Level: Young Adult

Wrong Side of the Court

Fifteen-year-old Fawad Chaudhry feels his best when he’s holding a basketball. It’s a needed diversion from everything going on in his life. He lives in Regent Park, a Toronto community housing project with a high crime rate. He is the victim of constant physical and verbal attacks from his neighborhood bully, Omar. To make matters worse, his mother is determined to have him marry his first cousin in Pakistan.   

Basketball is Fawad’s escape. He often shoots around with his best friends, Yousuf and Arif. Fawad also spent his summer training with Yousuf’s older brother, Abshir. He even sleeps with a basketball in his arms. While that might seem odd, it makes perfect sense to him. That basketball was the last gift his father gave him before he died.  

As Fawad enters his freshman year of high school, he hopes to secure a spot on the basketball team, gain some much-needed confidence, and perhaps move past his lingering grief over his father. However, before the school year even starts, Fawad’s optimism is stifled by tragedy. He witnesses Abshir’s murder in a drive-by shooting. Yousuf, in his grief, isolates himself from his friends. Now, a school year that Fawad hoped would be a clean slate is burdened by the shock of Abshir’s death.  

Following the murder of Abshir, much of the story’s conflict stems from Fawad adjusting to high school in the aftermath. Fawad and Arif worry for Yousuf’s mental health while grieving Abshir in their own way. In addition, Fawad struggles with living in Regent Park because he dislikes the crime and its negative impact on people’s perception of him. For example, his school dance is ruined when Fawad intervenes in a fight between Arif and the protective older brother of Arif’s girlfriend, Ashley, whose parents simply chalk the fight up to Fawad being “a kid from Regent.”   

Through this conflict, Wrong Side of the Court communicates its central message: your circumstances do not have to determine your future. Fawad often feels like an outsider, saying that he never sees anyone like him in movies or on TV. In addition, no Pakistani American has become a professional basketball player. These negative feelings are alleviated by the positive figures in his life, including his friends, his sister, his coach, and other mentors. Through these relationships, Fawad builds the self-assurance he needs to pursue his dreams.  

On that note, Wrong Side of the Court has a refreshing depiction of teenage male friendship. While Fawad, Yousuf, and Arif repeatedly argue, they deeply care for one another. When Yousuf isolates himself in his grief, Fawad and Arif consistently check in on him while allowing him some space. The boys aren’t afraid to cry in front of each other and are quick to offer support to one another. In addition, Fawad and Arif encourage Yousuf’s musical talent, which ultimately gives him the confidence to pursue a career as a songwriter. 

Wrong Side of the Court is a coming-of-age novel that uses Fawad’s love for basketball to communicate the importance of self-worth. It examines the weight of violence while allowing for many moments of levity, ultimately delivering a hopeful message. Fawad experiences the regular plot beats of a high school story, such as dating for the first time and trying out for a sports team, while grappling with the impact that Regent Park’s violence has on those around him and his own image. The author, H.N. Khan, grew up in Regent Park, which gives the book more authenticity and allows Fawad’s relationship with the area to read as deep and personal. 

The story is told through Fawad’s first-person point of view, resulting in an informal writing style.  For example, Fawad describes his apartment complex as a “crusty-ass building, which literally looks like some builder shat out bricks and didn’t have enough money for the concrete to put between them.” The informal tone is realistic for a fifteen-year-old, and Fawad’s sarcastic descriptions of the people and things around him lend the book lots of humor. His passionate description of every basketball game will excite even readers who are not fans of the sport. Most readers are sure to find Fawad to be a likable protagonist. Beyond his sense of humor, he always stands up for his friends and never gives up on his goals.  

Overall, Wrong Side of the Court is an engaging and heartfelt novel. While some of the book’s conflicts feel too quickly resolved, it is well worth the read. With its violence, language, and sexual content, it is best suited for more mature readers. Although the book is 288 pages long, the story’s tight structure and brisk pace keep the reader consistently invested. Fawad’s journey is emotional and challenging, and the lesson he learns from it is a valuable one. As Venkatesh, a former Regent resident who became a successful programmer at Google, tells an awestruck Fawad later in the book: “All my life, there were a whole lot of people telling me I would amount to nothing. Then there were people telling me that I could be whatever I wanted. But one thing that stayed constant was my own belief in myself. That belief was my armor.” 

Sexual Content 

  • Arif brags about “going to third base.” Later, he says that he and his girlfriend are going to have sex while her parents are out of the house. This is not described or referenced again. 
  • Fawad describes a teenage couple he often sees making out outside his apartment building. One day, he sees them having a serious conversation and notices the woman is pregnant. 
  • Arif teases Fawad about masturbating by “shaking his hand up and down near his waist.” He adds, “Trust me, it’s way better with a girl.” 
  • On the first day of school, Fawad describes a girl as wearing “a tight top that lets me see the contours of her breasts.” He stops himself and thinks, “I don’t want to be that guy on day one, that’s just not cool.” 
  • A character mentions “getting head.” 

 Violence 

  • Abshir is killed in a drive-by shooting. While Fawad only hears the shooting from his room, he sees Abshir’s body from his window. “There’s a body in the middle of the street,” he describes. “Not just any body. It’s in front of Yousuf’s home. That’s Yousuf’s mom. She’s kneeling on the ground, holding the body, caressing its head, screaming.” 
  • Fawad and his friends tease each other and get into physical scuffles. In one instance, Fawad punches Arif in the stomach. 
  • Fawad punches the protective older brother of Arif’s girlfriend before he can hit Arif. “I clocked him right in the face,” Fawad describes. “There’s blood dripping down his nose.”   
  • Omar and his friends attack Fawad and Yousuf. Omar “punches Yousuf right in the gut, sending him to his knees,” before “kicking Yousuf in the head. That sends him flying back into the concrete.” Fawad fights Omar off. “I knock him to the floor, get a few solid punches in, and draw some blood,” he describes. The fight ends when Omar’s friend jabs Fawad “right in the back of the head.” Fawad describes feeling fuzzy and says he can “see red on the snow next to [his] face.” Fawad and Yousuf black out, then wake up in the hospital. 
  • When Omar’s father forces him to apologize to Fawad for bullying him, he “gives [Omar] a slap behind the head,” “twists part of his ear,” and arm. 
  • Fawad’s mother slaps him during a heated argument. “‘Fawad, do not talk to your mother like that,’ she yells, standing up, and slapping me across the face. It forces me to take a step back.” 

Drugs and Alcohol 

  • Arif and Yousuf often “smoke up.” 
  • Fawad mentions that Abshir keeps “a stash” in his room. 
  • After Abshir’s death, Fawad says that Yousuf spends most of his time smoking weed in his room. 

Language 

  • Profanity is used frequently, in both Fawad’s narration and in conversation between characters. Profanity includes fuck, shit, bitch, damn, pussy, and ass. 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content 

  • Fawad’s family and friends practice Islam.  
  • They attend classes at their mosque, where they practice reciting the Quran. No verses are transcribed in the book. 
  • Readers unfamiliar with most Islamic practices should note that not every religious action depicted in the book is customary. Most notably, arranging someone’s wedding at the age of fifteen is not customary today. 

Heiress Takes All

Olivia Owens is a teenage heiress. Or at least she was, before her dad, millionaire Dashiell “Dash” Owens, cheated on her mom and then kicked Olivia to the curb. Olivia wants revenge, and she plans on getting it. . . at Dash’s third wedding. She puts together a crew of high schoolers hungry for a huge cash grab—hacker Cass, jock and baker Deonte, charismatic Tom, plus her former English teacher Mr. McCoy—and plans a heist to steal millions from Dash while he’s getting hitched. “The Plan” involves phases, including sneaking phones into the wedding, detaining Dash’s lawyer Mitchum’s daughter to ransom her in exchange for the codes to the safe, breaking into the safe and transferring the money to the thieves’ accounts, and then, of course, the epic getaway. 

But not all goes to plan. Olivia’s ex-boyfriend, Jackson, who cheated on her (allegedly), is an unplanned distraction. Mitchum’s son Kevin sticks his nose into Olivia’s plan, and Olivia is forced to recruit him so he won’t snitch. Mitchum reveals that the safe contains not just money but incriminating evidence against Dash for an unknown crime. Dash’s second wife, Lexi, shows up to get revenge on Dash, breaking into the safe before Olivia can. Lexi is holding the codes to the bank accounts hostage until Olivia produces evidence of Dash cheating. To get what she wants, Olivia is forced to adjust and then abandon “The Plan” altogether. Will Olivia and her crew be able walk away millions of dollars richer? Or will they walk away in handcuffs? 

Olivia appears to be a character readers are supposed to sympathize with, but her actions and words come off as whiny, entitled, and unrelatable. She also doesn’t speak like a typical teenager, as she often uses unnecessarily advanced vocabulary that would likely baffle most teenage readers. Additionally, she speaks like a caricature of Gen Z, rather than an actual Gen Z kid (this is also true of other teenage characters). Olivia doesn’t feel real. Nonetheless, she has her positive moments, such as wanting to get justice for her mother. Ultimately, Olivia fails to be an enjoyable or realistic protagonist.  

Olivia’s crew is full of interesting, but underused characters, yet they do not make up for Olivia’s failings. Tom adds some much-needed snark and realism to the book, and Kevin brings the party by being the “dumb rich kid” who’s not as dumb as he seems. Deonte is a superstar jock who is also a magnificent baker, an intriguing combination, but he’s not a major presence in the majority of the book. The crew members take a backseat to Jackson, who adds a romantic subplot that is distracting. 

Heiress Takes All has some positive aspects. The setting of a wedding heist is intriguing, and some of the wedding-related elements of the story, such as sneaking phones into the wedding via a wedding cake, add a unique, playful element to a heist book. The twists are entertaining, keeping the heist exciting. After all, if the heist went off without an issue, it would be uninteresting. However, the writing is inconsistent in quality, especially in the first half of the book—some sentences are worded strangely, sometimes to the point of incoherence. The genuinely entertaining high points of the book simply can’t make up for the faults. The flawed portrayal of Olivia, along with hints of messages about family, work ethic, or class, fails to make the book meaningful. Heiress Takes All has its moments of delightful heist antics, but it’s bogged down by an irritating main character, confusing writing, and a misuse of side characters. If you’re looking for a fast-paced book that will capture your attention, check out the Heist Society Series by Ally Carter or the American Royals Series by Katharine McGee. 

Sexual Content  

  • Cheating is a pivotal subject, as Dash cheated on Olivia’s mother and allegedly cheated on his second wife, Lexi. Additionally, Jackson allegedly cheated on Olivia.  
  • Olivia fantasizes when she sees Jackson at the wedding. “Curls you could rake your fingers through forever, which then you decide to do, until fifteen minutes later, you have no idea what’s going on in the Netflix episode and oh hey, how did our shirts end up on the floor?” 
  • To have an alibi, Olivia makes out with Tom in the boathouse. “When I close the door behind us, my mouth on Tom’s, the wonderful rush of my heartbeat is very real.” The scene lasts two pages. 
  • Olivia reminisces about the romance she had with Jackson before he cheated. “The lips I remember whispering I love you into my neck whenever we had sex.” 
  • Jackson needs to change into a tuxedo, and Olivia doesn’t leave the room. She observes, “he undoes his tie and starts unbuttoning his shirt. Objectively, it’s sexy.” She recalls their relationship, saying, “He was my first in every way. The first time we had sex was perfectly planned.” This scene lasts eight pages. 
  • Olivia trips and Jackson catches her, causing an awkward yet romantic moment: “—when Jackson catches me, his grip gentle on my waist. The hot shock of him holding my hips is merciless, supplying me with memories like notes shoved under locked doors.” 
  • Olivia makes out with Tom again to not get caught looking suspicious during the heist. “He really can kiss. The way he presses me up the wall, the dark heat in his eyes the perfect contrast to the cool paint behind me, has me feeling like he could offer classes.” 
  • When staging a breakup with Tom for her father to witness, Olivia yells, “Screw you, Thomas! …I never should have slept with you.” 
  • When Jackson confronts Olivia about her stealing, he softly grabs her wrist, and she thinks about their past relationship. “He pushed strands of hair behind my ears, held the small of my back when we were going through doors or upstairs, slid dress zippers down so slowly, I would shiver.” 
  • Olivia kisses Jackson upon receiving the news that they have successfully stolen the money from her dad’s offshore accounts. “Without hesitating, I press my lips to Jackson’s, operating on pure impulse. . . as if he’s made entirely of rogue hunger, he kisses me back fiercely.” 
  • Olivia implies that her father, Dash, is predatory, as he met Maureen (who is much younger than he is) when she was a TA in university. “He’d [Dash] been hunting for prospective employees, technically, but really, he’d been hunting for prospective Maureens [romantic partners].”

Violence  

  • Olivia’s mom got into a car accident. “Her car. . . skidded on ice into the highway divider. . . Her head hit the window hard. Her wrist crumpled from the impact. She was unconscious for fifteen hours.” 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • At the wedding, wedding guests consume alcohol. Drunken behavior occurs various times. There is no underage drinking. 
  • At the bachelorette party, Olivia (who was drinking virgin mimosas) pried information about the wedding from “Maureen, who was five or six very real mimosas deep.” 
  • A young adult suggests Olivia and her crew join him in smoking marijuana, saying, “We could get high and watch Kung Fu Panda.” 
  • Dash and his groomsmen smoke cigars and drink liquor before the wedding. Olivia notes, “Cigar smoke and the raucous laughter of drunk groomsmen greet me.” 

Language  

  • Profanity is used sometimes. Profanity includes hell, ass, damn, dick, shit, and fuck.  
  • “Oh my God” and variations are used as exclamations occasionally.

Supernatural  

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

Wings of Starlight

Before Tinker Bell and her friends, there was Queen Clarion. Clarion, the soon-to-be queen, is preparing with her mentor, Queen Elvina, and the rest of the Warm Season fairies prepare for her coronation. Clarion tries her best, but feels unsure about her ability to govern, which is made worse by her lack of control over her magic. Matters become worse when a dark threat, called Nightmares, escapes from their ancient prison in the Winter Woods and wreaks havoc across Pixie Hollow. 

Reports of a monster crossing from Winter into Spring make their way to the palace. Clarion is determined to prove her worth by defeating the monster. But instead of finding a monster at the edge of Winter, she finds Milori, the young guardian of the Winter Woods. The two of them recognize each other as kindred spirits, and a romance blossoms. They decide to work together to figure out how to defeat the Nightmares, which directly defies Elvina’s orders. However, only in disobeying does Clarion discover her own abilities, as well as a way to end the reign of the Nightmares and unite Pixie Hollow.  

Readers will be enchanted with Princess Clarion, who struggles with confidence but has a compassionate heart and an earnest desire to help. Queen Elvina would have Clarion be an objective and aloof ruler, but Clarion has a warmth that drives her to connect with her fellow fairies. Readers will relate to Clarion’s fight to forge her own path forward. Clarion tries to mold herself into the ruler Elvina wants her to be. However, following Elvina’s block of Clarion’s governing magic. Once she starts to follow her heart, she finds the strength and magic within her to lead Pixie Hollow and fight the Nightmares. Clarion’s all-encompassing love and wish to do right by all those who believe in her make her an endearing hero and the perfect lead for this tale of love and “hope, even on the darkest and coldest of nights.” 

While at times lonely due to her position, Clarion is still surrounded by love in the form of her friends and Milori. Petra the Tinker fairy is a brilliant inventor and worrywart who acts as a voice of reason but eventually clashes with Clarion over her dangerous adventures with Milori. Artemis, loyal to a fault, became Clarion’s bodyguard after she defied orders to save a friend. Milori, solemn but sweet, gives Clarion the push to believe in herself after showing his own unwavering belief in her abilities and heart. Each of these characters is unique and adds dimension to Clarion’s journey of self-growth, because even though she has to find her own way, Clarion is by no means alone. 

Wings of Starlight is a perfectly paced book that balances terrifying threats with the quieter moments of Clarion and Milori’s romance. Saft creates captivating characters, whose flaws only make them more relatable. Clarion and Milori’s fight to end the terror of the Nightmares is not just a fight to save the fairies but to ensure a new future for Pixie Hollow. Winter Fairies have become effectively separate from Pixie Hollow over the centuries and are highly mistrusted. Queen Elvina even tries to sever them from the rest of the Warm Seasons. However, Clarion and Milori are able to stop her and the Nightmares, thus “welcom[ing] in a new era of a unified Pixie Hollow.”  

The conclusion is slightly melancholic because while the Warm Season and Winter Fairies are now unified, Clarion and Milori recognize that it is too hard to watch over Pixie Hollow and the Winter Woods if they stay together. This comes as a result of Milori sacrificing one of his wings and his ability to fly in order to save Clarion. Even so, Clarion, Milori, and Pixie Hollow are still able to move forward into a brighter future. Clarion’s story is one of courage, belief, love, and sacrifice, through which she learns to follow her heart, even when things are dire. Wings of Starlight teaches that when all is not as it seems, the best course of action is always to trust yourself, trust in your “talents,” and in the love of those around you. 

Sexual Content  

  • Clarion first meets Milori at the border of Spring and Winter. When Clarion hears his voice, “It made a shiver pass through her, one that had nothing to do with the cold.” 
  • Clarion and Milori meet up again. “They sat almost knee to knee in the darkness, close enough to touch. The very thought prickled along her skin like electricity. . . Somehow, this felt far more vulnerable. Especially when he was looking at her like this. Clarion could not name what exactly she saw there, but it made a terrible longing rise up within her.” 
  • As time progresses, Clarion and Milori both start to realize their feelings for each other. “There was no mistaking the wide-open yearning in his eyes…She wondered exactly how long he had wanted to kiss her. . . His hand came to cradle the side of her neck, and although his touch chilled her skin, warmth flooded her. Clarion leaned fully into Winter and kissed him.” 
  • After their first kiss, Clarion has a fight with Elvina and then comes back to the border to see Milori. He tells her that he hasn’t slept well, and Clarion realizes it’s because of their kiss and how quickly she left afterwards. “The sense memory of their kiss awakened, skipping across her skin in heated trails and stoking her glow to a rose-colored blaze.” 
  • Clarion and Milori are very close together as he invites her to a ball the Winter Fairies will be holding in her honor. While they are close, Clarion thinks, “It would be a simple thing, to rise onto her toes and kiss him as she had the other night, to thread her fingers into his snow-white hair.” 
  • After the Winter Ball, Milori takes Clarion back to the border but they both are reluctant to part because of the finality of the moment. “Then, his lips parted beneath hers, and Clarion felt herself catch flame.” 
  • However, because a Winter Fairy’s wings cannot tolerate the heat of the warm seasons and Warm Season Fairy’s wings would freeze in winter, Clarion and Milori must remain apart, but that does not stop their love. “They crashed together, and his mouth was on hers with a desperation that left her breathless. She met him with equal fervor. Her world narrowed to this: His hair, slipping through her fingers like water, His hands, skimming down the ridge of her spine and spanning the curve of her waist.” 
  • Artemis comes to visit Petra in the hospital after the Nightmares’ magic is broken and Petra wakes from her slumber. “The scout placed a kiss on her forehead, then, more tentatively, to her lips.” Artemis also tells Petra to never “scare [him] like that again.” 
  • Clarion and Milori give each other one final goodbye kiss as they face their new futures forever apart. Clarion “took his face in her hands and kissed him—briefly, selfishly, if only to commit him entirely to memory. The feeling of his lips, soft against her own. The way his breath hitched, no matter how many times they had done this.” 

Violence  

  • Throughout the book, Nightmares attack the fairies at various times and send some into deep slumbers where they face their own nightmares. Clarion’s close advisor, Rowan, the Minister of Autumn, is attacked by the Nightmares, and it is trapped in a magical slumber: “[Clarion] scrabbled to her feet and flew to him. He did not stir at her approach, but his chest rose and fell. Alive. Clarion nearly wept with relief. She knelt at his side and shook him. His expression contorted—not with pain, exactly, but…fear? His eyes flickered behind their closed lids. It almost looked as though he was having a nightmare.” All the fairies affected by the Nightmares stay asleep until Clarion defeats the Queen of the Nightmares, and the spell is broken, with all the fairies unharmed. 
  • Artemis, Clarion’s friend and bodyguard, tries to protect fairies from the Nightmares. Artemis “loosed her arrow. It soared through the air and into the beast’s open mouth. Although it skewered the back of its head, the serpent did not even flinch.” This fight lasts six pages and ends when the Nightmare serpent disappears into the forest. The fight is not without casualties as many fairies are under the Nightmares’ magic, like the Minister of Autumn, Rowan.  
  • When investigating the Nightmares, Clarion and Milori are attacked, and Clarion is injured. “A bright pain seared through her, but the Nightmare’s talons drove into the spot where she’d been lying.” 
  • The main attack occurs during the Winter Fairies’ ball for Clarion’s coronation, and many people are injured fighting the Nightmares, like Artemis and Petra. Clarion gets up after dodging something just in time to see her friends get injured: “she scrambled to her feet—just in time to see the beast sink its teeth deep into Artemis’s shin. Artemis screamed in agony. It shook its head viciously, thrashing her; Artemis’s body snapped back and forth like a rag doll…As Petra struggled to nock another arrow into the bow, the Nightmare swiped at her. She went soaring, then slammed into the trunk of a tree. A sickening crack split the silence…Petra lay very still, her red hair splayed out in the snow like a bloodstain.” This fight lasts a full chapter.  

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • When Clarion and Milori fight the Nightmares, Clarion is injured and goes to the healing fairies for help. One of the healers, Yarrow, gives Clarion “a poultice of juniper, usnea, and linseed wrapped in a leaf parcel” and “balsam and wintergreen [that] will help with healing and inflammation.” 

Language  

  • None 

Supernatural  

  • Wings of Starlight is set in a supernatural world where fairies live in Pixie Hollow, have magical “talents,” and help the seasons “arrive” on the mainland. All fairies are born with an innate talent, and “they almost always intuitively knew what to call it.” There are light-talents, garden-talents, water-talents, animal-talents, tinker-talents, and many other types of talents. They work with their same talents and all the other talent groups to create the changing of the seasons on the Mainland where humans live. 
  • Their world is sustained by the Pixie Dust Tree, a source of pure magic that is sometimes sentient. “The Pixie Dust Tree had put out new growth over the last few days; in the language of flowers, it said, I am here for you. Clarion marveled at how attentive it was being lately.” 
  • Additionally, the Nightmares are children’s nightmares in corporeal form, that can shapeshift into any animal and have venom. For example, Milori and Clarion are attacked near the Nightmares’ prison and Clarion becomes injured. “The smokelike form of the Nightmare writhed and bubbled until it took recognizable form: a raven. One by one, ten violet eyes blinked open on its body.” 

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

Sunrise on the Reaping

The 25th annual Hunger Games features a brutal twist: twice the number of boys and girls will be selected as tributes to compete in this televised fight to the death. On Haymitch Abernathy’s 16th birthday, he is chosen to compete in the Games and is sent to the Capitol with three other tributes to prepare. After a series of tragic events in the Capitol, Haymitch finds himself in the middle of a rebel plot to destroy the arena where the Hunger Games are held.

When the Games begin, Haymitch finds himself in an arena where nothing is as it seems. The arena, which appears to be an idyllic paradise, comes with a catch: everything in it is poisonous. Haymitch faces a near-impossible task. In order to make it home, he must survive the dangers of the arena and outlive the 47 other tributes, many of whom are his friends and allies. Survival is not Haymitch’s only goal, and as the brutality of the Games unfolds around him, he becomes more determined to complete his mission of destroying the arena. But will his rebellion come at a cost?

Haymitch is a courageous and caring protagonist, and many of his actions are driven by a desire to protect others. Although he faces terrible circumstances, Haymitch remains kind and loyal to his friends and allies. Fans of the original Hunger Games trilogy will be interested to meet this version of Haymitch, who is just as abrasive and jaded as he is in the previous books. However, Sunrise on the Reaping shows both Haymitch’s growth and his downfall. At the beginning of the novel, Haymitch is more naïve and easygoing, as he is unaware of the full scope of the Capitol’s horrors. As the story progresses, Haymitch learns to be both an empathetic leader and a strong fighter. Due to all that he has suffered at the hands of the Capitol, Haymitch’s character evolves into the beaten-down version of himself that readers are familiar with from the original series. Despite this, Haymitch still holds onto enough hope and strength to help aid in the events of The Hunger Games trilogy.

When Haymitch is sent to the Capitol, he is separated from his girlfriend, Lenore Dove. Lenore Dove is rebellious, free-spirited, and has a knack for getting into trouble. Another person who impacts Haymitch is Maysilee Donner, an angry, intelligent, and strong-willed teen with whom he forms a strong alliance in the arena. Both Lenore’s rebellious streak and Maysilee’s rage give a deeper understanding of the Capitol’s cruelty and the injustices the protagonists face.

Readers do not have to be familiar with The Hunger Games to understand Sunrise on the Reaping, but the book will be more enjoyable to those who are already fans of the series. Sunrise on the Reaping summarizes key details from the previous books, making it accessible to new readers of the series. Sunrise on the Reaping is similar to the original Hunger Games series in terms of setting and conflict, and much like The Hunger Games trilogy, takes place in District 12, the Capitol, and at a Hunger Games arena. The conflict is also similar, as Haymitch fights against tributes and mutts in the arena, much like how Katniss and Peeta did in the first and second Hunger Games novels. Sunrise on the Reaping takes these familiar elements and uses them to enthrall readers and subvert their expectations. However, Sunrise on the Reaping, unlike the original series, is more psychological and political. Rather than focusing mainly on survival in the arena, as the first Hunger Games novel does, Sunrise on the Reaping explores the Capitol’s failings and how these abuses affect the people living under this tyrannical government’s reign. Additionally, this novel is more mature and darker than other books in the Hunger Games series. The mature themes of this novel are handled skillfully and presented in a manner that is accessible to readers.

Sunrise on the Reaping is a must-read novel that teaches important lessons about trust, friendship, and hope. Despite being placed in horrific situations, the protagonists support one another and help each other to become the best versions of themselves. Haymitch often acts selflessly and is dedicated to defending and protecting his friends. This novel is fast-paced, detailed, and tells an enthralling story that will make readers reflect. Sunrise on the Reaping is an action-packed and emotionally charged addition to the Hunger Games series. Filled with ideas of trust, hope, and survival, readers will look deeper than the words on the page and consider the themes of this book. In this novel, Suzanne Collins weaves together a story featuring complex new characters and beloved fan favorites. Sunrise on the Reaping is an interesting and engaging novel that readers will struggle to put down and will remember long after they turn the final page.

Sexual Content  

  • Haymitch and Lenore Dove kiss often during the few scenes they share together. Haymitch narrates, “Then I kiss her again. And again. And she kisses me right back.” 

Violence  

  • This novel contains many violent scenes, and over 50 people (most of them children) die. 
  • Woodbine, a boy who is selected to compete in the Games, tries to escape and is shot in the head. “Just when I’m thinking he might make it — all those chance kids run like greased lightning — a shot rings out from the Justice Building rooftop, and the back of Woodbine’s head explodes.” 
  • While protecting Lenore Dove, Haymitch is hit in the head with a rifle. “I leap in to shield her, just in time to intercept the rifle butt that slams against my temple. Pain explodes in my head as jagged lights cut through my vision.” Haymitch is knocked to the ground, but he recovers.  
  • Maysilee and a Capitol worker named Drusilla slap each other after Maysilee insults Drusilla’s age and clothing. “Drusilla hauls off and slaps Maysilee, who, without missing a beat, slaps her right back. A real wallop. Drusilla’s knocked off her boots and into the chair I recently vacated.” 
  • After Maysilee slaps Drusilla, Drusilla beats her with a riding crop. “Drusilla flies up, rips the riding crop from her boot clip, and begins beating Maysilee, who cries out and raises her arms to protect her head. But the blows keep raining down, forcing her to the floor.” 
  • When the tributes are being presented in a parade, Haymitch’s friend Louella is killed in a chariot crash. “One of her braids rests in the blood leaking from the back of her skull, which cracked open when she hit the pavement.”  
  • A rabbit drinks poisoned water and “starts squealing like a baby bird, goes stiff as a board, then falls over dead. A trickle of red stains the fur on its chin.” 
  • Haymitch’s friend, Lou Lou, inhales poisonous pollen from flowers, and Haymitch states, “I cradle her in my arms as the convulsions begin. There is nothing I can do but watch, helpless again . . . her skin begins to turn blue.” Lou Lou dies. 
  • Haymitch’s friend, Ampert, is eaten by squirrel-like mutts. “One flies through the air and lands at my feet. Before it springs back up, I spy a bloody scrap of electric-blue fabric snagged on its incisors, and everything becomes clear. Carnivorous mutts. Tearing Ampert apart . . . Panting, I watch them fade away. Then I turn back to what I am meant to witness. A small white skeleton, stripped clean to the bone.” 
  • Haymitch gets into a fight with the other tributes in the arena. “A girl tribute from District 4 lunges with her trident pointed at my neck, I clumsily deflect with my left arm and whip out my knife just in time to drive it into her gut. Rolling to the side, I encounter a leg and hamstring it, leaving her district partner writhing on the ground. Scrabbling to my feet, I pull out the ax and cleave open his neck with a single adrenaline-fueled blow.” Both the girl and her partner die. 
  • Haymitch gets into a one-on-one fight with a tribute named Panache. “With a single swoop, he knocks the ax from my hand, his blade drawing blood, and then slams the shield into my chest so hard I lose my grip on my knife.” Haymitch recovers and the pair keep fighting.  
  • Maysilee shoots Panache in the throat with a poison dart. “What I see is the surprise that transforms his face as the dart pierces his throat.” Panache dies. 
  • Ladybug-like mutts attack Haymitch and Maysilee. “All up and down [Haymitch’s] arms, the creatures latch onto the flesh. Within seconds, they inflate to the size of acorns and begin exploding, splattering my face with my blood.” They pull the mutts off their bodies and recover from their injuries.  
  • Haymitch and Maysilee discover Buck and Chickory, two other tributes, stabbed with needles. “About fifteen feet away, Buck and Chickory lie writhing on the ground. Long spikes that resemble knitting needles protrude from their flesh. They paw at them with clumsy hands, as if they’ve got really bad frostbite, or something’s disabled their fingers.”  
  • In the arena, Haymitch and Maysilee encounter three Gamemakers along with two other tributes, Silka and Maritte. Maritte and Maysilee attack the Gamemakers. “Maritte’s arm snaps back and I think I’m a goner, but the trident whistles over my head and lodges in the mopper, sending him down into a pillow of poppies. Almost simultaneously, the woman with the drill grabs at the spot beneath her ear and comes away with a dart. She collapses as the final Gamemaker plunges head-first through the open berm into Sub-A. It takes a few moments before we hear her skull crack on the concrete below.” All three Gamemakers die.  
  • A group of flamingo-like mutts kill Maysilee. “They dive again and again at Maysilee, who’s kneeling on the ground, trying to use a tarp as protection while she vehemently slices at them with her dagger. A couple of dead birds lie on the ground, but they have taken their toll. Blood blossoms from her cheek, her chest, the palm of her hand.”   
  • A tribute named Wellie is decapitated in the arena by another tribute. Haymitch narrates, “In [Silka’s] right hand, her ax. Her left holds Wellie’s head, eyes still open, mouth agape. The only movement, the only sound, comes from the blood dripping into the pine needles on the forest floor. Wellie’s body lies crumpled in a heap a few feet away.” 
  • Haymitch stabs Silka in the eye. “In a last-ditch effort, I yank my knife from my belt and drive it back over my shoulder. A shriek.” Silka recovers enough to keep fighting against Haymitch.  
  • Silka is killed when an ax she throws rebounds into her head. “Then there’s the return of the whistle, her moment of confusion as the spinning ax catches the sunlight, and the dull sickening sound as it lodges in her head.” 
  • Haymitch holds his intestines in after he is struck in the gut with an ax by Silka. “My last sensations are of the slippery coils of my intestines in one hand . . . ” Haymitch is saved by the Capitol because he is the last tribute alive, and the victor of the Hunger Games.  
  • Haymitch accidentally gives Lenore Dove a gumdrop that has been poisoned by the Capitol. “A blood-flecked foam bubbles up over her lips” and she dies. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • Haymitch brews moonshine with a woman named Hattie Meeney. “Brewing white liquor with Hattie Meeney is dicey business, but it’s a picnic compared to killing rats or cleaning outhouses.” 
  • Haymitch is drugged by the Capitol to keep him unconscious. “A coldness surges from the needle planted in my arm. Nothingness.” 
  • Haymitch becomes an alcoholic. “My liver’s wrecked and I only dry out when the train’s late. I drink differently these days, though, less to forget, more out of habit.” 

Language  

  • The word hell is used rarely.  
  • The word jackass is used rarely. For example, Haymitch says, “Oh, hello again, jackass!” 

Supernatural  

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic

In this collection of short stories, four classic fairy tales are retold with a twist, and Bardugo includes two original stories. In the first story, Ayama and the Thorn Wood, Little Red Riding Hood is Ayama, a poor serving girl who goes to confront the terrible beast of the woods. Instead of killing him, she persuades him to stop destroying the kingdom’s crops, and in return, he grants her the power to depose the land’s evil king.   

In the story The Witch of Duva, Hansel and Gretel become Havel and Nadya. After Havel goes off to war, Nadya discovers that it is not a witch who is eating children, but her own father.  

Then, in The Soldier Prince, the Nutcracker comes to life. At first, he thinks it is because of Clara’s superficial, admiring love, but he realizes it is actually the fatherly love from the clockmaker who designed him that brought him to life.  

Finally, in When Water Sang Fire, readers meet Ulla, the witch from The Little Mermaid. Ulla is betrayed by her closest friend, Signy, who marries the prince, Roffe. Signy later becomes Ariel’s mother. Thus, Ulla holds a grudge against Ariel and her family forevermore. 

In the first original story, The Too-Clever Fox, a clever fox escapes from predators with his sharp tongue, but when words fail him, he must ask for help from his only friend, a songbird.  

Finally, in Little Knife, a beautiful woman named Yeva is auctioned off for marriage, and a suitor named Semyon pleads with the river in the village to help him marry Yeva. Yet when the wedding day comes, the river helps Yeva gain her freedom from unwanted matrimony. 

Every fairy tale is told in omniscient third person, and almost every main character is a strong young girl who must overcome incredible cruelty and hardship. When the main character is male, there is no shortage of well-rounded supporting female characters. Contrary to the original fairy tales, the main characters never simply slay monsters or find true love. Rather, they question the truth of what has been told to them and work to find meaningful companionship. Though the main characters’ personalities vary, it is easy to root for them and sympathize with their difficult lives. 

The supporting characters are full of surprises, which is part of what makes this collection so intriguing. Many of the characters readers expect to be good (the prince, the suitor, the father) are actually sinister, and vice versa for the “evil” characters (the witch, the beast, the evil stepmother). The supporting characters urge the reader to question the characters’ intentions and decide for themselves what is true. As the back cover reads, “Love speaks in flowers. Truth requires thorns.” 

The Language of Thorns collection of stories is incredibly entertaining, with twists that constantly surprise and delight readers, whether they are familiar with or unfamiliar from the classic fairy tales. While the tales can often be dark, the messages and themes they convey are hopeful, emphasizing the power of love and companionship. In fact, the contrast of dark and light themes has a powerful effect. The Language of Thorns is perfect for fairy tale, fantasy, or thriller lovers. 

Sexual Content  

  • In The Witch of Duva, there is an implication of pedophilia from Nadya’s father, Maxim, but it is performed on an illusory double of Nadya rather than Nadya herself. “But her father’s hand slipped beneath the hem of her skirts, and the ginger girl did not move . . . Maxim opened his wet mouth to kiss her again.” The sexual content is described over a page, but it is implied that Maxim regularly preyed upon young women. 
  • In The Soldier Prince, Clara kisses the Nutcracker after developing a crush on him. “She could not wait. Clara stood on tiptoe and pressed her lips to his.”  
  • Clara kisses the Nutcracker again, believing him to be romantically interested in her. “He kissed her beneath the stairs.” 
  • Frederik kisses the Nutcracker after similarly developing a crush on him. The Nutcracker “kissed Frederik in the darkened hall.”  
  • In When Water Sang Fire, when Ulla, Signy, and Roffe go to the human world, Signy and Roffe have romantic interactions with many mortals. “Roffe took his pleasures [and] Signy suffered but drowned her longing in a tide of human lovers.” 

Violence  

  • In The Too-Clever Fox, Koja’s mother (a fox) eats a few of her young children. “So she snatched up two of her smallest young and made a quick meal of them.” 
  • Koja gets caught in a metal trap. “Koja ran all the way back to his den, trailing the bloody chain behind him.” 
  • Koja frequently kills and eats chickens. “He raced back from Tupolev’s farm with a hen’s plump body in his mouth. . .” 
  • Hunters Lev and Sofiya Jurek come to the woods and kill a bear that Koja was friends with. “Koja’s blood chilled at the sight of his fallen friend’s hide.” 
  • Sofiya stabs Koja and attempts to kill him. “‘Why?’ he gasped as Sofiya worked the knife deeper.” 
  • Lula, the songbird, attacks Sofiya to save Koja. “Lula came flying, and when she saw what Sofiya had done, she set upon pecking at her eyes.” 
  • In The Witch of Duva, Nadya’s fingers get cut off as ingredients for a spell. “At the sight of her fingers lying forlorn on the table, Nadya fainted.” 
  • Maxim eats a gingergirl who is an illusory double of Nadya. The gingergirl is not alive or conscious, but this implies that Maxim has been sexually assaulting and then killing and eating young girls. “Nadya watched her father consume the gingergirl, bite by bite, limb by limb.” 
  • Maxim dies when his stomach ruptures from the witch’s spell. “They found Nadya’s father there the next morning, his insides ruptured and stinking of rot.” 
  • In When Water Sang Fire, to walk on land, the mermaids cut off their tails. “Only then did Ulla add her own voice to the song and drive her blade into her tail.”  
  • Roffe murders a young boy with the help of Signy and Ulla in order to create fire that will exist under water. “Even above the sound of their voices, she heard a horrible wet thunk, and the boy cried out, woken from his sleep by the blade piercing his chest.” 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None 

Language    

  • None 

Supernatural  

  • Most animals talk throughout the book. “To her surprise, the runt answered, ‘Do not eat me, Mother. Better to be hungry now than sorry later.’”  
  • In Ayama and the Thorn Wood, Ayama turns into a monster. “Then she took off her hat, and all the people saw that she was a girl no longer.” 
  • In The Witch of Duva, there is a witch named Magda who can cast spells. She turns Nadya into a crow and creates a girl made of gingerbread who looks just like Nadya. When Maxim eats the gingergirl, he dies. “As for Nadya, she lived with Magda and learned all the old woman’s tricks, magic best not spoken of on a night like this.” 
  • In Little Knife, there is a river that is a sentient spirit named Little Knife. “‘You have been a loyal friend, and so I think I must name you,’ Semyon said to the river as he tried to wring the water from his ragged coat.” 
  • In The Soldier Prince, the Nutcracker is alive and can take children to a magical world via flight. “He would offer his hand and with a whoosh, they would fly through the attic window, out into the cold.” 
  • In When Water Sang Fire, Ulla, Signy, and Roffe are mermaids who can use magic by singing. Witches also exist. “It was the deepest magic, music of rending and healing, the only song all royalty were trained in from birth.” 

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

In Other Lands

When thirteen-year-old Elliot Schafer sees a wall that no one else can, he is invited to attend a military school in the Borderlands—a strange and magical land filled with elves, dwarves, harpies, and mermaids. While initially eager to escape his lonely and dull surroundings, Elliot soon discovers that life in the Borderlands is no picnic.   

Over the next four years, Elliot navigates being a witty pacifist in a war-driven world that only values the strong. But even as Elliot and his classmates train for battle, they still face the usual growing pains of self-discovery, class rivals, and love triangles.  

Elliot is a crafty protagonist who uses his intelligence for good and bad. Initially, his main goal is “wooing” his classmate Serene, a beautiful elven warrior from a matriarchal culture. He befriends her for the sole purpose of making her his girlfriend, even if it means playing into her reversed gender stereotypes. However, as the interspecies conflict escalates into a wide-scale war, Elliot becomes less self-serving. He finds a higher purpose in achieving peace, working to author peace treaties and expose corruption among the military’s higher-ups, who manufacture conflict for their own gain. Despite his good intentions, without family prestige or combat skills, Elliot struggles to gain respect or be believed. Still, Elliot’s determination never wanes. To make an impact, he works twice as hard as his peers and uses every means at his disposal. However, while his strong opinions can be a force for good when he is the sole voice for peace, he is not perfect. For example, his harsh words upset friends, provoke a violent bully, and accidentally make a small child cry.   

Despite his blunt personality, Elliot forms a tight friendship trio. While good-natured and kind, Serene is a fish out of water and frequently misunderstands human culture. Readers may initially be charmed when she comedically reverses gender stereotypes, but they’ll grow frustrated when she refuses to change or outgrow her bigotry. Luke is everything Elliot is not–popular, athletic, and considerate. Initially, Elliot only tolerates him to get closer to Serene, but soon realizes the golden boy is more complex than he appears.  Luke is gay and often the only voice of reason amidst Elliot and Serene’s antics. He balances the group and adds a sense of normalcy.   

In Other Lands is a funny, subversive take on magic schools and portal fantasies, reminiscent of Harry Potter and Narnia. Brennan’s meta style is the book’s main appeal, but it sometimes comes at the cost of world-building. However, In Other Lands is more of a parody than an original, so the underdeveloped magic systems and inter-species politics are not necessarily deal-breakers.  

At its core, In Other Lands explores coming-of-age and LGBTQ themes in a fun fantasy setting. There is some violence, usually played for laughs. Overall, In Other Lands is worth reading for teens seeking a fresh take on familiar tropes and an unconventional protagonist whose eccentricity is not treated as a character flaw to overcome. While Elliot modifies his personality to be kinder to others, he learns that he does not have to change himself entirely to find family, creating an overall positive message of self-acceptance.  

Sexual Content  

  • Elliot runs from Adam, Luke’s cousin, who makes unwanted sexual advances. “Elliot was pulled in and pressed against him, and then Elliot was being kissed. . . Elliot pushed Adam away . . . and ran.” The scene is described over two pages. 
  • While context clues indicate a sexual encounter has taken place between Elliot and Serene, no sexual act is named or described in detail, aside from kissing.  
  • After a battle, Elliot and Serene kiss several times and share a tent. She “kissed him again . . . still kissing, kissing, and kissing . . . the words lost between their mouths, kissing and clinging.” The scene ends with Elliot requesting Serene “besmirch” him, then cuts to Serene and Elliot lying beside each other several hours later. The scene is described over two pages.  
  • After admitting their mutual feelings, Luke and Elliot share a passionate kiss. “Luke shivered, he followed the trail of shivers with kisses along the line of Luke’s jaw . . . Luke’s shirt was basically in shreds from the sudden wings . . . [Elliot] slid his hands down Luke’s skin . . . Luke [took] off Elliot’s shirt . . . he felt the strain of Luke’s body, arching against him to get as close as he could.” The scene lasts three pages. 

Violence  

  • There are fighting tournaments and combat training sequences referenced; however, Elliot refuses to take part in them. For example, during a tournament, Luke’s mom “got struck out with a lucky blow to her helmet—she told him afterwards, Elliot obviously did not see for himself.” 
  • There are battles, but as a pacifist, Elliot avoids most of the violence and only learns of the outcome after the fighting finishes.  None of the main characters are seriously injured or killed; however, several supernatural creatures die. 
  • Serene and Luke both kill supernatural creatures to protect Elliot during a surprise attack. Luke “wrenched the blade out of [the troll’s] belly and the point to his heart. The troll crumpled.” Serene “shot every troll but one” using a bow and arrow. The scene lasts three pages, most of which is spent on Elliot’s comedic internal monologue.  
  • To escape a “boring” conversation, Elliot impulsively “stabbed himself in the arm with a butter knife.”  

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None 

Language 

  • Damn is used four times. For example, Elliot thinks, “God damn it, the battle.”  
  • Badass is used five times. For example, Elliot praises his friend, “That is badass.” 
  • Hell is used three times. For instance, Luke tells Elliot to “go to hell.” 
  • The phrase “oh my god” is used frequently to indicate surprise or frustration.   

Supernatural 

  • While Elliot is human, most members of the supporting cast are fantastical creatures, such as elves and harpies. They have supernatural abilities including but not limited to super strength, super speed, and flight.  

Spiritual Content  

  • Elliot complains about having to explain to a supernatural creature that he is “Jewish but not practicing.” This is not explained any further. 
  • Elliot’s antics frequently drive supporting characters to say an unspecified “prayer for patience.” 
  • To express his frustration, Elliot frequently says, “Oh my God.”  

Legendborn

Sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews arrived at the University of North Carolina for Early College, still reeling from the death of her mother. On her first night, she sees a flying demon feeding on human energies. A boy dressed in all black, Selwyn Kane, defeats the creature.  

Later, Bree again witnesses events she can’t explain. Selwyn, who is a Merlin, attempts but fails to erase her memory. As she tries to figure out who is keeping secrets from her, Bree realizes that someone attempted to erase her memories the night her mother died. Bree wants answers for her mother’s death, and it seems like the mysterious society—the “Legendborn”—hidden on the edges of campus can provide them.  

Bree recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. With Nick’s help, Bree enters the Order of the Round Table and begins to find her answers.  

When Nick takes Bree as his page, she has to endure a series of trials while dealing with Selwyn’s suspicion of her, racism from the all-white order, and her own secrets about her magic. To complicate matters, the Legendborns reveal that they are descendants of the Knights of the Round Table, and that a magical war is coming. Bree must walk the line between both worlds while still trying to find out what happened to her mother.  

Told from Bree’s point of view, readers unravel the mythology as Bree does. Bree is grieving, but stubborn, and her refusal to conform to the outdated regulations of the Legendborn society proves to be vital in her fight to figure out where she belongs. Despite the racism from the society, she is endearingly confident, and readers will be rooting for her. However, Bree is single-minded in her quest to uncover the mystery of her mother’s death, often leading her to make selfish decisions, or forget to consider how her actions affect her friends. Her lack of knowledge can make her vulnerable, but her strong-willed nature and adaptability lead to strong character development over the novel.  

As she tries to balance her secrets, Bree does eventually find support from her friends. Bree, Nick, and Selwyn each have compelling dynamics with each other. With each character having unique strengths and powers, they have to learn how to work together. Nick and Selwyn are bonded to one another, able to feel each other’s emotions, but they both resent the bond at times. Despite Selwyn’s suspicion of Bree, they do eventually work together as they uncover a much more sinister plot. Bree and Nick’s relationship provides Bree with an entry point to Nick’s society, but as it grows deeper, they are forced to choose between each other and their duty. Bree’s best friend, Alice, plays a vital role, as Alice becomes a symbol of normalcy while unwaveringly supporting her friend.  

Legendborn moves fast, working within a complex mythology that is revealed in bits and pieces as Bree jumps headfirst into a world she doesn’t understand. The supporting characters are all vital to the story, offering a rich web of relationships that keep the reader turning the pages. The Order of the Round Table represents white higher society, but Bree still has insight into her culture, allowing the author to paint a rich picture of what it is like to be a Black teenager who yearns to be a part of something while still remaining tied to her own culture. Legendborn deals delicately with themes of grief and loss, and the absent mothers of Bree, Selwyn, and Nick haunt their stories. With plenty of turns and a major twist at the end, this book introduces a beautiful world and will leave you reaching for the next book in the series, Bloodmarked. 

Sexual Content  

  • Bree and Nick are attracted to each other and eventually enter into a tentative romantic relationship. Bree says, “I feel desire batting against my ribs like a caged bird.”  
  • Nick and Bree hug and kiss throughout their relationship. “[Nick’s] hands are so large they span the whole of my spine. Heat from his palm radiates out from where he clutches me. . . I don’t expect each gentle brush of Nick’s lips to shift, grow insistent–and set me on fire.” 
  • There are two instances where Nick and Bree are making out. “My heart pounding with his, the heat of his chest against mine, the strength of his thigh pressing into my own . . . his lips ghost over my jaw, just as his fingers feather over my sternum. . . His hands slide down to my thighs and I’m airborne, held up by the strength of his arms and the press of his hips.” They are interrupted before anything else happens. 
  • Nick and Bree plan to share a bed. Nick says, “When I get back, we can talk about whatever’s going on. Or not talk. . . The version of not talking that means we’re doing other things?” 
  • Nick sees Bree naked when he walks in on her getting medical treatment. “Nick’s face has gone summer-strawberry red. He definitely saw my butt. And my back. And my bra straps. And maybe some side boob.” 
  • As an insult, people imply that Bree is in a relationship with Nick due to ulterior motives. Vaughn, another page, says, “Then why are you spending time alone with the Scion of Arthur? Getting a pep talk? Giving him a helping hand?” 
  • Two types of demons are discussed: succubi and incubi. They are referred to as “sex demons.”  
  • Relationships between two Scions, or descendants of knights, are forbidden because getting pregnant would mix the ancestral lines. William, a medic, explains, “Order law forbids crossing the bloodlines, so no hanky-panky between anyone who could become a Scion or whose kids could become a Scion in the line of succession.”

Violence  

  • Before the book starts, Bree’s mother is killed in a car crash when “she was crushed inside our family sedan, body half-crumpled under the dashboard after a hit-and-run.” 
  • Bree attends a party on the outskirts of campus where football players get into a fight. “Four drunken, enormous boys are rolling and swinging in a pile on the ground . . . The third is on his feet, rearing back for a kick to the fourth boy’s stomach.” Some of the boys are minorly hurt (punches, kicks), but they are all able to walk away. 
  • The Legendborn use weapons like swords, staffs, knives, and bows to fight the Shadowborn, which usually take the form of animals, but can occasionally be humanoid. It is their duty to fight the Shadowborn, who prey on human emotions. When a demon shows up at the party, Tor, a Legendborn, kills it with an arrow. “Tor’s arrow has pierced the shimmering mass . . . A thud—and it’s writhing on the ground.” When a Shadowborn attacks Bree, Nick kills it with a sword. “Nick’s sword is buried a foot deep into the downed creature’s spine.” 
  • A demon attacks Bree. “Razor-sharp nails drag a burning path down [Bree’s] cheek, slicing [her] skin open.” Nick and his father fight back against the demon. “Nick’s father scrabbles at the demon’s grip with both hands, wheezing for breath, eyes bulging. . . Nick’s father hits a tree with a stomach-churning crunch and falls to the stone surface in a loose pile of limbs.” Nick’s skull is cracked, and his father’s spine is broken, but their healing is accelerated by magic.  
  • When Selwyn is suspicious of Bree, he threatens her with violence. “I’ll kill you. Burn through you until your blood becomes dust.” 
  • To complete one of the trials, Bree has to kill Selwyn’s projections of Shadowborn. She stabs the demon projection by diving from a tree. “Gravity drives the sharp blade into the creature’s shining neck, not me, but the blow works just the same.”  
  • As a child, Nick’s father trained him to fight by having adults beat him. Nick says, “It’s not the broken bones or the bruises, the black eyes of the concussions, that keep me up at night.” 
  • Bree punches through a hellfox and her “fist and forearm have disappeared up to the elbow inside the fox’s chest . . . I nod and close my right hand, crying out as my fingernails scrape past the still-warm heart.” 
  • Selwyn and one of the trainers, Owen, spar. “Finally, one sharp crack to the head sends Owen to a knee.”  
  • Bree and Vaughn fight in one of the trials. “The flat of my blade smacks [Vaughn’s] fingers hard, breaking his grip. . . Vaughn’s blade swings down in my peripheral vision. I hear the deep crack in my collarbone before I feel it.” 
  • Tor, one of the Legendborn, is attacked by Shadowborn. Tor’s injuries are described: “Broken ribs, internal bleeding. Punctured left lung. Spleen and left kidney sliced right down the middle.” 
  • Demons attack two Legendborns, Fitz and Whitty. “Fitz’s limbs, loose and limp, hang from his hips and shoulders, but his chest is gone. It’s gone. In its place is a shining red point of rock protruding up from his body like a spear.” Whitty is killed in front of Bree. “[Whitty’s] eyes are wide, black. His chest angles up. Toes drag on the ground, like he’s being lifted—By the hand buried in his back. . . I see my friend’s unseeing eyes. The wrong angle of his shoulder. Blood on his favorite camo jacket. His jaw open to the dirt.” The demon also kills Russ, another Legendborn. “He has Russ by the throat. He lifts him high—and pitches him like a fastball straight into a stone wall.” Multiple Legendborn are killed. 
  • Bree stabs a demon, Rhaz, with a sword. “I spear Rhaz through his broken ribs . . . I watch him writhe and twist on his own death.” 
  • When Bree is taken into the memories of her ancestors, she witnesses the violence of slavery. She describes a slaveowner getting her ancestor pregnant: “What that man did was not an accident. He knew exactly what he was doing. He liked owning her life. Her body.” 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • At a party, students, both underage and adults, are drinking, but Bree does not. “Two guys struggle to lift the kegs…while a small crowd beside them tries to help ‘lighten’ the barrels by drinking straight from the hose.” 
  • After a demon injures Bree, she is taken to the Lodge of the Order to be healed. Selwyn tries to erase her memory. Alice tells Bree, “Some blond guy brought you back here, stumbling and slurring. He said you’d partied too hard in Little Frat Court . . . Isn’t that exactly what a blackout drunk would say the next day?” 
  • Bree goes out with members of the Order, uses a fake ID, and drinks. “I almost refuse, but then I think of the conversation I need to have with Nick, and suddenly alcohol sounds like a good idea.” 
  • When Selwyn uses a lot of magic, the other characters say that he is “aether-drunk”, and he becomes looser and less in control of himself.  

Language  

  • Profanity is used sparingly. Profanity includes damn, shit, bullshit, asshole, and fuck. 
  • People occasionally say derogatory comments about Bree. For example, someone says, “Her blood is dirty. She’ll taint the line.” No slurs are used. 

Supernatural  

  • The mythology of the book surrounds magic, called both aether and root. “There is an invisible energy all around us . . . Some of those people call it magic, some call it aether, some call it spirit, and we call it root. . . the living must borrow, bargain for, or steal the ability to access and use this energy.” 
  • The Scions gain the powers of their ancestors when they are “called to power—violently—by their knights’ spirits.” 
  • Bree can summon mage fire. “Bloodred fire ignites at the tips of my fingers and races to my elbows in a loud whoosh.” 
  • Demons enter the world through Gates. “No one knows when a Gate will appear . . . Most of the Shadowborn that cross are invisible and incorporeal. They come to our side and amplify negative human energy—chaos, fear, anger.” 
  • Merlins have the ability to control aether, supernatural strength and speed, and erase their memories. “Still holding my gaze, [Selwyn ] makes a quick, jerking motion with his chin, and a vicious snap of invisible electricity wraps around my body like a rope and yanks me backward . . . the rope sensation responds, tight pain in my body blossoming into a single utterance: Leave.” 
  • Bree’s grandmother and other ancestors possess her, talking to her through her mind. Bree says, “It’s a strange sensation, having a whole other person inside your skin.” 

Spiritual Content  

  • In a memory, a slave has just given birth to a crossroads baby. Her friend refers to the baby as a “red-eyed devil.” Crossroad babies are Merlins, people with demon-blood. 
  • Bree is given her mother’s Bible. Bree says, “It feels like I’m touching something intimate and private, and I am. Personal Bibles, even though I’ve never owned one, always seem mystical.” 
  • Bree’s grandmother prays in Bree’s mind: “The Lord is my shepherd.” 

The Gladiator’s Victory

Travel back to ancient Rome with time-traveling brothers Arthur and Finn as they try to convince a powerful gladiator to escape certain death in the Roman arena. Will the boys manage to persuade the gladiator to break free, escape the clutches of the powerful and evil lords, and avoid being caught by the unforgiving Roman soldiers?  

The Gladiator’s Victory explores the brotherly bond and begins with the introduction of Marcus, a gladiator who regrets not joining his brother in fighting for freedom. When Arthur and Finn go back in time to help Marcus, their bond is tested. When Senator Lucius discovers Arthur and Finn’s bond, he uses it to manipulate Finn. If Finn doesn’t poison Titus, Lucius’ rival, the senator will murder Marcus. Despite his conflict, Finn is determined to save both his brother’s and Titus’ life. As readers continue reading the Warrior Heroes Series, they will discover that while Arthur and Finn have different personalities, they are devoted to each other and willingly jump into battle to protect each other. The brother’s bond and their desire to help the restless ghost gives the story heart.  

Short sections interspersed throughout the book provide more historical information, including descriptions of life in Rome, life as a gladiator, the types of gladiators, and how the games worked. One section describes the origins of gladiators. “The Greeks did it and so did the Etruscans who lived near Rome in the early days. They used to get people fighting to the death as a sacrifice at funerals, and the Romans picked up the idea and ran with it.” Eventually, the funeral games became a big business so the gladiators “weren’t expected to kill each other anymore. . . Of course, people still wanted to see some blood, so the Romans would execute prisoners or get prisoners of war to fight to the death. . .”   

Even though The Gladiator’s Victory is part of a series, the books do not have to be read in order because each book focuses on Arthur and Finn going back to a different time period and each book wraps up the storyline.  

The Gladiator’s Victory is another action-packed adventure that leads Arthur and Finn into the dangerous world of Rome. In a world ruled by rich senators, the boys discover death lurks around every corner. Senator Lucius magnifies the ruthlessness of the wealthy and the vulnerability of slaves. The Gladiator’s Victory will leave readers reflecting on Finn’s situation—is killing an innocent man worth saving Arthur’s life? Despite this question, Finn displays admirable strength of character and a willingness to trust others with the truth. This leads to a surprising and satisfying conclusion that asks: What is worth dying for?  

Readers interested in jumping back into time but want to avoid intense battle scenes have many opinions, including Time Cat: The Remarkable Journeys of Jason and Gareth by Lloyd Alexander, Time Travel Adventure Duology by Elvira Woodruff, and the Tangled in Time Series by Kathryn Lasky. 

 Sexual Content  

  • None 

Violence  

  • Spartacus, a gladiator, recruited “an army of highly trained solider-slaves who wanted to be free.” Spartacus and his army were defeated. “And most of them were crucified to set an example to other slaves.” 
  • When Arthur travels through time, he appears in an alley. Festus, a bully who leads a gang of homeless boys, finds Arthur. Festus says, “Now get up and tell me why you’re here, or by Jupiter, I’ll crush your skull before you say another word.”  
  • Arthur convinces Festus to fight with no weapons. “Festus hurled his club to the floor and charged at Arthur without warning. . . Arthur stepped to one side, leaving a foot trailing so that Festus tripped and tumbled to the ground. . . Festus stepped forward, feigned as if to punch Arthur in the stomach and then dropped to one knee, grabbing hold of Arthur’s ankle and giving it a vicious twist. Arthur tumbled to the ground, and Festus pounced, pinning him with an arm across his chest and punching him hard on the chin.” 
  • As the fight continues, Arthur escapes Festus’ grasp and stands up. Arthur “grabbed Festus’ wrist in both hands and twisted as the punch carried the older boy forwards and past Arthur. . . [Arthur] standing behind Festus and twisting his arm up behind his back. He curled a foot in front of Festus and pushed, sending him crashing to the floor.” Festus admits defeat. One illustration shows Festus getting ready to punch Arthur. 
  • When Festus’ gang surrounds Arthur, an older group of men who watched the fight step in. When the men approach the boys, “the gang’s circle disintegrated, and a brawl broke out as fists and boots and knees and heads connected with each other.”  
  • Festus goes after Arthur with a club. Finn helps his brother by “leaping onto Festus’ back. Festus staggered backwards and then fell forward to the floor yet again. Arthur rushed forwards and stomped on Festus’ arm. He dropped the club and roared in pain.” The fight ends after four pages. An illustration shows Festus preparing to punch Arthur. 
  • Arthur and Finn are taken to a gladiator school. Finn is recruited to be a spy for Senator Lucius. The senator threatens Finn with punishment if Finn is unable to carry out his mission. Lucius “gestured toward the slave . . . The slave grimaced and opened his mouth. . . it seemed that the slave was missing his tongue.” 
  • Lucius wants Finn to use poison to kill his rival, Titus. 
  • Finn meets Lucius’ niece. She says, “If I could kill him without getting caught, I would. He is very, very careful. He kills anyone who gets in his way yet no-one can kill him. He poisons people . . . He poisoned my parents.”  
  • Arthur is ordered to spar with Ajax. Arthur is given a net “to ensnare” his opponent and a trident, while Ajax has a spear and shield. “Arthur spang into action, taking a step forward and jabbing with the trident, which clattered into Ajax’s shield and glanced off . . . Arthur switched the trident to his right hand just as Ajax lunged forward, holding his shield out before him like a battering ram and crashing into Arthur, who fell heavily to the floor. . .” 
  • Arthur believes Ajax is going to kill him. “Arthur slashed out with the dagger in the direction of Ajax’s feet and felt the blade jar against something hard as his opponent howled in pain, dropping his sword and falling to the floor.” Because Arthur injured Ajax, Arthur is ordered to fight in the gladiator’s ring in Ajax’s place. The fight is described over one page and has one illustration.  
  • Two gladiators, Marcus and Achilles, fight each other on horse. “Again and again they charged . . . at last Marcus caught Achilles with a glancing blow to the shield arm, drawing blood from his opponent . . . Achilles was knocked back in his saddle but stayed on his horse and wheeled around immediately.”  
  • As the gladiators charged again, Marcus’ horse reared, and “Marcus fell heavily onto the sand of the arena. . . Both men drew their swords and rushed to clash again, this time on foot. . . Achilles was down on one knee, fending off overhead blows until his sword was smashed from his grip by a particularly savage strike.” Achilles surrenders. The match is described over three pages.  
  • Unable to poison Titus, Finn lies. When Lucius finds out, he “screamed, lashing out and slapping Finn hard across the mouth. . . Lucius roared, leaping forward and grabbing Finn by the throat.” Lucilla jumps in to help before Lucius kills Finn. 
  • Enraged further, Lucius grabs Lucilla by the throat with the intent to kill her. “Marcus could hold back no longer. He leapt at Gaius [who oversees the gladiator’s school] and with one vicious punch laid him out cold. . .” Lucius mocks Marcus for being a slave, but Lucius’ “words turned to a high-pitched groan as Marcus lunged and thrust forward savagely, burying his sword in Lucius’ back. The girl fell gasping to the floor while Marcus stood behind the senator and pushed him away, causing him to topple forward off the sword.” Lucius dies. 
  • Finn, Arthur, Lucilla, and Marcus must flee Rome. They get help from Festus and his gang. To hide the fugitives, Festus has Lucilla and Marcus crawl into a cart filled with dead bodies.  
  • When guards discover the ruse, a fight ensues. Marcus “leaped down with a cry, punching the hold of his sword into one man and knocking him into the other so that both collapsed to the ground. Two quick thrusts followed, and moments later, Marcus was dragging the bodies down the steps and flinging them in the river.” A boatman takes the fugitives out of the city.

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None 

Language  

  • Arthur calls Festus and his gang cowards. 
  • A man calls Arthur an idiot. 

Supernatural 

  • Arthur and Finn’s grandfather created a museum about warriors throughout history. The museum is haunted, and when the grandfather died, “he started haunting the place too. He felt guilty about the trapped ghost warriors and vowed he would not rest in peace until all the other ghosts were laid to rest first.” 
  • When one of the ghost warriors touches the boys, “we get transported to the time and place where the ghost lived and died. And we can’t get back until we’ve fixed whatever it is that keeps the ghost from resting in peace.” 
  • When the boys travel through time, “the air in the room shifted, and seemed to fill with mist, drifting at first and then whirling faster and faster around them until the study could not be seen, and it felt to the boys if they were spinning through the sky.”

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

All Better Now

A deadly and unprecedented virus is spreading. But those who survive it experience long-term effects no one has ever seen before: utter contentment. Soon after infection, people find the stress, depression, greed, and other negative feelings that used to weigh them down are gone.

More and more people begin to revel in the mass unburdening. But not everyone. People in power—who depend on malcontents and prey on the insecure to sell their products, and convince others they need more, new, faster, better everything—know this new state of being is bad for business. Surely, without anger or jealousy as motivators, productivity will grind to a halt and the world will be thrown into chaos. Campaigns start up to convince people that being eternally happy is dangerous. The race to find a vaccine begins. Meanwhile, a growing movement of Recoverees plan ways to spread the virus as fast as they can, in the name of saving the world.

It’s nearly impossible to determine the truth when everyone with a platform is pushing their agenda. Three teens from very different backgrounds who’ve had their lives upended in very different ways find themselves at the center of a power play that could change humanity forever. 

In classic Shusterman style, All Better Now forces the reader to question everything and consider a world where altruism may upend society. The story focuses on three completely different characters—Rón, the son of one of the world’s wealthiest men; Mariel, a homeless teenager whose mother dies from the virus; and Morgan, an ambitious young woman who hungers for power and trusts no one. While the teens are interesting characters, they are neither relatable nor likable. However, each one showcases a different aspect of the virus, allowing readers to understand each person’s worldview.  

After Mariel’s mother dies, she purposely tries to infect herself but discovers that she is immune to the virus. At first, Mariel is disappointed that she will never experience the contentment of Recoverees, but she also acknowledges that Recoverees often make illogical decisions that lead to their demise. There is only one thing that Mariel knows for sure—everyone should have the choice when it comes to exposure to the virus.   

Unlike Mariel, Rón and Morgan do not believe people should have a choice. Morgan’s goal is to stop the virus from spreading, while Rón believes infecting others with the virus is his duty. Rón says, “It’s one we want to give to people we love, not because it makes us do it against our will, but because we choose to—because it generally makes our lives better.” On the other hand, Morgan believes anger, fear, and resentment are “the things that drove civilization. . . a world without ambition was not a world at all; it was a soulless still life hanging on a wall.” Throughout the story, the characters are confronted with difficult questions and the reader is forced to put themselves in each person’s shoes and decide what they would do in a similar situation. 

In classic Shusterman style, All Better Now forces readers to contemplate the idea of contentment and altruism. While on the surface, these are traits that everyone should be able to embrace, Shusterman shows how compassion and empathy can be taken too far. The exciting conclusion is ambiguous, leaving the reader to question the morality of the virus. Due to the complex plot, multiple points of view, and the complicated nature of the conflict, All Better Now is best suited for mature readers.  

Sexual Content  

  • Morgan, a genius with few friends, simultaneously dates a brother and sister. When they find out, the relationships end. 
  • After getting the virus, Dame Havilland and her butler move in together. After Dame Havilland makes a sexual innuendo, Morgan thinks, “Old-people sex should be outlawed. Or at least the discussing of it.” 
  • In a medical lab, some of the animals are “masturbating.” 
  • Rón meets a gay teenager who has a crush on him. Rón “leaned forward and kissed Elias. Elias all but went limp. Rón didn’t particularly like the kiss, nor did he particularly hate it. It was like a sip of water; just a thing with no flavor. But what Rón did like were the stars in Elias’s eyes. Then it was done.” Rón leaves and never sees Elias again. 
  • The cops bust into Elias’s house, looking for Rón. The SWAT team tells everyone to get on their knees. Elias says, “Sorry if I’m a little giddy. But it’s my first time on my knees for a man in uniform.”  
  • A vindictive woman who wants revenge tries to “have condoms and erotic magazines delivered to [a married couple] at every place they dined.” 

Violence  

  • A chapter focuses on Yuri Antonov, who is in the Air Force. He and two other men are ordered to destroy a bridge. Instead of destroying the bridge, Yuri “skews his vector, clipping the wing tip of the jet to his left. . . [the other jet] begins a barrel roll to the ground. The pilot has no choice but to eject. . .” The other pilot tries to get away, but Yuri “slides in behind his wingman and fires his guns, shooting up the tail, and one engine—being careful not to hit the cockpit.” Both pilots parachuted to safety.  
  • Dame Havilland wants to use Morgan’s mother as leverage. To get access to Morgan’s mother, Dame Havilland has to get past Griselda, the live-in nurse. “Griselda was grabbed from behind” and a man “held a handkerchief over her nose and mouth. . . everything began swimming like fishes, Griselda’s legs seemed to vanish.” Griselda is uninjured. 
  • One of the human test subjects in a medical lab corners Morgan. The man “pressed her against the wall, brought up the shard of glass, and swiped it across her neck – tearing a gash in her hazmat suit.” He breathes into her suit, trying to infect her with the virus. 
  • When a SWAT team forces their way into a house looking for Rón, Rón heard “a weapon discharged, and a spatula clattered to the ground.” Later, Rón discovers that “the Davenport city planner had been shot and killed.”   
  • Rón accidentally sets a tourist destination gift shop on fire. The fire blocked some people’s path, including Mariel, a teenager Morgan has been looking for. A driver tries to help by jumping in the fire. “Morgan knelt down to the driver, who was covered in blistered, blackened, third-degree burns, but still clinging to life. . . And then he died. Just like that.”  
  • One of the medical test subjects, a convict sentenced to life in prison, is given a vaccine. In her fever dreams, she sees “the faces of her victims staring in accusation. Her father looking the way he did when he beat her. . . She relives every hit she ever took, every bone she ever broke.”  
  • When Recoverees attack Morgan’s medical lab, her coworker, Preston, takes a vial of the counter-virus. When he leaves the lab, the intruders try to stop him. Preston “charged, barreling toward them, and smashing the heavy flashlight as hard as he could on one of their heads. The intruder went down.” Preston runs and is “hit by a single bullet in the hip—and even though it didn’t penetrate, he couldn’t believe how much a rubber bullet hurt.” Preston escapes. 
  • Mariel and Rón are in the medical research center when it explodes. “Mariel lay beneath the smoldering debris. She was broken. . . Grimacing, she sat up to find Rón wasn’t moving. A heavy piece of concrete had come down on his side, and another was on his leg.” They are both injured but survive. 
  • To get her money back, Dame Havilland must kill Morgan. While Morgan is unconscious, someone puts an astronaut suit on her. Then, Dame Havilland pushes her off a boat into the Norwegian Sea. Morgan “disappeared, space suit and all, in a single splash, gone beneath the waves as if she had never been there at all.” Morgan walks to land. 
  • After the medical research lab is destroyed, “They found evidence of a mass grave on the mountain. Test subjects.” 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • An old woman has a glass of “some sort of spirit.”  
  • Morgan fires her chauffeur because “he smelled faintly of whiskey.” 
  • Rón gives a woman “a robust Malbec.”  
  • Rón goes to a concert where he can smell “beer and pot on people’s breath.” 
  • After possibly being infected with the virus, one of the medical researchers uses cyanide to kill herself. 
  • When Morgan’s staff finds a way to stop the virus, her coworker looks for champagne but can only find vodka. They don’t drink it. 
  • While in the hospital, Rón is given “morphine or something along those lines” to help with the pain.  

Language  

  • Profanity is used occasionally. Profanity includes ass, asshole, bloody, bitch, crap, damn, dickwad, fuck, goddamn, hell, holy crap, and shit. 
  • Jesus, my God, and Mother of God are used as exclamations. 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • When Rón tried to commit suicide, “his father sat by his bedside the whole time he was in the hospital, praying over rosaries Rόn didn’t know he had, and then in Hebrew, which Rόn didn’t even know he knew. Old Testament God, New Testament God. Yahweh, Jesus, Allah, Vishnu—it didn’t matter as long as one of them answered.” 
  • After Rón runs away, his father gets a clue to Rón’s whereabouts and he “wept, offering prayers of thanks in Spanish, in Hebrew, in Latin, in Arabic—to whatever version of God could hear him.” 
  • A man “prays to a God he never actually believed in that this virus will pass him by.” 
  • Rón infects a lady who sings in the church choir. He thinks, “Open mouths happily expelling air, trusting the good Lord to keep them safe. Or at least infect them with joy. But God needed a servant to do that.” 
  • Morgan meets the wealthiest man in the world. She says, “It must be quite a thrill to create things on a whim. You must feel like a God in this Fortress of Solitude.” The man replies, “Nothing but smoke and mirrors. I don’t delude myself into thinking it’s anything more.” 
  • Morgan and Rón stay the night at a random Recoveree’s house. A teenager shows Rón to his room and says, “My mom won’t let you share a bed if you’re not married. Just how she is.” The teenager says that his father’s death “drove her to Jesus.” The boy’s mom believes he’s going to hell because he’s gay. 
  • While having dinner at the recoveree’s house, she says, “If the Word could become flesh—who’s to say that the Word couldn’t also become virus? . . . Maybe this is what Holy Communion has been pointing to all along; taking in Jesus—God becoming part of us.”  
  • When Morgan’s medical facility is destroyed, Morgan flees and takes a commercial flight. She thinks she is safe because “whether or not she was worthy of life, no God, real or fictional, would kill all these people just to get at her.” 

Where Have All the Bees Gone?

Apples, blueberries, peppers, cucumbers, coffee, and vanilla. Do you like to eat and drink? Then you might want to thank a bee. 

Bees pollinate 75 percent of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts grown in the United States. Around the world, bees pollinate $24 billion worth of crops each year. Without bees, humans would face a drastically reduced diet. We need bees to grow the foods that keep us healthy. 

But numbers of bees are falling, and that has scientists alarmed. What’s causing the decline? Diseases, pesticides, climate change, and loss of habitat are all threatening bee populations. Some bee species teeter on the brink of extinction. Learn about the many bee species on Earth—their nests, their colonies, their life cycles, and their vital connection to flowering plants. Most importantly, find out how you can help these important pollinators. 

The declining population of bees affects everyone who enjoys eating fruits, vegetables, nuts, and even ice cream. Where Have All the Bees Gone? explores the relationship between bees and plants in eight short chapters. Each chapter breaks down bee information in easy-to-read text broken up by infographics, pictures, and headlines that make each topic clear. The book is packed with interesting information; some topics include how bees are the perfect pollinators, how bees affect the economy, and why bee populations are declining.  

Where Have All the Bees Gone? explains the importance of saving bees and gives readers easy steps to help bees in their community. Hirsch lists ways readers can get involved in simple but powerful ways. She explains how to plant a pollinator garden, how to become a citizen scientist, and how to submit sightings of bees to organizations that track bee populations. Small steps, like mowing the lawn less frequently, help bees and other pollinators survive. Master gardener Pam Ford emphasizes that “a garden should be more than merely pretty. It should be full of life.” 

In Where Have All the Bees Gone?, Hirsch explores the importance of bees, providing fascinating details broken into easy-to-manage sections. Readers will come away from the book with a new understanding of all types of bees: “There are green bees and there are blue bees, and there’s iridescence and tripes, and large ones and tiny ones.” By the end of the book, readers will be empowered to make small changes that will allow bees to feel at home in their yards.   

Sexual Content  

  • None

Violence  

  • None 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None

Language  

  • None 

 Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

Away

After an imminent yet unnamed danger forces people across Colorado to leave their homes, a group of kids, including an aspiring filmmaker and a budding journalist, find themselves in the same evacuation camp. As they cope with the aftermath of having their world upended, they grow curious about the mysterious threat.

As they begin to investigate, they discover that what they’re being told is less truth and more cover-up. Can they get to the root of the conspiracy, expose the bad actors, and bring an end to the upheaval before it’s too late? 

Away puts the spotlight on four characters—Ashanti, Harmony, Teddy, and Grandin. Each character has a unique voice and aspirations. Harmony, a student journalist, admires Nellie Bly and frequently refers to her. Harmony and Teddy, an aspiring filmmaker, team up to uncover the real reason they were evacuated. The two also have help from Ashanti and Grandin. The four teens come from different backgrounds, which provides readers with a broad view of the effects of the evacuation.  

When readers begin the book, they may have difficulty adjusting to the format. The story includes sections from each character’s perspective, which are labeled with different typefaces. The story also features news briefs, letters, screenplays, and plot descriptions. Ashanti often references the Greek gods and The Odyssey, which may confuse readers unfamiliar with Greek mythology. The characters’ stories merge when they arrive at the military base where they are being quarantined, and this is when the story becomes more intense and interesting.  

Each character brings something unique to the story. For example, Grandin’s family owns a farm and he aspires to attend West Point, while Ashanti wants to be a doctor. The characters’ aspirations are admirable, and readers will relate to each person’s worries. As the teens work to uncover the truth, they are forced to ask themselves difficult questions such as, “What’s the difference between a protest and a riot? Does the Bill of Rights still apply in an evacuation camp? During a statewide emergency? Can protestors be arrested and/or charged?”  

Although the beginning of the book is confusing and there are many plot holes, Away will appeal to middle-grade readers, especially those interested in movies and journalism. Away is the companion novel to Alone; however, each book has a separate plot that doesn’t intertwine, so they can be read in any order. 

Away encourages readers to persevere in their goals, just like the characters in the book. In addition, the teens discuss historical events and people who made a significant impact on the world due to their determination. For example, it is mentioned that Nellie Bly said, “Energy rightly applied and directed will accomplish anything.” Even though the characters are teens, they use their voice to shed light on the evacuation camp’s hidden purpose. Teddy reminds readers, “Anyone who says art can’t change the world never studied history.”  

Sexual Content  

  • None

Violence  

  • None 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None 

Language  

  • When Harmony’s mom is out past curfew, Harmony is “pissed.”
  • Crap and holy crap are both used once. 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • Ashanti often mentions Greek gods and other deities such as “Apate goddess of deceit”, and “the goddess Nemesis.” For example, at swim practice Ashanti stands “in front of mom / like Tethys the water goddess.” 
  • The residents are told they may have been exposed to “an invisible, imperceptible poison.” 

Pride: A Pride & Prejudice Remix

Zuri Benitez loves her family and her neighborhood in Brooklyn because it’s filled with friendly faces and a shared sense of culture. She has an incredible sense of pride, so when the elitist Darcy family moves onto the block, she is very protective of her four sisters. While Zuri’s sister, Janae, falls for one of them, Ainsley, Zuri is hesitant to give them a chance. She is suspicious of all of them, especially the older brother, Darius Darcy. As the two families become better acquainted, Zuri spitefully finds herself more drawn to the rebellious Warren, who has a long history with the Darcy family. Zuri is a stubborn protagonist, but she is also ambitious, fiercely loving, and intelligent; this is her coming-of-age story of family, friendship, and love.

As Zuri’s relationships with Warren and Darius develop, she tries to stay focused on the prospect of college. As she sneaks away from home to tour her lifelong dream school in DC, she runs into Darius and gains a deeper understanding of the Darcy family. Zuri and Darius reach a tentative peace and a turning point in their relationship as they confide in one another. In an olive branch of a text message, Darius warns Zuri about Warren’s sinister motives. With her four wild sisters pulling her in different directions, Zuri must contend with the complications of teenage life and love, as well as the growing worry of gentrification in her neighborhood, which is forcing families out. This adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice sets the characters of early nineteenth-century England in a twenty-first-century New York borough’s Afro-Latinx neighborhood, complete with amusing drama and cases of miscommunication.

Pride is tame and chaste, balancing the budding physical and emotional intimacy between Zuri and Darius well with their individual ambitions and traits. However, the plot is somewhat two-dimensional and lacks the nuance that the book’s inspiration possesses. This version flattens aspects of the original Pride and Prejudice, creating a version of Darcy that is blameless, having become more direct and communicative. The modern version casts Zuri in a more negative light because she is judgmental, and there’s no real foundation for her dislike of Darius. The ending is unsatisfying and leaves several unresolved elements, including Warren, who commits wicked acts but seemingly gets away scot-free.

Still, Pride is easy to read, with simple language and a simple plot. It’s a good way to understand the overall framework of a classic novel, while being strongly rooted in American immigrant culture and the Brooklyn neighborhoods. Readers will connect with Zuri, a fun and inspiring main character who is trying to find her way in the world. Readers who love adapted classics like Pride and Premeditation, Geekerella, and Within These Wicked Walls will love the rude but playful banter, fierce independence, and strong setting of Pride. Additionally, Zuri’s heartwarming familial bonds and hometown pride enable her to fight for her future and demonstrate that, no matter how complicated life becomes or how far from home people stray, home is something to rely on.

Sexual Content

  • Darius and Zuri hold hands and kiss. For example, Darius “leans in, breathing heavy, looking into [Zuri’s] eyes, and his lips touch [hers]. He pauses as if making sure it’s okay, and that’s when [she] finish[es] what he started” and they “kiss right there in the middle of the vintage store.”
  • A couple of times, there are thoughts of kissing, but it’s not executed, such as, “I move in when he’s not looking, ready to plant a fat, wet one on his lips, but someone calls my name.”
  • It’s important to note that there are references to sexual harassment, specifically revealing pictures of minors shared without consent. At one point, Darius shares with Zuri that “Gigi is in boarding school because Warren took sexy pictures of her. He sent them to his friends.”

Violence

  • While Zuri walks with Darius around her neighborhood, she describes a person who was murdered right inside her apartment for trying to stop drug dealers.”
  • When Zuri is arguing playfully with Warren, she “ball[s] up [her] fist and punch[es] him really hard on his muscular arm…But Warren doesn’t even flinch. He keeps laughing.”
  • Darius discovers Warren’s predatory behavior and grabs “Warren by the collar. Warren pulls away and gets ready to throw a punch, but Darius ducks and hits him with an uppercut. . .  Darius gets hit in the face and stomach, but Warren manages to dodge all of Darius’s empty punches.”
  • Later on, when Zuri is tending to Darius, he visibly displays injuries from the fight, as “there’s a small scratch across his forehead and his lip is busted. His face is all wound up and he winces as he gets up from the couch.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • At an adult cocktail party, Zuri’s underage sister, Layla, gets her hands on wine. “‘It’s not cranberry juice,’ Layla sings with a wide smile. . . ’Layla!’ I whisper-yell through clenched teeth and try to grab the glass from her. But she snags it back, and some of it spills onto her dress.”
  • Zuri goes to a teenage house party, where there is a lot of underage drinking. When she gets there, “the smell of alcohol smacks [Zuri] in the face.” She sees “two guys are on the floor in front of her, playing a video game, and she’s surrounded by white girls who all have red plastic cups in their hands . . . and two others are taking turns swigging from a plastic vodka bottle and giggling.”
  • There are vague mentions of drug dealers in the area, but no drugs are exhibited in the story. During the teenage party, a crowd gathers and asks about her neighborhood. “Is it safe? It is loud? Are there gangs? Did he meet any drug dealers?”
  • When Darius and Zuri are talking, Zuri mentions that “when he was little, my father played with her kids here. She was murdered right inside her apartment for trying to stop drug dealers from selling in this park.”

Language

  • Profanity is used periodically, including words like bitch and damn. The f-word is used sparingly.
  • The n-word is used once in a non-discriminatory context.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • There are brief, vague mentions of spiritual beliefs in relation to the character, Madrina. Madrina is someone Zuri goes to for help, who passes towards the end of the story. For example, Zuri thinks “to Madrina and her clients, the basement is home to all of Ochún, the orisha of love and all things beautiful. For them, this is a place of magic, love, and miracles. . . it’s Madrina’s wisdom that unties the tight knots of my life, so I play along with what she does for a living and try to believe in these spirits.”

by Kate Schuyler

Thieves’ Gambit #1

Seventeen-year-old Rosalyn Quest is a master thief, adept at escape plans. After all, her family runs an organized theft enterprise that rules the North American region.  She longs to live a semi-normal teenage life, but she can’t seem to escape the pressure of her familial expectations. Her life becomes more complicated after her mom is kidnapped. It’s up to Rosalyn to acquire the ransom and save her mother.

The only way Rosalyn can get the ransom money is by entering the Thieves’ Gambit, a game composed of three phases where teenagers are tasked with stealing the world’s most prized possessions. Her competition is the best teenage thieves that exist in the criminal underworld. Through clever tactics, difficult choices, and life-or-death situations, Rosalyn competes for her mom’s freedom. However, when unanticipated obstacles arise, she must make difficult decisions not only for herself but also for her opponents and her mom. Rosalyn’s whit and unorthodox plans have gotten her this far in life, but will they help her win the game?

Readers will sympathize with Rosalyn’s wish to experience a normal teenage life. For example, Rosalyn gains the courage to venture out on her own to explore and self-reflect. Ironically, this is when her family needs her the most. Rosalyn grapples with the guilt of wanting to leave her family while at the same time attempting to save her mom. Joining the Thieves Gambit allows Rosalyn to socialize with other teenagers and make friends, something she has been longing for. Rosalyn’s intelligence enables her to think outside the box and find her way out of a sticky situation, making her a likable character.

Devroe Kenzie, a competitor in the Thieves’ Gambit, is a flirtatious young man who seems to be drawn to Rosalyn throughout the game. He offers his assistance, proposes that the two of them pair up to beat the others, and even asks her out on a date. These actions distract Rosalyn as she struggles to get a read on him and is tested by his flirtatious advances. She constantly reminds herself to remain determined to win the game for her mom and not to break her core value: a Quest can only trust another Quest. Noelia Boschert, Rosalyn’s childhood rival, is also competing but displays resentment and bitterness towards Rosalyn. Noelia goes out of her way to get Rosalyn kicked out of the game, pokes fun at her, and makes it difficult for the two of them to even remain in the same room without bickering. The tension between the two advances the overall plot and sheds light on Rosalyn’s past and the unanswered questions that are raised. They both enhance the storyline through emotional resonance and by challenging her perseverance to win the game for her mother.

Thieves’ Gambit is an action-packed book that delves into the lives of the world’s most skilled thieves, their methods of operation, and the extreme measures they will take to win the game. The characters reveal their skills, emotional intelligence, and complicated reasons for playing the intense game. Through this, the story takes unexpected turns, keeping the reader in suspense. Moreover, the events that unfold display the author’s imagination while also giving readers a glimpse into the underworld of crime.

Thieves’ Gambit grabs the reader’s attention from the beginning and keeps the thrill alive until the end. The book is easy to read and has an intriguing storyline. The author explores the ideas of friendship, trust, and a sense of belonging. The characters are relatable as they navigate their relationships and familial expectations. The conclusion will leave the reader reflecting on the characters. The book teaches the reader that when it comes to someone you love, you believe you will stop at nothing to ensure they are okay. However, when your morals are tested, it is sometimes necessary to think outside of the box. For more exciting books, read The Vanishing Deep by Astrid Scholte and the Heist Society Series by Ally Carter

Sexual Content

  • There is flirtatious behavior between Devroe and Rosalyn, such as romantic slow dancing, Devroe telling Rosalyn she is beautiful, flirtatious looks, etc.
  • Devroe and Rosalyn cuddle in a hotel room. “I slid in next to him. He lifted his arm like he was going to pull me against his chest. . . I put his hand on my waist, letting him pull me close.”
  • Devroe and Rosalyn share a first kiss. “I cupped his face and pulled him in myself. His lips were soft at first and then they moved over mine. . . when he deepened the kiss, I couldn’t help but moan. . . ” and then they fell asleep.

Violence

  • Two competitors in the Thieves’ Gambit, Rosalyn and Noelia, fight. “My foot slammed into her torso, then into her hand. Her blade flew up and across the room.”
  • A museum guard shoots Yeriel, a competitor. “‘Hey! Freeze!’ a guard’s voice echoed distantly… a gunshot rang out… I was frozen, my gaze stuck on Yeriel and the red seeping through her jacket.” Yeriel is seriously injured and in need of a hospital.
  • Rosalyn’s mom is kidnapped by two men. Rosalyn saw “the yacht was speeding away. Disappearing into the night. Along with my mom… She was gone. Captive on a yacht headed to . . . I had no clue where.”
  • Rosalyn’s mom’s kidnappers request a ransom. “These people weren’t just going to give me my mom back… More rustling over the line. It sounded like he was talking to someone. Deciding just how much Mom’s life was worth… ‘One billion.’”
  • Rosalyn and Taiyo, one of her competitors, begin fighting during the second phase of the game over a flash drive that Rosalyn had acquired. “I kicked against his hold, but he twisted my arm tighter and dug his knee into my back.” Rosalyn is not seriously injured but is handcuffed to a balcony, struggling to break free.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Kyung-soon, a competitor in the Thieves’ Gambit, “[held] a small bottle of something definitely alcoholic. . . took a sip and her face scrunched up.”
  • Devroe shows Rosalyn his plan to drug clients to manipulate their spending at an auction. Devroe told Rosalyn not to drink it because “the chemical I am planning on using, when given in the correct dosage, should make the target disoriented.”

Language

  • Mild language including damn and hell is used very rarely.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Leela Kowalski

Dreamology

Since she was a child, sixteen-year-old Alice has been dreaming about Max. He only exists in her dreams, where they are together every night. When she starts at Bennett Academy in Brooklyn, she finds the boy from her dreams, Max Wolfe, in her class. When Alice realizes that Max is real, she goes on a mission to learn why she has been dreaming about him.

Alice must work to accept the differences between her dreams and reality and the fact that Max may not be the same boy she knows from her dreams. To make matters worse, Max has a girlfriend, Celeste. When Alice becomes friends with Celeste, she must decide whether to pursue her feelings for Max and risk hurting her new friend. Alice is consumed with guilt because of her feelings for Max and the realization that his girlfriend is a nice person and a good friend.

Alice’s new friend, Oliver, is a quirky troublemaker, but she finds comfort in this friendship because of their very similar personalities. The two boys clash, as Oliver is louder and bolder, while Max is quieter and tends to keep to himself more. As Alice grows closer to both boys, Oliver and Max’s animosity toward each other grows, but Alice is determined to keep both in her life. There are many moments between Alice and Max that will have the readers rooting for their relationship to succeed.

Alice isn’t only dealing with friendship drama. She is a bit of an outsider who is struggling to understand why her mother abandoned her. Additionally, she must prioritize her academics to ensure she gains admission to a reputable college. These conflicts make Alice a relatable character. Overall, Alice faces numerous decisions that she must approach with caution. She reminds herself that her decisions have an impact on the people around her. As the story progresses, Alice learns to make decisions that will benefit her friends, even if they might come at a personal cost.

Dreamology’s plot is easy to follow, but the writing feels a bit silly at times; however, this works to develop Alice’s personality and provide humor. The mystery of why Alice and Max dream of each other hooks the reader, and the relationships between the characters help to develop the narrative. The story highlights the importance of friendship and how boys can get in the way of these friendships. Alice learns valuable lessons about expressing her emotions and navigating friendships. Readers will enjoy seeing Alice’s growth as she learns to deal with her feelings. Dreamology has the perfect blend of teenage drama, romance, friendships, and mystery. Overall, it is a charming story that concludes with a happy ending, leaving readers satisfied.

Sexual Content

  • Alice witnesses a student getting drunk and running naked through a college campus. The student “chugged a wine cooler, ripped off all his clothing, and went running through campus naked.”
  • Celeste dated a college guy when she was fifteen.
  • At sixteen, Celeste “started dating some architecture major from the local college.”

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Alice and her friends attend a college party where they get drunk drinking “raspberry wine coolers.”
  • A sixteen-year-old girl mentions making out with another sixteen-year-old while drunk.
  • While with the school guidance counselor, the counselor “exhales some hookah smoke into the middle of her office.” Later, Alice smokes with the counselor in her office.

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Gabie Rivas

Monday’s Not Coming

Claudia’s best friend, Monday, is missing, and she’s the only one who cares. Determined to find her friend, eighth-grader Claudia conducts an investigation into Monday’s disappearance, hindered by her age and naivety. The book is told from Claudia’s point of view, giving readers insight into her fear and confusion, as well as the love she has for her friend. There are multiple timelines: “The Before,” “The After,” “One Year Before the Before,” and “Two Years Before the Before.” By describing the past, Jackson paints a picture of Claudia’s friendship with Monday and highlights Claudia’s innocence before being exposed to this new reality.

Claudia is supported by her parents, who clumsily attempt to help her while keeping her sheltered from the harsh realities of life. They often become hindrances in Claudia’s investigation. She starts keeping secrets from her parents, another element of her loss of innocence and trust in the adults around her. Although Monday is not present in the current timeline, she is present throughout Claudia’s memories and is her motivation throughout. Claudia’s loneliness is exacerbated by her classmates, most of whom bully her, proving her need for Monday’s friendship. However, she does make a friend in Michael, a high schooler from her church, which eventually leads to her first romantic relationship. All of the characters, including Monday’s siblings and mother, play roles in Claudia’s investigation and in her coming of age.

The mystery of Monday propels the narrative, but the different timelines often become confusing. Claudia is an endearing narrator, although the reader often figures out clues and realizes answers before she does, which can be frustrating. There is a twist at the end, which simultaneously answers many questions and creates more unanswered questions. The ending invites a rereading, allowing us to look back at what might have been overlooked.

Monday’s Not Coming also deals with many dark themes, including child abuse and murder. Claudia is not only growing up as she faces the prospect of high school, but she is also becoming increasingly aware of the world around her, outside her idyllic childhood. She realizes the contrasts between her life and Monday’s, and her growing horror parallels the reader’s. Claudia and Monday’s story brings awareness to the reality of the many missing girls of color, and the importance of telling their stories, and not allowing people to slip through the cracks. While there is a strong sense of community in the story, it also serves as an indictment of how the community fails its members by trying to stay blissfully ignorant. Part coming-of-age, part mystery, Monday’s Not Coming will keep readers engaged as more twists and questions are revealed. As the reader begins to care about Monday, they too are invested in Claudia’s exciting, yet tragic eighth-grade year.

Sexual Content

  • Monday describes making out with Jacob Miller, a boy she has a crush on. The kiss was the kind “when the guy puts his tongue in your mouth.”
  • Jacob later claims that Monday “sucked [his] dick.”
  • Claudia and Monday talk about sex. Claudia asks Monday, “did you . . . you know, do it?” Other characters talk about Monday and her sister, April, sleeping with people, but it is never graphically described.
  • A boy says to April, Monday’s older sister, “You don’t even go to this school. You’re just here to get some dick.”
  • Many of the classmates who bully Claudia and Monday do so through homophobia and speculating that the two girls are in a relationship. Monday and Claudia were sitting in a bathroom stall with Monday’s head in Claudia’s lap; someone takes a picture and spreads it through the school. Their classmates make references to sexual parts of their hypothetical relationship. “‘Cause in that PICTURE, look like Monday was the one licking your box”. “She did your homework and you ate her coochie.”
  • Claudia and Michael become close friends and eventually get into a relationship. They kiss when Claudia is drunk, and she gets on her knees, but Michael stops her before anything else happens. They hug and kiss throughout their relationship.
  • There are references to pregnancy, and Claudia’s mother has had multiple miscarriages. None of the main characters are pregnant.

 Violence

  • Claudia and Monday get into a fight with Jacob Miller, a boy with whom Monday is briefly involved but who eventually betrays her. The fight included punching, scratching, and shoving. “He shoved Monday into a locker, pinning her. [Monday] screamed, tackling his back like a monkey, hitting his head with my balled-up fists…I dug my freshly painted nails deep in his neck and scratched.” Claudia later accuses Jacob: “It was Jacob . . . he was biting her!”
  • A group of girls bullies Claudia; she tries to punch one of them but misses. Shayla, one of the bullies, shoves Claudia, and “Shayla propped me up like a doll, shoving my head toward the nasty toilet bowl.”
  • There are references to child abuse, both vague and explicit, along with references to neglect. “Monday, August, and her sisters were taken out of the house for neglect.” Claudia says, “See, I’d seen a couple [bruises] on Monday, here and there. But I’d never given them much thought.” Claudia worries about Monday’s well-being, and questions her multiple times about bruises and bitemarks on her body. “Finally, with a sigh, [Monday] pulled back the collar of her shirt, exposing her chewed-up shoulder.”
  • There are graphic descriptions of dead bodies, including the bodies of dead children. One child, “had been in that freezer for a year and a half.”
  • There are also descriptions of children being murdered. In a recording from Monday’s mom, she describes killing Monday’s little brother August: “I choked him, putting my hands around his throat. He fought until his eyes started rolling back, and then he was dead.” April also describes putting Monday’s body in the freezer: “Stupid freezer was already half full with August. Wouldn’t close right since Monday was so tall.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Claudia gets drunk at a party. After she drinks a “nasty brown drink” that is given to her. She’s not sure what it is at first.

Language

  • Profanity is used regularly. Profanity includes: ass, damn, dyke, fuck, hoe/ho, motherfucker, and shit.
  • Other derogatory language is used, especially homophobic language and language that insults Claudia’s intelligence. For example, a classmate says, “You dummy, everyone’s been finished. Why you so slow?”

Supernatural

  • Claudia imagines Monday’s ghost, but it’s not real.

Spiritual Content

  • Claudia goes to church with her family. She also prays for her grades to get lost in the mail.

by Abigail Clark

Driven

Good or bad, money can be a major factor in everyone’s lives. In the lives of Charlie Shaw and his family, however, it’s what makes them happy and what makes them popular. 

When they move into the small town of Falls Creek, divisions of people who have known each other for years begin to occur, and the town becomes split by the creek that bears its name. On the north side resides the Shaws and those who have latched on to their money to try and better themselves, their social status, and their baseball team’s bottom line. 

On the south side, there is no influence, only layoffs at the factory. Layoffs and sadness and depression. 

Gabe “Honus” Wagner is a senior at Falls Creek High School, and his family is feeling the crunch of the layoffs, his father slipping deeper and deeper into depression. All Gabe wants is a chance to play in the regional game, where he and his senior friends will showcase their talents for the nation’s top college scouts. However, Nate Shaw, Charlie Shaw’s freshman son, has other ideas. 

Can Gabe overcome the misguided lure of money as well as help his father out of his depression, or will he lose his chance at a scholarship and his dreams? Driven to succeed, he has to do whatever it takes with no hate in his heart. 

After Gabe’s father loses his job, Gabe struggles with the unfairness of his situation. This struggle is magnified when Nate Shaw steals Gabe’s girlfriend, joins the baseball team, and attempts to get Gabe kicked off the team. To make matters worse, Gabe’s father begins drinking heavily. Through it all, Gabe tries to do what is right, but sometimes the right path isn’t clear or easy. Many readers will relate as Gabe deals with bullying, relationship woes, and worries about the future.  

While Gabe is a likable character, his romantic relationships appear to be shallow. After dating Olivia for several years, she breaks up with Gabe without talking to him. Instead, Olivia scorns Gabe and walks away arm in arm with another boy. Gabe doesn’t seem too upset about the breakup and almost immediately notices Debbie, thinking, “How pretty she really was. . . The braces had really done the trick.” Even though Olivia treated Gabe unfairly, both Gabe and Debbie treat Olivia kindly and help Olivia through a difficult decision. 

While baseball is an important aspect of Gabe’s life, the only baseball scene is at practice. Instead, the story focuses on Gabe’s problems. This may disappoint readers seeking play-by-play baseball action. Another negative aspect of the book is the choppy transitions and the underdeveloped plot. For example, the conflicts are resolved too quickly, making the conclusion feel unrealistic and rushed. However, readers who don’t want to delve into each character’s inner workings will enjoy the story’s fast pace.  

At under 200 pages, Driven features one well-developed character: Gabe. This allows the reader to understand why Gabe believes it’s important to have “no hate in the heart.” Gabe’s experiences illuminate the importance of honesty and fairness. In addition, Gabe’s father reminds him, “People strike out all the time, in every walk of life. It’s just how you come back that matters. If you keep driven and work hard, in the end, you’ll succeed.”  

Sexual Content  

  • Before they broke up, Gabe and Olivia “had spent many evenings making out when her parents weren’t watching.” 
  • When Olivia starts dating Nate, she is hoping for “more than just the little kisses he gave when he got into the car. She had dreamed of that happening with him and was anxious to see what it was like; maybe see how he stacked up against Gabe Wagner.” 
  • Olivia thinks she will know if Nate is “the right one for her” after they kiss. 
  • Gabe is taken to the police station for questioning. After he comes out, Debbie is there. “She hugged Gabe around the neck and gave him a kiss on the cheek. . . Gabe pulled her close and kissed her quickly; their first kiss.” 

Violence  

  • One of the high school students, Connor, is referred to as “the town roach.” Connor was rumored to do drugs, among other things. He had been arrested for crimes of vandalism before, painting obscene gestures on the school walls, breaking storefront windows. . .”
  • Nate targets Gabe. When Gabe gets to school, one of Nate’s friends shoves Gabe into a locker. Gabe’s “nose was scraped against the hinges of the locker by a hand on the back of his head, and he could feel that he had been cut there. . . Gabe instantly charged back at the sophomore, shoving him so hard that he fell to the ground this time. . .”  
  • During lunch at school, someone dumps food on Gabe’s friends. “Gabe immediately pushed up against the boy, chest to chest. . . He gave the boy a shove until he too fell on the ground.” A teacher breaks up the fight. 
  • At baseball practice, Nate intentionally hits Gabe with a pitch. Nate charges Gabe, and “Gabe dropped his bat and met Nate halfway between home plate and mound. Together, the two of them dropped to the ground tugging and pulling at each other, swinging wildly but not really connecting . . .” Gabe is sent home, but Nate receives no punishment. 
  • Nate pays Connor to vandalize the baseball field. Connor “set down the [gas] can, struck a lighter, and touched it to the bench. Instantly, the bench caught fire and flames leaped from there to the ground, crossing the infield to the outfield where they burned ferociously.”
  • The principal accuses Gabe of vandalizing the baseball field. Gabe’s father begins yelling at him, and “his dad pushed in even closer and Gabe backed up a step. . . Gabe’s mom tried to push her way in between them one more time, but his dad shoved her away, and she fell to the ground with a heavy thud.” Gabe shoves his father to the ground. 
  • At one point, Gabe’s dad sends “Gabe flying where he hit the back of his head on the edge of the coffee table. His hands immediately went to the wound, but then his dad grabbed at his hair, and Gabe turned his face to the ground while his dad pulled at him.” Gabe’s dad apologizes. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • After losing his job, Gabe’s father turns to drinking excessively. Gabe’s father has resorted to “silence and depression and nights of heavy drinking.” Gabe often notices “alcohol pouring forth from his [father’s] breath.”  
  • Gabe’s dad goes to the bar where he and some of his friends drink beer.

Language  

  • Profanity is used rarely. Profanity includes ass, crap, damn, and hell. 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • None 

Goodbye Days

Carver Briggs may or may not have killed his three best friends.  

After his poorly timed text message leads to a car crash that kills Mars, Blake, and Eli, Carver is forced to reconcile his guilt and grief while also working his way through his final year of high school. His feelings are worsened when the father of Mars, the text recipient and driver during the accident, opens an investigation into Carver’s “negligent homicide.” As Carver mourns his friends, he also struggles to convince the court – and himself – that his reckless texting was not a form of murder.  

Desperate for a way to cope with his loss, Carver begins a series of “goodbye days:” days spent with each of his friends’ families as a way to remember them and say goodbye. In each of these episodic segments, the reader travels with Carver into the memories of his three late friends. Carver’s own reflections and imagined conversations also enrich the story. Complicated by his upcoming graduation, potential criminal charges, and growing feelings for Eli’s girlfriend, Carver must navigate situations he never thought he’d encounter.  

Carver’s deep internal struggle makes for an engaging, if heart-wrenching, story about grappling with difficult emotions and living life to the fullest. His status as a high school student makes the day-to-day of his life grounding and relatable, while the emotional turmoil that fills him for most of the novel adds complexity to his character. As a writer, Carver yearns for a way to retell the story of his friends’ deaths, struggling to accept his own powerlessness. This makes for a thought-provoking and poignant story that is sure to evoke emotional responses from the reader. While it seems unlikely that a real-life teenager would be charged with murder due to a text message, Zentner crafts a believable tale full of characters with a wide variety of opinions on the controversial issue.  

Aside from his personal grief and guilt, Carver spends a great deal of time with his friends’ families discussing deeper matters of being alive. As he ponders what he and his friends would be doing if they were alive, he seeks a way to move forward that both honors them and gives his own life meaning. Although the novel is certainly a tearjerker, it also has moments of joy and laughter that balance out the darker themes. The story leaves the reader with plenty to think about, from the dangers of texting while driving to living life with no regrets. Readers who want to see how other characters face difficult circumstances may want to read Tears of a Tiger by Sharon M. Draper and Bruiser by Neal Shusterman. 

Sexual Content  

  • Carver dusts the dirt off of Jesmyn, his late friend Eli’s girlfriend, after she lies on the floor. Carver becomes aroused while touching her legs. 
  • Carver reflects on Blake coming out as gay. Carver says he has “never been into girls. . . that way. Ever.”  
  • Carver has a conversation about Blake’s sexuality with Nana Betsy that goes on for a few pages. “Blake…never found the right girl because he…didn’t want to.” 
  • There are rumors that Carver and Jesmyn were seeing each other before Eli died. Jesmyn asks Carver, “Have you been telling people we’re hooking up?” She says that at her old school there were rumors about “what a slut” she was.  
  • Carver tells his therapist that he and Jesmyn are just friends, “boners notwithstanding (let’s be honest: a Kmart lingerie ad can get things moving under the right circumstances).”  

Violence  

  • There are frequent but non-graphic references and flashbacks to the car crash that killed Carver’s three friends. During the accident, “[Mars] slammed into the rear of a stopped semi on the highway at almost seventy miles per hour. The car went under the trailer, shearing off the top.” 
  • Nana Betsy recalls when she took Blake from his abusive mother when he was eight. Fearing for his safety, she entered the house with a shotgun. It is not fired. 
  • Nana Betsy rescues eight-year-old Blake after finding “a hand-shaped bruise on his back and another that looks to be a shoe print.” It is heavily implied that his mother inflicted these injuries.  

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • Nana Betsy briefly references the scent of cigarette smoke.  
  • Eli’s parents have a wine rack. 
  • When recalling her first kiss with Eli, Jesmyn says, “My parents probably thought I was high.” 
  • Eli’s mom says, “We thought some of the kids had smoked up after the show.” 

Language    

  • Shit and ass are used frequently. For example, Carver says that Adair, Eli’s sister, “hates the shit out of” him and Jesmyn.  
  • Stronger profanity is used a few times. Profanity includes fuck and bitch.  

Supernatural  

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • Carver has a conversation with Blake’s grandmother, Nana Betsy, about whether God will let Carver into heaven after his role in his friends’ deaths. “What do you think it takes to keep you out of heaven?” 
  • Carver and Nana Betsy briefly discuss how she reconciles Blake being gay with her religion. “Our religion definitely doesn’t approve of that lifestyle, but I never did believe that people choose to be that way.” There are frequent references to Nana Betsy’s Christian beliefs.  
  • Carver tells Eli’s atheist parents that he “believed in God.” Eli’s dad “derided religious people as idiots.” The three of them, along with Jesmyn, discuss this topic for two pages. 

Blood of Troy

A year after saving the powers of Olympus by defeating Nyx, the Goddess of Darkness, Daphne is haunted by still-looming threats, her complicated feelings for the god Apollo, and the promise she made to the Olympian gods that she would help them again when they called upon her. When their command finally comes, it is deceptively simple: secure herself a spot as one of Queen Helen’s guards.

A war is coming, and all of Sparta must be prepared.
 
In the midst of a treaty summit among the monarchs of Greece, Daphne and Helen uncover a plot of betrayal—and soon, a battle begins that leads to an all-out war. As the kingdoms of Greece clash on the shores of Troy and the gods choose sides, Daphne must use her wits, her training, and her precarious relationship with Apollo to find a way to keep her queen safe, stop the war, and uncover the true reason the gods led her to Troy. But the gods are keeping more than one secret, and Daphne will be forced to decide how far she is willing to go to save those she loves—and whose side she’s on in a war that is prophesied to be the downfall of her people. 

Blood of Troy continues to follow Daphne as she tries to fulfill the gods’ command to protect Zues’ daughter, Helen. While Daphne’s motives are honorable, she doesn’t consider how her actions affect others, including her own family and friends. In addition, some of Daphne’s decisions don’t make sense. For example, even though Hermes has betrayed the gods and her, Daphne trusts him. On the other hand, Daphne pushes Apollo away despite his love and desire to help protect her. Ultimately, Daphne follows her heart, but that only leads to destruction. 

The book begins with a recap of the bloody battle between Daphne and Nyx that appeared in Daughter of Sparta. Many of the characters from Daughter of Sparta reappear in the second installment, giving readers a broader view of each character’s motivations. However, the gods are experts at manipulating people, and several times, the gods take over someone’s body. This adds some confusion to the story, and readers must pay close attention to the details.  

Readers unfamiliar with Greek mythology will have difficulty understanding the events in Blood of Troy. Still, those familiar with The Odyssey and the Trojan War will enjoy seeing a new interpretation of the myths. However, the detailed and gory battle scenes make the book best suited for mature readers who do not get squeamish.  

Daphne is admirable because she is willing to fight and die to protect Queen Helen. However, Daphne only trusts herself to make wise decisions even though she is surrounded by many others who are brave and knowledgeable, such as the Amazons, Apollo, and the Trojan royalty. However, this doesn’t detract from the tragic conclusion or the surprising answer to Daphne’s parentage. Blood of Troy is a fast-paced book that weaves an exciting story and brings Greek mythology to life in a new way. Enjoy more books that reimagine mythology and bring new life to ancient myths by reading Medusa by Jessie Burton and the Starcrossed Trilogy by Josephine Angelini. 

Sexual Content  

  • Apollo approaches Daphne while she’s alone in a garden. While they talk, “an overwhelming urge sweeps over [Daphne] to pull him close and brush [her] lips against his neck.” When Daphne rejects Apollo’s advances, he wonders, “Why do you not give in to the fire between us?”
  • Apollo tells Daphne he will answer one of her questions if she kisses him. “One question for one, single kiss. Hunger pools in my core like liquid fire. The fire of my fury fights for dominance in my mind. . .” Daphne’s brother interrupts them. 
  • After winning a tournament, Daphne’s brother insinuates that she didn’t win honestly. Daphne says, “You truly believe that I would barter my own body to win that tournament?” 
  • One of the Greek kings believes a woman’s “place is in the bedchamber, and the bedchamber alone.” 
  • When Daphne refuses to leave Queen Helen’s side, her husband says, “Will you stand behind the bed as I fuck her as well?” 
  • During a play, Ares “buries his face in [Aphrodite’s] chest. . . The noises of their fake lovemaking grow more obnoxious by the second. The catcalls and whistles in the audience swell.” 
  • After sparring, Daphne returns to her room to find a naked Apollo in the bath. “In my mind, I don’t bother ripping off my sweat- and sand-stained clothes. I leap into the bath fully clothed and smother the god with kisses.” When Apollo gets out, “the silk sheet pulls taunt across his wet skin. . .” Apollo disappears when someone enters the room.  
  • An Amazon tells Daphne, “I’ve lost two lovers to battle. Both were vibrant and ferocious [women].” 
  • Daphne overhears an Achaean soldier saying, “All the lovely ladies are being hoarded by the king. But we could fuck the rats that seem to infest this place if we were truly desperate.” 
  • Daphne sees her brother, who has two lovers. “The warrior king’s profile is hungry as he looks over my brother and his lover. Their lover. Heat flames my cheeks as the Myrmidon swoops down to sit between them. His perfect lips capture my brother’s with expert ease before next claiming Patroclus’s.” 
  • While alone with Daphne, Apollo “looks me over, gaze lingering on my lips, the arch of my neck, between my breasts and thighs. I imagine his lips in all those places. . . His face dips, lips brushing my own. . . I want to kiss him. But once you’ve tasted that heavenly fire, can you really be content with anything less?” Daphne pushes him away. 
  • Odysseus questions Queen Helen. She asks him, “What animals do they claim I make love to?” Odysseus replies, “The human variety, I assure you.” 
  • After the Achaeans forfeit and prepare to go home, Daphne and Apollo kiss. “His touch is searing, his lips piercing. My hands explore his chest, his hips and he pulls me down to the bed. . . [Apollo’s hands] travel every inch of me. Filling me with an insatiable heat and longing. . . I pull the ties of my chiton and let it fall around us. He grips my thighs, eyelids heavy with hunger. . .  I lean down, claiming his lips again.” The scene implies that they have sex and is described over a page. 

Violence  

  • Since Blood of Troy contains excessive and gory violence between humans, gods, goddesses, and mythological creatures, not all violence is described below. 
  • Queen Helen and Daphne sneak away from the guards. As punishment, Helen’s husband, Menelaus, orders Daphne to be whipped. Daphne is “flattened against a well. The guards take each of my wrists and smash them above my head. . . they shred the fabric along my spine. . . [the whip’s] sting is belated, like an afterthought. Then it begins to burn, a line of fire across my spine. . .It cuts through the air and slices my back. . . [Menelaus’s] lash is the worst. It stretches across my shoulder and catches in my hair.” Daphne is whipped six times. 
  • Sometimes, Daphne reflects on the violence inflicted upon her in the last book. For example, Daphne killed Minos. “If I close my eyes, I can still remember the sound of Minos’s death. The squelch of blood and bone.” 
  • While fleeing Sparta, Daphne is hit with an arrow. “A dull pain ricochets up my spine. A yelp escapes me, and I double over. . .” Daphne is injured, and Apollo heals her wound. 
  • Ares and Apollo fight. While the fight is not described, Apollo is injured. “There’s a dark bruise on his sharp jawline, and a gash that slices his left eyebrow in half. His palms are sticky with black blood. . .” 
  • When Daphne doesn’t protect Helen to Zues’ liking, he punishes her. “Pain, like none I have ever known, shoots through me. I scream and crumple to my knees. My back arches as lash after lash of lightning hits me. . . I scream again, the cry tearing my throat apart. . . My chest heaves, but no air will come in. Each breath sends a spasm throughout my entire body.” Apollo helps relieve Daphne’s pain. 
  • While Daphne and her companions are outside Troy’s gates, the Furies attack. “A woman cries for help as they grab each of her arms. And then rip her in half. The woman’s blood rains down upon the city. . . A yell shreds the air and a warm wetness rains down upon us. . . [The Furies] plucking Trojans from other streets and ripping them in half above us.” 
  • The Furies fight against Troy. During a battle, their “[f]angs dripping with blood. Their wings pump the air. . . Rain begins to pour, mingling with the blood on [Daphne’s] skin and running in rivulets down [her] face.” 
  • During a battle, the Achaean army shoots arrows at those fighting for Troy. “Drums and horns echo around us, mixing with the screams of the dying. The stench of smoke and blood coats my throat. . . I ram my sword into the next man’s gut and shove him aside. . . A spearhead dives straight for my face. I spin, sword flashing. It lodges into the arm of a man, and his scream rattles my eardrum.”  
  • During the battle, Daphne fights a man. She “jerks the dory from his startled grip. I sweep his feet from beneath him, and with a wild scream, I ram the point through metal, leather, and bone. Right into the center of his chest. He chokes on blood, spraying my face. . .” There are many blood deaths. The fight is described in several chapters. 
  • A Spartan attacks Daphne. “His spear catches me in the ribs, tearing through leather and flesh. [Her spear] slicing the man right across the throat. . .” Artemis and Hera join the battle and save Daphne. 
  • Daphne and her friends free women whom the Spartans captured. “The women whimper and huddle together, even when the chain between them goes slack. . . these women forced to lay in their own filth. Bruises dot their arms and legs, many sporting blackened eyes and broken lips.” 
  • During a battle, Daphne fights the enemy. “A dory swings for me. I duck and its tip slices my cheek. A searing pain rushes through my face. I deflect the next swing, spinning within the man’s reach. Surprise widens his mouth as my sword plunges into his gut.” 
  • During the battle, Ares hits Daphne with a club. “I moan, cradling my ribs as little jolts of lightning tear up my side. . . I collapse. . . His club cracks into my spine. . . his blow reverberates throughout my whole body.” Penthesilea, the Amazon’s queen, rescues Daphne. “Penthesilea drives a dagger right into his back. His eyes pop open. . . Her lovely face is pained with enemy blood.”  
  • While helping Daphne, someone stabs Penthesilea. “A dagger’s point glints from the center of her chest, stealing her final words. . . She gasps. . . Blood soaks through her leather breastplate.” It is later revealed that Penthesilea’s father killed her. 
  • During a battle, Hector and Achilles duel. “The Adamantine sword drives right through the shield and plunges into Hector’s chest. With a roar. . . Achilles lifts both the shield and Hector’s twitching body and flings them aside.” 
  • Under the control of a god, Daphne’s brother attacks her. He punches Daphne, and “then the air blows out of me in a great rush. I stumble, slipping on the warm liquid that now coats my feet. . . barely raise the dagger in time. It rams into his stomach. . . blood coats my hands, warm and sticky.” Daphne’s brother dies. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • At a party celebrating Daphne’s success, “the ever-flowing wine is bountiful.”
  • The Greek kings travel to Sparta for a trade summit where “wine is kicked back eagerly.” One evening, “Theseus cracks his cup against Agamemnon’s, making the great kings both roar with laughter as wine spills over his feet.” 
  • Daphne goes into the banquet hall where men sleep after “Dionysus slipped a little drop of Lethe into the cups being served.” Lethe, water from one of the many rivers of the underworld, makes men forget.  
  • Many people, including the gods, drink wine. For example, “Hermes snatches up the jug of wine once more and takes a swig.” 

Language  

  • Profanity is used occasionally. Profanity includes ass, assholes, bastard, bitch, damn, fuck, gods-damn, and whore. 
  • “Oh Gods” is used as an exclamation several times. 

Supernatural 

  • To cause dissent, Ares, the God of War, takes the form of King Theseus (the hero who killed the minotaur).  
  • While in Sparta, the kings argue. Daphne asks the Olympians to erase the kings’ memories. Aphrodite says, “We cannot wipe the memories from a hundred people at once. We are powerful, but nothing like that.” 
  • When Apollo refuses to leave Daphne, Zeus binds Apollo’s power. “. . .He crumples. The muscles in his shoulders and arms twitch, skin pulling taut. His head flings back, eyes and mouth clenched. . .” Apollo loses most of his powers and becomes “the weakest God of Olympus.” 
  • Artemis cursed Daphne with the Midas Curse. However, the curse saves her life. While being attacked, “The gold curse encases my hand like a glove just as the sword cleaves between my fingers. It bounces off my palm.” 
  • While making the Trojan Wall, Apollo used his blood. “It is magicked to keep those who wish Troy ill from breaching the city unless invited in.” 
  • Kassandra, the princess of Troy, tells prophecies, but some people believe she is crazy. After one prophecy, Daphne thinks, “Kassandra is mad, but where once I assumed her ramblings thoughtless and deluded, now a quiet panic overtakes me as the truth of her words sings.”

Spiritual Content  

  • The story occurs in Sparta during King Menelaus’ and Queen Helen’s rule. The Greek gods play a prominent role in the story and intervene in human affairs. Below are some examples of how the gods play a role in the story. 
  • The Fates appear to Daphne. When the oldest Fate touches her, “the ground is swept from beneath me. . . I am now pulled slowly, floating on a tide until my feet find steady ground. I stand in a field of blood, corpses stretching for miles and miles . . . The bodies are burdened by armor from all corners of Greece.” The Fates warn Daphne that Greece will erupt in war and Sparta “will be gone forever more on the bloody fields of Troy.” 
  • Daphne’s adoptive father warned her not to trust the gods with a living tattoo. Daphne sees “a moving tattoo—like the roosters and snakes on Hermes, and the vulture emblazoned across Ares’s chest—is drawn across my father’s back. A map, but not of mountains, cities, or temples. Blue lines, undulating and twisting, reaching from his shoulders to the back of his thighs. Rivers, streams, and lakes.” 
  • Daphne is sent to Olympia, where the gods discuss the upcoming war between Sparta and Troy. “Hephaestus pounds a great hammer into an anvil above the hearth. . .Around him, Gods balance weapons and argue. Athena and Hera are in each other’s faces; both dressed in shimmering battle leathers. . . Poseidon, with his fist on his hips, towers over the working Hephaestus.” All of the Olympian gods are present. 
  • During the Trojan War, the Greeks “ransacked the Temple of Artemis. . . Poseidon has brought unseasonable dangerous storms to the Aegean in retribution.”  
  • The Furies play a part in the Trojan War. They have wings and fangs. “Their faces are a mixture of horrifying and lovely in equal measure, smooth skin marred with a deadly pale and red paint blazing from their eyelids. They carry barbed swords, and around each of their necks is a viper tattoo that incessantly coils.” 
  • The Olympians were given tattoos from Acat, a deity in Mayan mythology, who associated with tattooing and was revered by Mayan tattoo artists and scribes. 
  • The gods take sides in the Trojan War. Athena’s owl tells Daphne, “You already know that Nyx has swayed the Achaeans to fight for her. . . She is aided by Erinyes and Ares, and the goddess Eris and Enyo. . .” Throughout the war, other gods jump to help their side win.  
  • Daphne discovers that her father was one of the Titans, Oceanus. He was the god and personification of the freshwater river Oceanus. Unknowingly, Daphne sets the Titans free, and they destroy Troy and kill most of the people. 

Game Changer

All it takes is one hit on the football field, and suddenly Ash’s life doesn’t look quite the way he remembers it. Impossible though it seems, he’s been hit into another dimension—and keeps on bouncing through worlds that are almost-but-not-really his own.  

The changes in his world start small, but quickly spiral out of control as he ends up in universes where he has everything he’s ever wanted, universes where society is stuck in the past, and universes where he finds himself as someone he’s never had to consider before.  

And if he isn’t careful, the world he’s learning to see more clearly could blink out of existence . . .  

Game Changer follows Ash as he jumps into different worlds, forcing him to take a hard look at his own bias and choices. For example, in one dimension, America is still segregated which makes Ash realize that he had little understanding of what it means to be Black in America. In another world, Ash is a self-centered jerk who sells drugs—a version of himself Ash doesn’t like. Each time Ash’s world changes, he is forced to explore the complicated nature of humans and how small decisions can lead to major consequences. 

Ash’s world is everchanging which forces him to face many difficult topics such as racism, sexism, and homophobia. This is accomplished not only through Ash’s own experience but also the experiences of people close to Ash. Before jumping to other realities, Ash had never thought about “the idea of basic human dignity being stripped away. . . people whose lives were so far removed from mine, they might as well been on a different planet.” While Ash doesn’t find a way to fix society’s woes, he does become a better person by realizing how his own biases affect his relationships. 

Game Changer explores the idea of having a multiverse; however, the plot is easy to understand because Ash is surrounded by a core group of characters that appear in every world. The fast-paced plot isn’t afraid to take a deep look at complicated issues and forces the reader to question their own biases and choices. Shusterman doesn’t give a cure to the world’s illnesses, but instead reminds us of how little we understand and that “only by being humbled can we ever hope to be great.” 

Sexual Content  

  • Ash’s friend says he’s only interested in “food and sex.” 
  • In one of Ash’s worlds, he “secretly hooked up last spring” with his best friend’s sister. Ash thinks his other self would never “hook up with his best friend’s sister behind his back.” 
  • Ash has a crush on Katie, who is dating someone on the football team. Ash and Katie hid behind the bleachers so they could talk, but then Ash “leaned forward and gave her a gentle kiss.” He apologized afterward, and Katie said, “I didn’t say not to do it again. Just don’t do it now.” 
  • In one of Ash’s worlds, he is gay and has a boyfriend named Paul. When alone, Paul kisses Ash. Ash says, “The kiss pretty much laid waste to my brain.” At first, Ash is conflicted, and then he “kissed Paul with such force, we both stumbled back against the closed front door.” 
  • The gay Ash remembers when he was twelve, “[he] would sometimes get a hard-on in the locker room. [He] was good at hiding it though.” In ninth grade, he “made out with a friend the night before he moved away.” 
  • In the hallway at school, Ash gets everyone’s attention and then “turned to Paul, and planted one on him that was even better than the kiss at my front door.” 
  • In one reality, Ash is a girl named Ashley. It is implied that she had sex with her boyfriend. 
  • A teen says, “Personally, I’d have loved a wide receiver on top of me” before taking off after a guy. 
  • In one universe, Ash is “an all-American vagina-loving straight boy.”

Violence  

  • The story implies that one of the characters is physically abusive, and he is definitely emotionally abusive to his girlfriend. 
  • Ash decides to stop selling drugs. His drug supplier shows up with two other men, whom Ash calls Thing One and Thing Two. “Thing One was holding me, and Thing Two was swinging away. It was all fist. . . I kicked, swung, and elbowed. . . I was doubled over, and although my knees were buckling from the pain, Thing One kept me on my feet so they could keep hitting me.” Ash shifts, and the drug supplier and his two goons cease to exist. People assume that Ash was beaten up because he is gay. 
  • Ash recounts how “in 2016, nearly fifty people were killed by a gunman armed with semiautomatic weapons at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando. In 1998, Matthew Shepard was tortured, beaten, then tied to a fence, and left to die just because he was gay.” Ash lists several others who were killed for being gay and how they died.  
  • While working at a grocery store, Leo, a Black teen, sees a homeless guy who is “not strung out or anything, just wrong in the head.” One of the managers corners the homeless guy. “The guys got a knife, and he’s scared out of his mind. Because my manager’s pulled a gun on him. . . [Leo knows] from the look on [his] manager’s face that he’s gonna pull the trigger. So I take my manager down before he can. . . the gun goes off, shattering the deli case. And the homeless guy gets away.” Leo is arrested and put into jail. 
  • Multidimensional beings try to help Ash. Teddy gives Ash advice, but when things go wrong, the others punish Teddy by putting him in a burned-down church. “Down in the pit. Teddy sat, tied to a chair. He was in bad shape. Bruised, bloody.” 
  • In one dimension, Ash is a female named Ashley. In this world, Ashley’s boyfriend, Layton, bruises her, “but never on my face. They’d appear on my arm when he’d grab me to stop me from storming away.” 
  • While Paul is tutoring Ashley, “out of nowhere . . . I leaned in and kissed him.” Paul gets upset and leaves. When Layton finds out, he beats Paul up. 
  • Layton tells Ashley to meet him at the park. When she gets there, Layton has a baseball bat “smeared with blood and Layton was splattered with it.” Layton confronts Ashley, and then “he brought his arm up across his chest and swung it in a brutal backhanded slam across my face so powerful it spun me around and knocked me to the ground.”  
  • Layton takes out a gun, intending to use it. “In that moment, [Ashley] saw three worlds unfolding: The world where he killed me and ran away. . . the world where he put the gun in his own mouth and blew his brains out in front of me. . . and the world where he did both.” 
  • Paul arrives at the park, takes the bat, and swings it. “The bat connected with the nape of Layton’s neck. I could hear the vertebrae fracture. Layton crumbled to the ground. . .” Layton survives but is paralyzed from the neck down. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • In several of Ash’s parallel worlds, he sells drugs from his family’s store. The drugs include “pills, powders, and weed.” The drugs also include steroid powder. He would sell the drugs at “parties, and in school hallways, and out back of various local hangouts.” 
  • Ash “even supplied coke to Mr. Gilbreath, my English teacher, who was an old hippie.” 
  • Ash’s parents don’t notice his side job. Ash thinks, after his mom’s “nightly bottle of merlot, [she] wouldn’t care if a pallet of heroin was airdropped through the living room ceiling.” 
  • Ash doesn’t sell heroin and meth, so he doesn’t think of himself as “a drug dealer—I was a recreational entrepreneur.” However, he does sell ecstasy and oxycodone. 

Language  

  • Profanity is used often. Profanity includes ass, bitch, bastard, crap, damn, dickwad, douchiness, goddamn, fuck, hell, pissed, and shit. 
  • God and My God are used as exclamations once. 

Supernatural 

  • During a football game, when Ash gives a power hit, he feels “a sudden surge of phantom cold . . . like my blood had been replaced by ice water, but only for an instant.” Later, he discovers that he has caused a shift in time and is now in another dimension.  
  • When Ash is hit, he goes to “Elsewhere.” Each time he does this, his world changes. “Each time I’m in Elsewhere, I can sense the different realities around me. They feel alive. They feel . . . needy. Like they’re afraid of being left behind.”  
  • Ash meets “multidimensional beings that project into” his world. They try to help Ash navigate his abilities. The beings say there may or may not be a God, but if there is a God, “then the universe would be an it rather than a he/she/they. . .” 
  • The people closest to Ash remember part of the previous world. “It’s called the proximity effect. The closer someone is to the subjective locus, the more likely they, and even people around them, are to have stray memories from other existences.” 

Spiritual Content  

  • Ash describes one of his friends who makes “stupid decisions and say[s] all the wrong things at the wrong times, like maybe he was taking a dump when God was handing out common sense.” 
  • After a time shift, Ash thinks, “Maybe this was the life I was supposed to be living, and the universe, or God, or whatever, decided to fix it.” 
  • Ash tries to understand what is happening. He thinks, “Faith would tell us that we are a spark that exists separate from the drama of our lives.” 
  • To avoid the man who supplies his drugs, Ash closes the store and posts a sign that says “Closed for Religious Reasons.” Ash checks and discovers it is “Yom Kippur—the Jewish day of atonement. The perfect day for my ‘special customers’ to repent from their drug habit.” 
  • After Ash makes three people cease to exist, Ash feels “guilt and shame. Like somehow I had pissed in God’s teacup, and not even he knew.” 
  • Ash wants to change the universe for good. He thinks, “My grandma would say God was working through me, because that’s the way he worked.” 

Unsouled

Connor and Lev are on the run after the destruction of the Graveyard, the last safe haven for AWOL unwinds. But for the first time, they’re not just running away—they’re running towards answers, in the form of a woman Proactive Citizenry has tried to erase from history itself. If they can find her and learn why the shadowy figures behind unwinding are so afraid of her, they may discover the key to ending the unwinding process forever.

Cam, the rewound boy, is plotting to take down the organization that created him. He knows that if he can bring Proactive Citizenry to its knees, it will show Risa how he truly feels about her. And without Risa, Cam is having trouble remembering what it feels like to be human.

With the Juvenile Authority and vindictive parts pirates hunting them, the group’s paths will converge explosively—and everyone will be changed. 

Unsouled focuses on human evil, and Risa wonders, “Which is crueler, man or nature? She determines it must be man. Nature has no remorse, but neither does it have malice.” As readers delve into the world of unwinds, they will most likely come to the same conclusion as Risa. The world of unwinding is paradoxical; on one hand, people with disabilities are not allowed to be unwound. However, the lucrative business of unwinding created an industry that has no bounds to its greed and many teens are legally killed. 

While changing the unwinding age to 17 was supposed to help teens, it has helped the black market become more ruthless and profitable. In addition, to get even more body parts, some politicians are encouraging people to vote for Initiative 11, which would allow criminals to be unwound. “So the question is, how do we want our violent offenders to pay their debts to society? Wasting into old age on taxpayers’ dollars—or allowing them to redeem themselves by providing much-needed tissue for society?” 

Unwinding has become so popular that politicians want to “raise the legal age of unwinding back to eighteen and possibly beyond. Removing the brains of convicted criminals and unwinding the rest of their bodies. Allowing people to voluntarily submit themselves to unwinding for cash.” While at first unwinding was supposed to help in medical emergencies, “it’s becoming more and more common for people to get vanity transplants. You want a new skill? Buy it instead of learn it. Can’t do a thing with your hair? Get a new scalp. . . NeuroWeaves instead of education. Muscle refits instead of exercise.”  

While the world is focused on the need for more human tissue, Cam—who was created by using unwinds’ body parts—questions his humanity. He wonders if he has a soul and, if so, what will happen to his soul after he dies. Cam thinks, “Certainly he exists as organic matter, but as a sentient being? As a someone rather than a something.” Cam looks to the Catholic church for answers but receives none. To add to this theme, when Connor finally meets Cam, instead of completely hating him, he recognizes Cam’s humanity. Cam’s existence forces the reader to contemplate the human soul—is it created by a “divine spark,” or can it be created by another human? Ultimately, the only answer comes from the court: Cam is legal property, not a person who can make choices for himself. 

Connor, Risa, Lev, and Cam’s worlds collide, forcing them to put their personal desires aside. They hope to expose Proactive Citizenry’s insidious plan and, in the process, end unwinding. But Starkey’s violent attacks against harvest camps cause fear and chaos. In the end, the reader is left to wonder—will fear or reason prevail?  

Sexual Content  

  • While at a fancy party, Cam enters a room to be alone. A girl follows him. “She undoes his bowtie. . . He holds her in his arms, and she leans forward, kissing him. When she pulls away from the kiss, it’s only for a moment. . . She leans in for another kiss that is far more explorative than the first. The girl says, “I want to be your first.” The girl’s father finds Cam and the girl kissing, and he drags her out of the party.  
  • After speaking at a university, Cam takes three girls into a room. Cam takes off his shirt, and “one of the girls explores those seams and the varied skin tones of his chest. The other girl snuggles with him and feeds him Jordan almonds, sweet and crunchy.” Cam’s handler chases the girls away. 
  • Lev fantasizes about Miracolina, a tithe he helped. “His current fantasies put them at the same suburban school . . . Go to the movies. Make out on the couch when her parents aren’t home.” 
  • Starkey impregnates three girls. When his second in command, Bam, finds out about it she’s furious. Starkey “cranes his neck to kiss her, but their lips are still an inch away. . . he reaches behind her head, pulling her down into the kiss. That kiss is like a conjurer’s act. It’s artful, it’s worthy of applause, and it is everything Bam dreamed it might be, but nothing will change the fact that it’s only a trick.” Bam realizes that there is no meaning to the kiss. 

Violence  

  • Scattered throughout are news items that use teen violence as a reason to continue unwinding, such as a clapper blowing up a school and killing a student. These ads are not included in the violence below. 
  • While driving, Connor accidentally hits an ostrich. The creature’s body “wedges in the windshield frame, with a twisted wiper blade embedded in its slender neck. . . [Connor] screams and curses reflectively, as the creature, still clinging to life, rips at Connor’s chest with its talons, tearing fabric and flesh. . .” The Ostrich dies. Connor is wounded but recovers. 
  • Connor goes into a grocery store to buy food. After he leaves, Argent, the checker, flags Connor down and attacks him. “A kick to the groin that registers a surge of shock, followed by a building swell of excruciating pain. . . Suddenly his attacker is behind him and puts Connor in a choke hold.” Connor wakes up in a cellar, tied to a pole.  
  • To escape from Argent, Connor hits him with a glass pipe. “The pipe catches Argent just above his jaw and shatters, cutting the left side of Argent’s face in at least three places. . . His face gushes blood.” The deputy is tied to a pole but is given “a jagged piece of the broken bong from the floor and put into the deputy’s bound hands so he can eventually cut himself free.” 
  • The police arrive at Argent’s cellar, asking about Connor, who is hiding. When only one deputy is left, “Connor makes his move, lunging out of the sack he’s hiding in, grabbing him by the ankles, and pulling his feet out from under him.” 
  • Two clappers go into a gym. They split up so they can detonate themselves and kill the most people. “Suddenly an explosion rocks the gym, and the cardio desk comes crashing down upon the first floor. . .” Everyone in the gym dies. 
  • A group of teens who ran away from being unwound band together. They enter a 7-Eleven and begin stealing everything. “The night manager reaches for the shotgun, but before he can grab it, there’s a gun aimed at his face, and another, and another. The three kids hold their aim steady.” As the group disappears, the manager shoots at them, but no one is hit. 
  • As a man enters his house, “he’s hit in the head with one of his wife’s heavier knickknacks and falls to the ground. . . he looks up to see the face of his attacker. It’s just a kid of maybe sixteen.” Instead of calling the police, the man gives the boy a job.  
  • Risa falls into a parts pirate’s trap. “She reached for a bag of chips, hit a trip wire, and a spring-loaded steel cable wrapped around her wrist. She was caught like a rabbit.”  
  • When the parts pirate lunges at Risa, “he throws himself forward, Risa raises the pitchfork that she’s concealed in the hay. She doesn’t have to do any more than that: just hold the thing up. His weight and momentum do all the work.” 
  • Later that day, a “coyote dines on the man, who is already beginning to grow rancid in the summer heat.” Later, the coyote bites Risa several times. She is saved, but the coyote and the trip wire injure Risa. She is also dehydrated. Risa fully recovers. 
  • While in a state home, a girl attacks Risa. “When the girl pins her to the ground, Risa gouges the girl’s eyes, flips her, and spits in her face.” A teacher pulls them apart. 
  • Cam has nightmares that are caused by the memories of the teens who were rewound to create Cam. Cam “would scream from the terror, from the sheer helplessness one of those kids felt as the surgeons moved closer, limbs tingled and went numb, medical stasis coolers were carried away in their peripheral vision. Each sense is shutting down and each memory evaporating, always ending with a silent cry of hopeless defiance as each Unwind was shuffled into oblivion.” 
  • While Risa is looking for a place to hide, three boys surround her. One guy, Porterhouse, grabs her. “She smiles at him, lifts her foot, and jams her heel into Porterhouse’s knee instead. Porterhouse’s kneecap breaks with an audible crunch, and he goes down, screaming and writhing in pain. . .” 
  • During the confrontation, Risa elbows another boy in the nose. “She’s not sure if she’s broken it, but it does start gushing blood.” A boy brandishes a knife at Risa, but an adult pulls Risa to safety.  
  • Starkey hijacks a truck by pressing a weapon into the driver’s ribs. When he has a chance, the driver runs away.  
  • Starkey and his group of storks attack a harvest camp. “Starkey gets out of the cab in time to see some of his precious storks go down. . . a sharpshooter is taking kids out. The first couple of shots are tranqs, but the sharpshooter switches rifles. The next kid to go down, goes down for good. . .” 
  • Some of the kids “use counselors as human shields. . . The rebellion feeds itself, fueled by desperation and unexpected hope. It grows in intensity until even the guards are running, only to be tackled by dozens of kids and restrained with their own handcuffs.” The rebellion is described over two pages. It is unclear how many people are hurt or dead, but “at least a dozen kids litter the ground.” 
  • After the rebellion, the harvest camp director, Menard, is captured, and Starkey orders a boy to kill him. “The kid is clearly terrified, but all eyes are on him. . . He squints. He puts the muzzle of the gun to the back of Menard’s head and looks away. Then he pulls the trigger. . . Menard crumples, dead before he hits the ground. . . There are no exploding brain bits and pieces of skull—Starkey and the crowd seem disappointed that an execution, in the end, is far less dramatic than the buildup.” 
  • Starkey and his crew attack another harvest camp. They get the kids out safely, but then Starkey has five workers hung with a noose. “Starkey, one by one, kicks their chair out from beneath them.” He leaves one worker alive to give the authorities a message.  
  • Cam follows one of his memories to a Chancefolk [Native American] reservation, and a woman he knows, Una, takes him to an abandoned sweat lodge and knocks him unconscious. Una “tears off his jacket and shirt and uses them to string him up between two poles six feet apart. She knots the fabric so tightly only a knife could undo it. The rest of his unconscious body slumps on the ground, his arms outstretched above him in a supplicative Y.” Una uses a chainsaw to trace Cam’s seams and threatens to remove his hands.  
  • Connor finds Cam. “He’s tied to a pole, struggling to pull himself free. By the smell of the place and the look of him, he’s been here for a while, in this helpless, hopeless situation, without even the freedom to relieve himself anywhere but in his clothes.” Connor sets Cam free. 
  • When Nelson, the parts pirate, discovers that Argent has been lying to him, Nelson “flips the table. Dinnerware flies, a plate smashes against the mantel, and Nelson pounces, pinning Argent against the wall so hard Argent can feel the light switch digging into his back like a knife—but it’s nowhere near as deadly as the steak knife that Nelson now holds to his throat.” Nelson threatens Argent but doesn’t hurt him. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • At a fancy party, some of the adults drink alcohol. One lady has a “slight alcoholic slur.” 
  • Argent chokes Connor and then ties him up. While Connor is tied up, the boy forces him to smoke the liquid from a tranq gun mixed with marijuana. “Argent takes a hit from the pipe, then puts it over Connor’s mouth, holding Connor’s nose so he has no choice but to suck it in.” They both get high.  
  • A teen goes to New Orleans and drinks alcohol where “Drinking in the street is not only legal, but encouraged!” 
  • A parts pirate who is injured “sleeps off a binge of the alcohol and painkillers he doused himself with.” 
  • One of Connor’s friends “had slipped Connor some medicinal chocolate to get him to mellow out a bit,” which caused Connor to hallucinate. 
  • While celebrating, two adults have champagne.  
  • One boy’s father is a drug addict and was “offered a lot of money to sign the [unwind] papers,” which he did. 

Language  

  • Profanity is used often and includes ass, crap, damn, freaking, goddamn, hell, and piss. 
  • There is some name-calling, including bitch, bastard, moron, idiot, scumbag, wimp, and prime douche.  
  • Grace is “low-cortical” which is the term for mentally challenged people. Her brother calls her feebleminded. 
  • Native Americans are called ChanceFolk or SlotMongers, “that hideous slur put upon them by the very people who made casino gaming the only way tribes could earn back their self-reliance, self-respect, and the fortunes leeched from them over the centuries.”  
  • Oh my God and Oh Jesus are used as exclamations. 
  • Connor calls Cam “Pork-n-beans.” 
  • Starkey’s crew has a sign “like a heil Hitler thing, but with just the middle finger.” 

Supernatural 

  • When a person is given a body part from an unwound person, the body part remembers what the person learned. For example, one man received a new hand, and the hand still knew how to perform magic. 
  • Cyrus was injured and received half of Tyler Walker’s brain. Now, Tyler is in Cyrus’s head and occasionally talks through Cyrus. Cyrus and some of the other people who received parts from Tyler live in a compound, so they “feel the need to reunite the Unwind they share.” Some of the people have Tyler’s memories. 
  • Some people who receive body parts from an Unwind have “cellular memory being transferred” to them. For example, “an eight-year-old girl receives the heart of a ten-year-old girl who was murdered. The recipient begins having nightmares about the murder, remembering details that only the victim could know, such as when and how it happened and the identity of the murderer. Her entire testimony turns out to be true, and the murderer is caught.”  
  • NeuroWeaves take a part of an unwind’s brain and graph it to another person. This allows a person to acquire a skill without having to learn anything. 

Spiritual Content  

  • Cam wrestles with his thoughts. “He begins to scour his memory, seeking out moments that ring with a spiritual connection. He had First Communion, a Bar Mitzvah, and a Bismillah ceremony. He saw a brother baptized in a Greek Orthodox church, and a grandmother cremated in a traditional Buddhist funeral. Just about every faith is represented in his memories. . .”  
  • Cam goes to a Catholic church for confession. Cam asks the priest if he “qualifies as a human.” The priest tells him, “How can I speak to whether or not you carry a divine spark?” 
  • While looking for answers, Cam “prays in nine languages, to a dozen deities—to Jesus, to Yahweh, to Allah, to Vishnu, to the ‘I’ of the universe, and even to a great godless void. Please, he begs. Please, give me a single reason why I shouldn’t hurl myself beneath the wheels of the bus.” 
  • Before the harvest camp director is executed, he prays. “A man who kills for a living praying for deliverance.” 
  • Starkey’s second in command is Bam. After the harvest camp is attacked, “she knows she mustn’t steal Starkey’s thunder. She’s Bam the Baptist, preparing the way for the Savior of Storks.” Later, the media refers to Starkey as “the Stork Lord.”  
  • Deuteronomy 21:18-21 was used to convince the public to allow unwinding. According to a legislative candidate, unwinding “would be a tremendous incentive for children to give proper respect to their parents.”  

The Viking’s Revenge

Travel back to the days of Vikings with time-traveling brothers Arthur and Finn to retrieve the stolen sword called Blood Hunter and rewrite the past. The two brothers plan to help the Viking leader Hallvard and his village from being killed by raiders. However, Arthur and Finn are accused of being spies. Some of the villagers want to kill the two boys immediately, while Hallvard wants to give the boys a chance to prove themselves. Will the boys escape the grip of the powerful Vikings and succeed in changing the course of history?  

Arthur’s impulsive behavior led to his capture twice. Luckily, Finn is an intelligent, quick thinker who pays attention to history and is used to getting Arthur out of difficult situations. The two brothers are forced apart when Viking raiders take Arthur and Hallvard’s son prisoner. Arthur is absent for much of the action, which allows Finn’s loyalty and bravery to shine. Despite the risk, Finn doesn’t hesitate to fearlessly fight with the Vikings. While readers won’t relate to Finn’s dilemma, they will cheer when he frees his brother and helps return Blood Hunter to its rightful owner. 

Short sections are interspersed throughout the book, giving more historical information, such as how Viking longships were used, the Vikings’ belief in many gods, the types of Viking weapons, and how raiders and berserkers fought. The detailed information explains the Vikings’ views of crime and punishment. If you stole from someone, “the person you had stolen from had every right to kill you.” The Vikings often trafficked slaves, who they called thralls. “They captured thralls in battles, kidnapped them on raids, or created them by condemning criminals to slavery . . . If you escape and get caught, you’ll be killed instantly.” While historically accurate, the descriptions of battles and death may upset younger readers. 

Even though The Viking’s Revenge is part of a series, the books do not have to be read in order because each book focuses on Arthur and Finn going back to a different time period and each book wraps up the storyline. 

In The Viking’s Revenge, danger in the first chapter and the non-stop action makes the book impossible to put down. Readers will instantly be drawn into the Viking’s world, where they will learn many interesting facts about the time period. Even though the focus is on Finn, he is surrounded by fascinating characters, including a Viking leader and a slave girl. The combination of diverse characters, fierce battles, and nail-biting danger make The Viking’s Revenge perfect for readers who hunger for adventure.  

Sexual Content  

  • None 

Violence  

  • When Arthur travels back in time, he appears in the woods. Brand, a Viking boy, decides to capture Arthur and turn him into a slave. Brand shoots arrows at Arthur.   
  • Brand’s friend, Olaf, tries to grab Arthur. Olaf “clenched his fists and pulled his arm back to punch Arthur in the stomach. . . Arthur stepped back, and Olaf staggered forward with the force of the punch. . . Arthur dropped his shoulders and crunched it into Olaf’s chest driving him back.” 
  • Brand shoots another arrow at Arthur, but it hits Olaf instead. “Olaf screamed in pain and stumbled backwards clutching at the arrow that was now lodged in his arm, spilling blood onto the forest floor.”
  • Brand and Arthur begin to circle each other, “and then Arthur felt an explosion of pain in the back of his head. The world tipped over as his head erupted into tiny points of light and his legs gave way from beneath him.” Arthur wakes up locked in a room. 
  • A warrior’s ghost appears and tells his story. The warrior says, “They came in the night. They killed us and they took Blood Hunter. My sword . . .” The warrior needs help returning Blood Hunter to his family. 
  • Finn opens the shed that Arthur is locked in. “Without warning, a fist connected with [Finn’s] chin, and he fell to the ground. Somebody jumped on him and grabbed his throat.” 
  • When the Vikings find Arthur and Finn, some want to kill them, and others want to wait. The boys are tied to a tree. A Viking says, “Well, you have a dangerous night ahead of you boys. You will need Odin’s protection from the bears and wolves tonight. . .” 
  • In the middle of the night, Viking raiders crept closer to the longhouse. “Two of the men at the back of the group fell to the ground with arrows sticking out of their necks. Finn fired his first arrow and a third raider went down.” 
  • The Viking leader Hallvard “smashed the edge of a shield into the raider’s face and lunged forward with his sword, burying it in the man and then kicking him backward. . .” 
  • To save Hallvard, Finn “fired another arrow, and it whistled past Hallvard and into the chest of one of his attackers, who fell to the ground.”  
  • A raider throws an ax at Finn but misses. As the raider advances, “his body slapped face first into the ground once again just as the raider reached him. . . the huge man tripped and fell directly on top of Finn. . . Just as the raider began to lift his weight off Finn he grunted and collapsed back on top of the boy. Finn felt a warm liquid flowing down his neck.” Two of Hallvard’s men die. The battle is described over five pages. 
  • Thorfinna, a teenage girl, tells the story of how she became a slave. A man who wanted power, Moldof, murdered one of her kinsmen. “Moldof stabbed the man in the back—it was no honorable fight—it was murder.” 
  • When Thorfinna’s father sent men to arrest Moldof, “Moldof overpowered them. He bound their hands and feet and tortured them horribly. . . their bodies were unrecognizable.” 
  • Later that night, Moldof and his men attack Thorfinna’s village. “They killed everyone except for those they could sell as slaves. . . I saw the men kill my father and mother. . .” 
  • Hallvard takes a group of Vikings, Thorfinna, and Finn, to attack the raider’s village. While looking for movement in the village, Moldof captures Finn. “a cloth was stuffed into Finn’s mouth to gag him, his hands were tied behind his back, and a rope was looped around his waist.” 
  • Finn is forced to watch the battle in the village. “There were . . . huge warriors slaughtering and being slaughtered. . . Men that Finn did not recognize began to turn and run, pursued by men he did recognize from the ship.”   
  • When Hallvard sees his son in Moldof’s grasp, he cries out. “As he stood staring up at his son, his axe and shield fell from his hands. His legs crumbled and he fell to his knees. He did not see the injured man beside him bring out the knife. He did not feel it as it slid into his back. . .” Hallvard eventually dies from his wound. 
  • Finn sees Maldof “grinning insanely as he put his hands around Brand’s neck and lifted him off his feet to dangle over the drop. Brand kicked frantically. . .” Brand is not injured. 
  • One of Maldof’s men, “Ulf staggered forward and toppled over the edge of the cliff with an axe protruding from his back.” 
  • Thorfinna surprises Moldof when she attacks him. He drops his sword. “Thorfinna drove her sword into Moldof’s chest and let go. With a look of shock, Moldof fell backwards off the cliff and plunged down to the rocks below.” 
  • After Hallvard’s men win the battle, “Moldof’s men had either fled or been killed, while several of Hallvard’s men lay dead also.”  

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • During a meal, ale is served. 

Language  

  • Several times, someone is called a coward. 

Supernatural 

  • Arthur and Finn’s grandfather created a museum about warriors throughout history. The museum is haunted, and when the grandfather died, “he started haunting the place too. He felt guilty about the trapped ghost warriors and vowed he would not rest in peace until all the other ghosts were laid to rest first.” 
  • When one of the ghost warriors touches the boys, “we get transported to the time and place where the ghost lived and died. And we can’t get back until we’ve fixed whatever it is that keeps the ghost from resting in peace.” 
  • The ghost of a Viking warrior appears, and he “will only be laid to rest when his sword is returned to him or his son. Find the sword, and he will find peace.”

Spiritual Content  

  • When Arthur hears a noise in the forest, he prays “that he will see Finn.”  
  • To explain how he knows a raid will happen, Finn tells the Vikings, “Odin is our mater. He shows me things—he showed me your sword, Blood Hunter, and he showed me the raid that is coming.” 
  • Two and a half pages explain the Vikings’ belief in gods and goddesses, but the passage mainly focuses on Odin, the God of magic, poetry, and war, and his son Thor, the god of thunder. 
  • After the raiders attack, Hallvard tells Finn, “Odin gave an eye to gain knowledge and see the truth. Maybe if his boy gives an eye he too will see the truth. Call to Odin. Speak to him. Do whatever it is you have to do, and tell me who these men are!” Luckily, someone else recognizes the raider’s leader. 
  • Hallvard tells someone, “None of us know what the Gods have in store for us.” 
  • When Hallvard goes to save his son, Hallvard’s wife says, “May Thor give you strength in battle. And may Odin guide you to victory.”   
  • The Vikings believed anyone who died in battle would “be taken by the Valkyries to feast in Valhalla.” 
  • After his father is fatally wounded, Hallvard’s son prays, “Odin, hear me! Give me the strength to wield his sword and bring these men victory in his name and yours. Give me the wisdom to lead as he did.”  
  • Some believed that Viking warriors known as berserkers were “Odin’s own warriors and that he gives them this superhuman strength.” 

Strength of the Mountains

The morning arrives. The balloon is filled. An unexpected storm strikes. Matt, all alone, swept off into the wilderness in an unfinished balloon. He crash lands in the wilderness without a cell phone or other means of contacting others. He must find a way to survive with only the items in the balloon.  

He tries hiking out of the valley, but the steep mountains and raging rivers make the escape nearly impossible. While looking for a way out of the valley, he discovers a hidden house carved into the side of the mountain cliff. With only his survival book and a small food supply, Matt stays in the valley until he can catch enough food for a long trek back to civilization.  

Then, another disaster strikes. After a pilot jumps out of his plane, sisters Erica and Natalie crash in the forest near Matt. Twelve-year-old Natalie is uninjured, but her older sister Erica cannot walk. Now, Matt must find a way to keep himself and the two girls alive. With little food and no hope of walking out, will the three ever make it home? 

Despite being stranded in the wilderness, twenty-three-year-old Matt keeps an optimistic outlook and finds simple joys such as breathing fresh air and stargazing. At first, Matt spends his time exploring the Cliff House and the tunnels that twist deep into the mountains. His curiosity and resourcefulness never wane, and he never gives in to anger or self-pity. When Erica and Natalie arrive, Matt jumps in to help the girls without complaint, even though his plans must pivot in order for everyone to survive. 

Even though Matt’s story is a survival story, his situation never seems genuinely dire. For example, he notices wolf and bear tracks but never encounters dangerous animals. Similarly, he knows he needs to find food but never runs out of breakfast bars. At first, he doesn’t realize how isolated he is, so he explores and enjoys nature’s ruggedness. This slows the story’s pacing, which doesn’t pick up until Erica and Natalie appear. The characters’ interactions help propel the story forward and show the importance of teamwork.  

Readers will instantly like Natalie, who, like Matt, is optimistic and upbeat, while Erica often voices her complaints. Readers will enjoy Matt’s inability to form coherent words when talking to Erica. While the two eventually get engaged, their relationship never feels romantic. Unfortunately, the story’s conclusion comes too quickly to feel complete. In addition, not all of the plot points come to an end, leaving the readers with unanswered questions.  

Strength of the Mountains will appeal to nature-loving readers who enjoy survival stories such as Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. Even though Strength of the Mountains has few intense, action-packed scenes, Matt’s story is still compelling because of his curiosity about his surroundings, his friendship with a raccoon, and his willingness to care for Erica and Natalie. In addition, the book highlights the importance of forgiveness, teamwork, and reading the Bible. If you’d like to read more about teens who must rely on themselves to survive, grab a copy of Mayday at Two Thousand Five Hundred by Frank E. Peretti and Alone by Megan E. Freeman. 

Sexual Content  

  • After Erica agrees to marry Matt, he “kissed her right on the lips. It was a right, wonderful kiss.” 

Violence  

  • None 

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None

Language  

  • None 

Supernatural 

  • None 

Spiritual Content  

  • Matt discovers a home carved into the side of a mountain. In a trunk, he finds a Bible with an inscription: “Read this Bible daily, live its teachings, and happiness and joy will be yours. / Pray to the Lord each day for each other and your family. Be thankful, and God will bless and prosper you on your journey. Let Him be your Strength, and He will always be there to help you.” 
  • Matt often says quick little prayers. For example, after crash landing in the wilderness, he finds a breakfast bar and gives a blessing. “Heavenly Father. Thank You for this food. And thank You for keeping me safe, keeping me alive. Please, please help me find. . . my family. . . my home.” 
  • While exploring the wilderness, Matt “offered a silent prayer for health and safety, and that he would be able to find his way back to Cliff House.” Not all of the prayers are included below. 
  • Tunnels go through the mountain. While exploring the tunnels, Matt “offered a silent prayer about which way he should go.” 
  • While looking at the stars, Matt thinks, “It’s almost as if we could reach out and touch the throne of God.” 
  • Matt gives Erica’s sister a Bible and says, “If she’s grumpy, give her this to read.” 
  • Matt, Erica, and Natalie discuss forgiveness. Erica doesn’t want to forgive “Turkey Tom,” who jumped out of the airplane and left Erica and Natalie behind, almost killing them. The discussion shows the importance of forgiving others “so we don’t carry the burden.” The discussion lasted for half a page.  
  • While preparing to fly the hot air balloon, Matt says, “Prayer is good. We’re going to need all the help we can get.” 
  • Erica finds an important paper in the Bible. She tells Matt, “You know how you said to take your problems to the Lord and He will always help you? Well, that’s just what I did. I picked up the old McAllister Bible and this paper fell out of it.” 

The Defiant

Be brave, gladiatrix. . .And be wary. Once you win Caesar’s love, you’ll earn his enemies’ hate. Fallon was warned. Now she is about to pay the price for winning the love of the Roman people as Caesar’s victorious gladiatrix.

In this sequel to The Valiant, Fallon and her warrior sisters find themselves thrust into a vicious conflict with a rival gladiator academy, one that will threaten not only Fallon’s heart—and her love for Roman soldier Cai—but the very heart of the ancient Roman Empire.

When dark treachery and vicious power struggles threaten her hard-won freedom, the only thing that might help the girl known as Victrix save herself and her sisters is a tribe of long-forgotten mythic Amazon warriors. The only trouble is, they might just kill her themselves first. 

Fallon’s story continues in The Defiant, but the setting is given more scope as Fallon and her companions rush to save Fallon’s sister, Sorcha, from being sacrificed by the Amazon warriors. When the gladiatrices are given a chance to choose their fate, many follow Fallon because of her bravery and fierce dedication to returning to Rome to save the gladiatrices who were taken prisoner. During the journey, Fallon must grapple with the fact that she cannot save everyone—some will be taken prisoner, some will change sides, and some will lose their lives.  

The Defiant does an excellent job of recapping the main events from the first book in the series; however, the series is best read in order. The Defiant features many of the same characters as The Valiant and introduces several new characters. Even though Fallon is surrounded by her sister gladiatrices and several Roman soldiers, she is the leader who makes decisions for everyone. Fallon’s inability to trust others leads to a lack of teamwork, which takes away some of the enjoyment of each battle won. In addition, focusing solely on Fallon keeps the other characters stagnant. Readers who love character-driven stories may be disappointed with the lack of character development.  

Like the first book in the series, The Defiant includes adventure, action, and several surprises. However, some of the story drags because Fallon and her companions travel a long distance. Despite this, Fallon’s adventure is both entertaining and exciting. Readers who get squeamish during bloody battles should avoid reading The Valiant Series because each battle ends in bloodshed, and Fallon’s enemies include a group of men who eat people’s hearts. The Defiant is best suited for mature readers who enjoy political intrigue, bloody battles, and the fight against evil.  

Sexual Content  

  • Fallon and Cai kiss occasionally. However, only some of them are described. For instance, Cai returns to Rome after being in a battle. When Fallon sees him, “It took every last infinitesimal amount of self-control I could muster not to throw myself into Cai’s arms and devour him with kisses, right there in front of the whole academy. . .” 
  • Later, when they are alone, Fallon “lunged at him, reaching up to pull his head down toward me, and silencing him with the kiss I’d been waiting on for months. . . his mouth opened hungrily on mine. His arms wrapped around me and he lifted me off the ground.” 
  • In the evening, Fallon and Cai go to the garden. “Cai lowered his face to mine and kissed me on the mouth. I felt myself melting into his embrace as my arms circled around his neck. . .[they] sank slowly to the soft grass. . .”  
  • Later that night, they show each other their battle scars and kiss them. Cai kisses her again. “A long, slow, teasing kiss that made my lips tingle and turned my skin to fireflies and feathers.” At this time, Fallon wished she was still a princess who should “be sleeping where—and with whom—she damned well pleased.” 
  • While in a Roman bath, Cai and Fallon kiss. Fallon “lost myself to the sensation of his skin sliding against mine as he stopped swimming and, together, we sank beneath the surface of the water, breathing only each other’s air.” 
  • Before a battle, one of the gladiatrices “leaned in and kissed [a Roman soldier], full on his open, astonished mouth.” 

Violence  

  • One night, the Amazona, a rival gladiatrix academy, attacks Fallon’s academy, the Ludus Achillea. First, they kill the guards and set the barn on fire. As the Ludus Achillea women are being rounded up, a Roman soldier “lunged for one of the guard’s weapons. . . an archer up on the sentry walk spun and aimed, loosing an arrow. . . [the arrow] lodged in the breast of legionnaire Tullis . . . he sank to his knees and toppled forward motionless onto the ground.”  
  • During the attack, the Amazona leader, Nyx, uses her whip to attack one of the Ludus Achillea girls, Lydian. “The crack of leather echoed across the yard. Lydia screamed and dropped to the ground a Nyx’s whip caught her on the side of her face, and blood poured onto the sand from between her fingers. . . the whip cracked again as it sliced across Lydian’s shoulder. . . drawing an arch of bright blood. She shrieked again in agony. . .” Later, Lydia is in the infirmary, and “the skin on the right side of her face, where the lash of Nyx’s whip had scored, was split to the bone.” 
  • To stop the abuse, Fallon attacks Nyx. Nyx “brandished the heavy butt end of the whip like a club and caught me on the side of the head with it. Stars burst in front of my eyes. . . Nyx slammed the whip across my back like a truncheon. Then again. And again. . . A kick from her hobnailed boot lifted me off the ground.” Nyx stabs Fallon and then puts her in a dark cell. 
  • To escape Nyx, Fallon has to kill Ixion (an Amazon warrior) from behind. “Ixion’s heavy dead body sagged away from me. . .Never mind that my hands were shaking as I wiped clean my blade on the dead man’s tunic.” 
  • When Fallon and her companions are escaping from Nyx, a guard is killed. “The blade sliced through the rain, spinning end over end, and the man toppled soundlessly over the Ludus wall.”  
  • One of Fallon’s friends tells her a story. “When I was a girl, I came across what was left of one of those captives. . . He’d been blood-eagled. Split open and strung up between the branches of a tree as an offering to our god and a warning to our enemies.” 
  • Fallon and her companions flee from Rome. While sneaking onto a ship, guards called vigiles see Fallon and her fellow gladiatrix, Meriel. The girls attack the guards. “And two of them went down like sacks of grain the instant they attacked. I didn’t have time to think about how it felt to have to wrench my sword out of human flesh again, twisting as I did to avoid slipping in the hot, red rush of blood. . .”  
  • A guard attacks, and Fallon “raised an axe over his head, screaming as he swung the weapon back for a killing blow. He screamed louder when he realized that he no longer had an axe—or an arm—to swing.” Fallon escapes, but Meriel doesn’t. It is unclear what Meriel’s fate is. 
  • One of Fallon’s friends questions the goddess Morrigan’s kindness. He says, “Your fearsome war goddess. She who—as I’ve been led to understand—bathes in the blood of her enemies and feasts on their eyes after the battle’s done. She would not be so cruel?” 
  • To free Fallon’s sister, Sorcha, some of the gladiatrices from the Ludus Achillea go to the island the Amazons inhabit. When they get there, Thalestris—who had kidnapped Sorcha—was to sacrifice Socha. Thalestris tied Sorcha to a menhir and called out to her god. “Cybele! Black stone mother! Guardian of the boundaries between the living and the dead! Accept this blood sacrifice that we may wash the shame of our sister Orithyia’s disgrace and defeat from our skins and our souls.” 
  • Fallon and her group attack the Amazons. “The flaming iron cage balls soared out of the darkness like stones hurled from catapults, slamming into the protective shell made from our wall of shields, and the darkness exploded knot showers of sparks. . . Our blades darted out like serpents’ tongues, sometimes tagging flesh.”  
  • An older Amazon woman “swung an oak staff at [Fallon’s] head. . .and I caught the blow at an angle.” Fallon head-butted the woman in the face. “I felt her nose break. Blood gushed and she reeled backward, pain-blind . . .” The fight ends when Fallon repeatedly yells stop. Fallon gives the Amazons a speech, and both sides put down their weapons.  
  • As the Ludus Achillea leaves the island, Thalestris throws a fishing spear, killing a man. “His body stiffened and jerked, chest thrust forward, and the glistening red tip of a spear blade appeared as if by some evil magic, sticking out of the center of his tunic. . . When he opened his mouth to say something, all that came out was a gout of bright blood.” 
  • While at Cai’s father’s home, the guards try to attack Fallon and her friends. When the guard tries to punch Fallon, she “blocked the blow with my sword. He didn’t have time to scream in pain before I circled my blade through the air and lunged forward, burying the point in his chest.” 
  • When all the guards are dead, “the blood pooled beneath our feet, seeping from the mortal wounds of the seven dead vigils.” 
  • Cai’s father, Varro, attacks Fallon, who “took the length of a pitchfork shaft in the stomach. I dropped to the ground, wheezing, and my sword fell from my hands. . . Varro turned and threw me through the air. . . It felt as though my head had been torn half off.” 
  • To protect Fallon, “without the slightest hesitation, Cai thrust the blade between his father’s ribs. Right to the hilt.” As Varro took his last breaths, Cai said, “I renounce you, and your name, and your blood. I will not perform the rites for you, old man. I will not put coins for the Ferryman on your eyes. You go to Hades with no issue, no legacy, and no hope to ever walk the fields of Elysium beside my mother’s shade.” 
  • The Amazon and the Achillea gladiatrices battle. Sorcha fights Nyx. As Thalestris goes to kill Fallon, Sorcha “brought her blade up and around. . . and thrust into the space beneath Thalestris’s arm as she tore my sword out of my grasp. . . Thalestris was dead before she hit the ground.” 
  • Nyx joins the fight, wielding a fire chain. Nyx “swung the thing back and attacked again. And again. . . In her enthusiasm to spill my brains, it seemed she’d forgotten that I had a second sword. And she’d left herself wide open. . . I buried it between her ribs.” 
  • From the stands, someone shot an arrow at Fallon. “It dented on impact, and I felt like I’d been hit by a catapult stone, but I was alive.” 
  • Another arrow was let loose, but “Aeddan leaped in front . . .taking the second arrow that was meant for [Fallon] square in the chest. . . He spun around in a grotesque dance. . . toppled off the wall and hit the ground below.” The Achillea gladiatrices win the battle, but there are many deaths.

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • Often, Fallon and other adults drink wine. For example, after a practice battle, a drunk man asks Fallon for a kiss. She “snatched the cup from his hands and drank the wine in one gulp.” She left without kissing him. 
  • At night, Fallon and the other gladiatrices sit around the fire with “mugs of beer.” Some of the girls get drunk. 
  • When injured, Fallon is given a “potion” to stop the pain. Another gladiatrix is given “poppy draughts” when injured in a battle. 
  • Fallon’s sister is rescued and given a sleeping draught. 
  • To give Fallon and Cai time alone, Cai’s friend gets the guards drunk. 
  • Fallon thinks a “potent soporific” made her have bad dreams. 
  • One of the Sons of Dis put hemlock, a sedative, in Fallon’s wine. However, Fallon says, “The senator’s physician sent a cup of wine to my room every night to help me sleep. But I had such terrible dreams the first night; I just kept pouring the stuff out the window.”

Language  

  • Profanity is used occasionally. Profanity includes arse, ass, bloody, damn, and hell. 
  • There is some name-calling, including bitch, bastard and whore. 
  • “Lugh’s teeth” is used as an exclamation several times. 
  • “Morrigan’s bloody teeth” and “sweet Juno” are used as exclamations once. 

Supernatural 

  • When Fallon is delirious with fever, she’s forced to flee the Ludus Achillea; she prays to her goddess. Afterward, she sees a vision of a warrior she knows. She follows the warrior, who leads her to safety. Fallon believes, “The Morrigan had sent his shade back from the Lands of the Blessed Dead to lead my friends and me.”

Spiritual Content  

  • The conflict revolves around “the Sons of Dis, a depraved and cultish secret society dedicated to the sacrificial worship of a god of the Underworld.” Fallon saw a group of men “in feathered masks crowding around [a gladiator’s] split-open carcass, greedily devouring the heart that had beat so strongly within his chest only a handful of moments earlier.”  
  • Dis is “the dark incarnation of the Roman god Saturn—ruler of the Underworld, a pitiless deity who could grant his worshippers strength and power but would only be placated with blood.”
  • The Egyptians believed that “when we die, Anubis, the god of the dead, carves out our heart and weighs it against Ma’at, the feather of truth.” 
  • Fallon often refers to her goddess. Her father promised her hand in marriage to a man Fallon didn’t love. After a time, Fallon wonders, “if my father’s decision hadn’t been a part of the goddess Morrigan’s plan for me all along.” 
  • Before the gladiatrices are attacked, Fallon dreams of Morrigan appearing. “Her cloak was made of dagger blades. . .” Morrigan whispers the word “vengeance,” and Fallon wakes to find the stables on fire. Later, Morrigan tells Fallon to “Run! Live! Return to fight another day!” 
  • When Fallon is seriously injured, she wonders, “Had the Morrigan forsaken me because I’d pledged my warrior’s gifts in service to Caesar?” 
  • When Fallon’s enemy has captured her, he says, “Don’t you see, Fallon. Your goddess has laid out your fate’s path to lead right to the doorstep of my god. Dis and Morrigan are kindred.” 
  • When Fallon is in danger, she prays to Morrigan. Later, she believes “the Morrigan had heard my prayers and given me this chance.” When Fallon is finally safe, she offers “a silent prayer of gratitude to the Morrigan.”  
  • When Fallon’s sister, Sorcha, is kidnapped, a friend “made sacrifices to the goddess for her safe journey.” 
  • Sorcha was kidnapped so she could be sacrificed “to the goddess of the Amazons under the light of the Huntress Moon. How spilling of her blood would make their tribe mighty again.”  
  • Fallon’s tribe believes that after a person dies, they go to the Blessed Isles of the afterlife. 
  • When a man in Fallon’s group dies, she “whispered a prayer for the Morrigan to guide his soul’s flight.” 
  • Cleopatra tells Fallon that she can’t join the fight because “I am the daughter of the gods and, as such, should probably leave such robust bloodshed to you who are trained in those arts.”  
  • For protection, Cleopatra gives Fallon a pendant with Sekhmet on it. “One of the goddesses, and much like—if I understand what your sister has told me—your goddess, the Morrigan.” 

The Serpent’s Shadow

Following the events of Book Two of The Kane Chronicles: The Throne of Fire, Carter and Sadie prepare to face the Serpent of Chaos, Apophis. “It had been six months since the Chaos snake Apophis had escaped from his Underworld prison, but he still hadn’t launched a large-scale invasion of the mortal world as we’d expected.” Apophis has attacked several Nomes—organized groups of magicians—but Apophis seems to be waiting for the perfect time to launch a destructive attack on the entire mortal world. As Apophis’ attacks on groups of magicians continue, Carter and Sadie are determined to find a way to defeat Apophis, before he can reach his goal of overrunning the mortal world with chaos.  

In this book, Carter and Sadie reflect on and experience a lot of loss, which some readers may be able to empathize with. Carter explains, “I’d already lost so many people. My mom had died when I was seven. My dad sacrificed himself to become the host of Osiris [Egyptian god of the dead] last year. Over the summer, many of our allies had fallen to Apophis.” Having lost so many people that they love, Carter and Sadie have grown closer, and they recognize how important it is that they support each other. As Carter explains, “I needed [Sadie].”  

An important theme in The Serpent’s Shadow is Sadie’s evolving relationships with Anubis, the Egyptian god of funerals, and Walt, her friend and fellow magician. Middle-grade readers will likely sympathize with Sadie as she struggles to understand her emotions. Sadie explains that she does not really know what she wants and feels conflicted. “My heart had been torn between [Walt] and Anubis for months now, and it just wasn’t fair of Anubis to pop into my dreams, looking all hot and immortal, when poor Walt was risking his life to protect me.”  

Things take a dramatic turn for Sadie when Walt, who has been dying of an incurable curse, is able to live—but only by becoming the mortal host of Anubis. At first, Sadie is mortified and does not know how to handle both Anubis and Walt being in one body, but she is ultimately able to accept this. Sadie “saw [Walt] smiling down at me. Anubis, too. I could see them both, and I realized I didn’t have to pick.” Sadie ultimately decides to pursue a relationship with Walt even after he becomes Anubis’ host, saying, “This was a new boy in front of me, and he was everything I liked.”  

Ultimately, to defeat the Serpent of Chaos, Apophis, the gods and goddesses must work together with the mortal magicians. While the gods and goddesses keep the serpent at bay, Carter and Sadie are able to perform a spell and defeat Apophis by destroying his shadow, or his sheut. Carter and Sadie visit their parents in the underworld, where their mom emphasizes the importance of magicians working in tandem with the gods to create harmony. Carter and Sadie’s mom says, “Keep teaching the path of the gods. Bring the House of Life [the organization of the magicians] back to its former glory. [Sadie] and Carter will make Egyptian magic stronger than ever. And that’s good . . . because your challenges are not over.”  

Readers who enjoy mythology, action, and magic will love this series, which is an absolute must-read because of its message of working together to make the world a better place, or in Carter and Sadie’s case, to defeat the Serpent of Chaos.  

Sexual Content  

  • While running from an angry goddess, Walt, Sadie’s friend and fellow magician, kisses Sadie. “He nodded, then gave me a hasty kiss. ‘Good luck.’”  
  • After successfully performing a spell to avoid being captured, Sadie kisses Walt. “I kissed him properly—or as properly as possible given our situation.”  
  • Carter and Zia, Carter’s friend from the first two books and fellow magician, kiss. “She leaned over and kissed me. I’d imagined this many times, but I was so unprepared, I didn’t act very cool about it. . . I said something like ‘Hum-uh-huh.’” 
  • Carter and Zia kiss while on a date in the mall’s food court. “She leaned over and kissed me.”  
  • After Walt explains to Sadie how he agreed to become Anubis’ mortal host so that he could stay alive in spite of his curse, Walt and Sadie kiss. “[Walt] leaned down and kissed me.”  

Violence  

  • Carter and Sadie fight alongside a group of magicians from another Nome, or magician group, from Texas. However, in the course of the battle, the demons sent by Apophis kill all the magicians that came to help Carter and Sadie. Sadie says, “The Texas magicians had welcomed us and supported us . . . ’They’re dead,’ [Sadie] said. ‘All of them.’” The killings aren’t described, but Carter and Sadie find remnants of some belt buckles worn by the magicians that passed away.  
  • A rebel magician leader, Sarah Jacobi, has gathered a group of supporters who believe that Carter, Sadie, and their relatives are dangerous and that Carter and Sadie, not Apophis, have caused the many deaths of other magicians. Jacobi threatens Carter and Sadie, “The Kanes are a plague . . . you must be destroyed. Surrender yourself and your family for execution.” Carter and Sadie do not surrender to Jacobi, knowing that she is wrong, and that Apophis is the threat to magicians and to the mortal world at large.  
  • A river monster attacks Carter and his friend, Zia, and Carter changes into a falcon so that he can get a better view of the monster during the fight. Carter says, “I dove at the monster’s eye, raking it with my claws . . . but I could tell that I hadn’t done any real damage.” Carter and Zia are saved by a giant who appears in the river and defeats the monster.  
  • When Carter and Sadie cast a spell to destroy Apophis’ shadow and defeat him, the Chaos serpent explodes. “His head exploded. Yes, it was just as gross as it sounds. Flaming bits of reptile flew everywhere.”  

Drugs and Alcohol  

  • None 

Language  

  • Characters occasionally say stupid and shut up.  

Supernatural 

  • Carter and Sadie discuss the various parts of the soul. Carter and Sadie’s friend and the goddess of cats, Bast, explains the shadow part of the soul. “You can never be free of your shadow—your sheut. All living beings have them…The sheut is not just a physical shadow. It’s a magical projection—the silhouette of the soul.”  
  • Carter is able to channel the power of Horus, a god, since they worked together in the past two books. Because of this, Carter is able to use Horus’ power to change into a falcon if he needs to. “I changed into a falcon . . . it was fairly easy magic for me, since the falcon was Horus’ sacred animal.”  
  • While the gods fight off Apophis, Sadie and Carter are able to combat Apophis with a spell. Sadie explains how she uses the magic. “I faced down my own chaos. I accepted my jumbled emotions about whether I belonged in London or New York, whether I was a magician or a schoolgirl. I was Sadie Kane, and if I survived today, I could bloody well balance it all . . . I stilled my restlessness and let go of my doubts. ‘Ma’at [order]’ I said.”

Spiritual Content  

  • Like in the other Kane Chronicles books, Carter and Sadie encounter the gods and goddesses of Egyptian mythology throughout this book and often fight Apophis, the Serpent of Chaos, alongside the gods. The Egyptian gods in this series are not really worshipped in a traditional sense, but rather are given human characteristics—anger, revenge, love, and jealousy.  
  • Sadie explains of the Egyptian gods and goddesses, “the gods are not human. They have trouble thinking of us [humans] as more than useful tools or cute pets. To gods, a human life span doesn’t seem much longer than that of the average gerbil.”  
  • Characters rarely exclaim “gods of Egypt” when frustrated or surprised.  
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