While the book claims a theme towards “mythology”, Christian parents will see making light of a wide array of things from the spiritual domain. And this concept of “making light of” is a really important thing to consider and take seriously. There is a saying that the biggest trick the devil ever pulled off was convincing the world that he didn’t exist, and our western culture is on the forefront of this. The main character is named Dante and we quickly notice that he is drawn with horns. His little sister is named “Hellen” with the extra “l”, seeming to clearly point to the word “hell”. A bully has the name “Beelzebubba”. The school’s name is “Purg”. We also see a skeleton in a black hood and hear references to ghosts (and one to “horror movie character”).
This really gets amplified (in a negative direction) when Dante meets a new friend at school who is shown with a halo and wings. Of course, in a very modern twist, this “good” character takes a book from the library without checking it out, to which Dante says, “I was genuinely impressed that sweet Blisshaven Virgil was a thief”. This Virgil later comes up with a plan to help Dante, but says not to do it at school or they would get “busted for sure”. When Dante gets to visit Blisshaven, they simply drive over a bridge to a city in the clouds. This new friend (again, with a halo and wings) has “death metal band posters” on his wall, with names the young reader sees as “satan’s rowboat”, “cannibal fart smack”, and “demon pillow”. Later when visiting Dante’s house and seeing terrible sibling bickering, Virgil comments, “Your family is a blast”.
Other things we hear directly from Dante:
“I’ve been obsessing over my reputation snice forever. It’s pretty much all I ever think about”
His written out plan to become popular ends with “Rub my newfound popularity in the faces of all the haters and jerks I grew up with”. Later we also read, “We kick butt and rub our victory in their ugly faces!”.
About his brother Milton we read he was, “expecting him not to be a jerk for some reason”. This brother suggests, “Maybe you could try being less of a sucky know-it-all”. Dante responds by trying to attack him.
Dante consistently uses “Pest” in place of his little sister’s name throughout the book, but he does tell us that “super-annoying feral monster would be more accurate”. He adds she is “super annoying ten million times a day”. In turn we read her saying, “What’s a matter loser? Upset about all your loser-ific losering?!” leading to him shown with an arrow saying “My-trying-not-to-murder-her-face”. He ends a rhythm with “Pest smells like doo-doo” (one of many random shots at her). When introducing his family to his friend, he comments “and that’s a turd” to which mom replies, “Don’t talk about your sister that way”.
He complains about his home being the “worst and smallest”.
He calls sharing a bunkbed with his brother being “trapped in a fog of endless death farts”
“I was quickly realizing that if I was gonna reinvent myself… I might have to tell a few fibs… Lies don’t count if you do this” with an illustration of crossing fingers. Similarly, “I felt bad lying, but I didn’t have the energy to explain”.
“That’s just how the stinky universe works”
“my life is damned, literally”
Bathroom humor: “I can’t imagine what my butt was so mad about”
We read lines like Dante saying he “gritted my teeth, and waited for the bus driver to explode me, chop me in half or whatever it is that undead bus drivers do” and “didn’t want to upset any would-be murders”
Calls the planet name Uranius “super inappropriate”
Other things to be aware of as a Christian parent:
A picture of a baby has the word “annoying”
Dante sneaks food. He also says he is going to “borrow” things from his brother and sister without them knowing.
An illustration shows Dante being hit in the groin with a soccer ball.
A few instances of my school is boring, my teacher is boring type material
References comic books in a positive light, with Dante bragging about how many he has (these are typically very dark today)
Dante smiles antagonistically at a bully who gets in trouble at school
Illustration of a pile of dog poo
Dante’s brother comments, “Uh—duh Mom” to which mom sadly replies, “Don’t be rude, we have a guest” to which he rolls his eyes. And to really make it super terrible, Dad responds by simply changing the subject.
At an academic competition the illustration shows the competing teams as “Team Jerks” and “Team Other Jerks”. One team has actually named themselves “Team Beautiful” to which Dante replies “barf”
The following terms are used – poop, shut up, jerk, dumb, shut-up, farts, nerd, dweebs
All this in a very short book...