There are two main concerns that we want to highlight to Christian parents.
Many Christian parents will see aspects of “wokeness” here. First, nearly all if not all of the good, intelligent, successful, kind characters are African American. While there is no issue with this by itself, the fact that the book then makes it a point to tell us that the evil villain is a middle-aged white greedy businessman makes it start to feel a bit off. We see more of this after two kids go missing, a rally forms to help locate them. Surprisingly, seemingly out of nowhere, the initial sparker we hear from at this rally opens it with “For too long our city has been attacked by gentrification… we need to fight back”. The rally then splits into two groups, one to find the missing children and the other to march on the developer’s headquarters. The super-evil plot is later boiled down to “demolishing low-income neighborhoods… and populate it with the wealthiest people”. Even more obvious concern comes when the police appear on the scene at the rally. All of a sudden as the peaceful march sets out “dozens of police cruisers” speed up, pull up onto the school lawn and officers pour out “shouting at the crowd”. With no provocation or discussion, they immediately tell them “we will not hesitate to use force”. Later we find out that the bad guy has “paid off all of the police” (all of them). As Christians, we are called to a much more mature and complete view of all of these topics, one that takes into account the fallen sinfulness of ALL people and the need for real justice that honors God. Our kids need a more godly picture of police, government, racism, etc.
The second concern item stems from the main plotline. The setting feels very much like our own time, but actually occurs in the future. CJ’s mom and dad have created more and more human-like “revs”, which can be thought of as AI inhabiting a body. A sinister person takes these over, leading to something that is not “horror”, but certainly a type of physiological thriller type setting that many will find creepy. Eventually his own parents are replaced by revs, really ramping up the creepy feel. There are a few illustrations that will enhance this as well.
Other items to be aware of:
In the happy culmination of the book an idea comes up for what the group of friends can do now and one sadly suggests “We could ride around and knock stuff over… get into trouble. You know, something normal”.
There are times when CJ, the main character, doesn’t show the best behavior. He says his mom is “blabbing into her phone” and that she has a “nosy glare”. He complains about food he is given (“Ugh”) and says “boring”. At a point when he is frustrated, he remarks, “Hope is for suckers”. He almost brags about “sneaking information from mom’s database”. He is often dishonest (e.g., to get out of a dangerous situation).
Similarly, early in the book CJ’s mom and uncle bicker a lot and, to make it much worse, justify their behavior as “a twin thing”.
Grandma says she is going to Biloxi to the casinos.
There are a few times public school is referred to as “real school” (implying homeschooling is something else).
A park attraction has a “house of horrors” component. Later we hear of a “haunted house”.
CJ crosses his fingers and hopes for luck.
A Rev learning to think autonomously is referred to as evolution.
“This place is dope” appears once. We also read someone say, “Kids go missing all the time”.
The following things are referenced: scooby doo, crime books, santa, Fortnite, Pokemon.