One thing to say right up front is that this book’s cover doesn’t communicate some pretty heavy content that is included in these pages. We understand the challenge here, because this book really is a pretty beautiful blend of very light and happy content alongside moderately heavy peril. Christian parents should be aware that the cover focuses on the former. We will attempt to help you understand the latter below so you can make your decision for your specific reader (we should mention that the book never feels super heavy or sad as the author does a good job of keeping his audience in mind).

This book starts out in 1968 and the main character Meryl Lee reads of two tragic Vietnam War events where lives were lost (a few details, such as “half the men were killed”). Vietnam comes up several times throughout. Eventually a side character’s brother dies there. We hear of hundreds more dying. Another girl worries about her brother who is still there, “Two of Jonathan’s platoon were killed by land mines… Killed… Another had his leg blown off… The blood had blown into Jonathan’s face, along with the kneecap”. (Note: the author doesn’t rail on the war, but it is certainly shown in a negative light)

Soon after this opening Meryl Lee loses her very best friend in a car wreck. The book specifically tells us that his “head snapped back” during the accident. This understandably sends her into what we would call a depression.

The book starts to give glimpses into the past events that trouble the other main character Matt. This content is a bit jarring (again, especially since there are longer periods of funny / kind content). In the earliest glimpse back Matt drifts off to sleep and sees someone from his past Georgie with “his guts blown out… All that blood… Then the two men coming out of the alley… That blood pooling toward him… All that blood”. As the story goes on, we find out he somehow found himself as a small boy separated from his family and picked up into a group of abandoned boys led by a wicked young man. The desperate need for food leads to ongoing fighting and an ongoing string of crimes. There is a decent bit of detail here, “You didn’t care about the drunk whose pockets you emptied. You didn’t care about the lady whose purse you stole… You didn’t care about the addict you cheated… about the drugs runs… or about the houses you broke into”. The wicked leader adds threats like, “I got boys all grown up and serving hard time who would eat you up if you told”. Georgie, another large boy, comes in with kindness and changes everything for the better until the leader kills him in cold blood (the flashback above) and Matt sees the results.

This peril eventually follows Matt into the current story. Men looking for Matt burn a church to the ground and the pastor is “beaten to within an inch of his life”. Matt is slashed bad in his back with a knife and a man is punched in the face multiple times. During an FBI raid “one (bullet) in his left ear flew into his brain”. The villain says, “They’re professional. They can stick a knife into you and pull it out, and hardly a drop of blood shows”. He goes on, “I did Georgie… The kid couldn’t even scream because of where I stuck him first. He just sort of looked at me and gurgled the whole time I did him”. A group of terrible boys start a fight with Matt and he hurts a couple bad. He then grabs one and holds broken glass to his throat. The book culminates in an intense fight scene.

Other things to be aware of:

Mrs. Nora is a larger lady and terms like the following are used to describe her: substantial rump, large self, considerable bulk, ample self. These are almost exclusively by the narrator and are meant to be lightly humorous and not mean.

A girl asks if it is true that under their kilts boys don’t wear… (sentence is not finished), but more context is added to ensure the reader knows what this is referring to. Later a rude girl is talking about her boyfriend and says he has a mole on a certain part of his body (implied on his private area and he showed her). A group of boys say they know “the safest place to skinny dip”.

There are quite a few very positive references to the book “The Grapes of Wrath”. We have not reviewed this and mention it here to suggest you review it before letting your child read it. From the context it sounds like there are certainly aspects of it to weigh and consider for young readers, but this book makes it seem universally good.

In a section meant to be funny, Meryl says she “had other things to think about – mostly homicidal thoughts” towards three mean girls who stole and presented her report as their own work. She adds, “and finding a place to hide the bodies” and goes on to say these would be “justifiable homicides”.

Matt is told to lay a string of lobster traps with the context, “just one string, since Mr. Tush doesn’t have a license and technically shouldn’t have been laying any traps at all”.

Boys leave behind cigarettes and Matt tries them. Adults have wine at dinner.

A strange line is said in passing where we find out Meryl Lee’s friend who was a boy “once played Ariel, who was a fairy, but Holling said he was a warrior”.

The two main characters kiss several times. This comes across as sweet and good. There is a bit of dialogue around more kissing.

Maryl Lee’s parents separate during the story, which is also heavy (fortunately this is not passed off as some “good thing” as we see in some books, but instead is shown as super damaging through her eyes).

The following terms are used: jerk, stupid, hurt like hell, damn, shut up, fart, winos, fat guys, idiot, ache like hell, go to hell. Several mentions of beheading (historical context). “Sharp-arsed” is used several times. Someone is said to look like a “ghoul”. Matt sadly remarks, “I am a very good liar”. Poetry is referred to as “a demanding mistress”.

Flippant use of “miracles can happen” and another irreverent joke made where someone says, “If I had seen one more cathedral I would have turned atheist”. Captain Hurd’s friend is said to be “partial to Darwin”. Mrs. Nora makes Matt go to midnight service on Christmas Eve and we find out he thinks there was “a little too much praying for Matt’s taste. And a lot too much preaching.