Saint and her mom do not have positive exchanges during this story. It is not as bad as in this author’s other main series (see our review of Timmy Failure), but it is still not something we like kids reading. There is a good bit of bickering and arguing. Not much respect is shown by Saint.
Saint is extremely dishonest. While this is meant to be funny it is very in your face. Also, it is never shown as wrong. This ranges from large lies (devising a signal system to tell neighbor when mom is not home because she is not allowed to have people over) to “small” ones (e.g., fakes sleeping to avoid her mom, lying about birthday to get a free item, feeling totally justified).
During a hard point, Saint says it “makes me think you should never get too close to anyone”. This shows a bit of an odd mix for young readers, where the book tries to be funny from cover to cover, but then also somehow force fit in a takeaway message that never quite lands. This very short section gets really heavy for young readers (father died in a car wreck) and then all of a sudden swings back.
Along this line, the young reader eventually finds out a main character and even a location are not real and have been totally imagined by Saint. This is meant to tie to a traumatic event from Saint’s past, but it is again confusing given the book’s format and not really fleshed out.
Other things that are unfortunate from Saint:
Saint makes the comment, “Even though my name is Saint, I wasn’t named for a bearded guy in Heaven. I was named for a football team in Louisiana”.
Saint makes her mother promise something, but then pushes her to swear she will follow through (actually swearing on the head of a pinata).
We see in Saint’s imagination a knight asking “the gods” for help slaying dragons.
Saint refers to her turtle as her “life partner”, but this doesn’t come across as more than a funny odd reference from a kid that doesn’t know any better.
Saint says they want to drown (meant to be funny response to embarrassment). She follows this by being completely dishonest to try and resolve the situation.
Saint throws “for sale” signs in a creek to try and prevent a home from being sold.
A neighbor is referred to as “old lady”
Saint comments that “It’s amazing how many stupid things adults laugh at”.
Other items to be aware of:
We hear a couple of quasi-spiritual comments. “Maybe the universe noticed” and “The universe often pays you back”.
Neighbor character says, “oh God, it’s you” when seeing Saint.
We hear of a “sword to the heart” as a potential threat
A skeleton head is shown in a couple illustrations. Later a skeleton hand is shown coming out of the ground and grabbing someone’s leg.
A toy story employee is said to “smell of cigarettes”.
The term “stupid” is used.
There is some content revolving around having a crush on a boy.