Concerning & Potentially Concerning Content

While this is written to be a lighter book that takes into account its target audience, it is important to keep in mind that at its core it is still a mystery trying to uncover why people within a building keep dying. The vast majority of the book doesn’t feel dark or scary, but there is only so much you can do with this content at its core. By far the heaviest small section, almost seemingly out of place, is where we see into the background of a detective who becomes one of the main characters. The kids the story revolves around hear a story from his past where he was investigating the murders of homeless people in the area. We are told that a “psychopath” was responsible. The detective went undercover to catch him and the story describes how the bad guy eventually tried to attack him with a heavy iron bar before he shot him. He goes on to say that he was glad he didn’t kill him with this shot because he wanted him to spend the rest of his miserable life trapped in that tiny cell haunted by the faces of his victim. Obviously this content isn’t for everyone. There are a few other perilous moments, but those are all lighter by comparison. — Faith is only referenced a couple of times and it is a very worldly perspective. The worst comes when one victim’s beliefs are described to which the main character replies that she believes in science, not all that new age stuff. She adds that, for her sake, she hopes she is right (a worldly nod towards, “well, we all hope there is a Heaven and we all go there for being ‘nice’, but who knows”). While we as Christians know “new age” religions to be a lie, this comment leaves unprepared kids with the dangerous and totally untrue lie that science and faith are at odds. Science is the study of God’s beautiful creation and real science in no way opposes Him. There is another moment where a character advises, “if you believe in prayer, now is the time”. Also, while not explicitly ‘religious’, another unfortunate perspective comes when a terrible, criminal magician character who constantly steals from children is described as “basically having a good heart”. If that is not a picture of the secular perspective, we don’t know what is. — There is some unfortunate behavior that we would not want our children taking as “normal”, which isn’t portrayed as wrong. Mom and Dad leave her and her brother alone for weeks at a time and come across as absent and certainly not model parents. The main character is also not someone we would want our children modeling from a moral standpoint. She says that the old tubes in her building are good for pranking people (making them think there are ghosts). At one point when asked what she would want to be when she grows up she rudely replies that she would want to be their boss, so she could make them stop asking her questions. There are other times when she is disrespectful to the main detective and other adults. She has some very unkind things to say about the building manager (e.g., I hope you drop dead), which is seemingly supposed to be ok because the lady is really mean (a bad message to send to children). She describes how she simply ignores the rule of not having cell phones out in class because what she is using it for is important. She also throws a fit at one point, slamming a door, storming out and sending her parents a stream of angry emojis when she is grounded. — The book describes mixing 2 common household chemicals to make a toxic gas. Similarly, making a molotov cocktail is detailed out. This is obviously not something you would want to put in front of children who may put this info into practice at home unsupervised. — A few other things to know about. In one instance creepy music is playing and a comment is made about studying horror movie soundtracks. Someone mentions silently swearing. One of the main kids tells another to simply pretend to be sick or something so they can make it to the mission. There are instances of the following being said at least once: circus freaks, daredevil, farting, poop, dummy, jerk, moron, butt for brains, fart, “basically a witch”, horror movie, like a demon yodeling, buttcheeks, fart storm, barf, “oh god”, werewolf, swearing emoji, I’ll be damned, old lady, old geezer. There are also references to Among Us (video game), Fast and the Furious (movie), Snapchat (an app). There is also a superstitious reference to 13 being unlucky.