This Christian book is mostly ‘clean’, but definitely has a few things for Christian parents to be aware of.
Early in the book the main character Emily recalls a native american legend called the Windigo that creeps her out. She comments that it is like “the boogeyman”. This comes up a surprising amount in the storyline as Emily, a Christian, struggles with whether or not it could be true in the face of a lot of local townspeople who believe it. A couple of those people also discuss a necklace that is said to be “blessed by the medicine man” in order to keep this mythical creature away. This leads to a few statements from Emily like, “tonight she could imagine the Windigo howling for her blood”, “hunts people”, “like a werewolf”, “have to burn the body”, “killed with his bare hands”.
There are other ways that Emily is not the ideal character. She gets frustrated at her dad for having to prove she is responsible enough for a pet. She shows jealousy of another girl. Several situations she doesn’t handle the kindest. There is a rude girl in the story and Emily rolls her eyes at her and calls her a teacher’s pet. She also purposely hides her investigation from her dad and tells her little brother and his friend to do the same. At one point in the investigation, Emily jumps on the internet to look into something “without an adult looking over their shoulder”. She is purposely dishonest multiple times. There are also several instances of eavesdropping and the book has this as a bit morally ambiguous.
There is also a portion of the story that unfolds that may be a bit mature for some younger readers. As the story unfolds, we find out Emily’s birth mother is in prison. Apparently, she did something terrible in the past. When she calls from jail it actually frightens Emily. The reader finds out she purposely messed up her little brother’s insulin shot to make her dad look bad. This is obviously a thought line that many younger readers won’t have ever thought possible. Emily recalls a traumatic moment of nearly drowning as a child and this birth mother actually launches into manipulating into not telling her father. Similarly, the topic of rough patches in marriage are also presented, including signs from a kid’s perspective that a marriage may be heading towards divorce.
A few other items to know about:
In a real missed opportunity from a Christian story, Emily really likes a boy and comments on his looks and kindness, but nothing is ever considered about his faith. Later faith comes up briefly and there is no consideration of being unequally yoked.
A friend says that his dad won’t like something, but that he knew his mom would do it anyway. Even worse, Emily herself remarks that this mom is a “take charge kind of woman, one of the reasons Emily wanted to grow up to be just like her”.
Emily is embarrassed because her “curves” have already come in
The term stupid is used a couple times