Concerning & Potentially Concerning Content

The main thing to understand about this book from a Christian parent perspective is that it sets out to handle a really important topic (loss of a loved one), but it does it from a very modern way that Christians will see as bogged down with unnecessary and unfortunate content. A very lovable professor character asks a group of college students if they have ever hidden anything they are reading. A long string of sad content flows in response. A girl mentions a book (exact book name is given) that her mother took because it had too much cursing (how dare she!). To show how much more sophisticated the other side of this argument is the professor simply replies jokingly, “I’ll try not to drop the f-bomb too much on parent’s weekend”. Another student adds that “his very religious parents refused to buy him the Harry Potter books”. He goes on to add that he responded by sneaking the entire set out of the library (without checking them out). Again, the professor replies, “Merlin’s beard! I might have to cancel altogether on parent’s weekend”. Both times we read about students laughing at how absurd this idea could be. This erupts into a sea of hands sharing stories of libraries being forced to ban books, joining underground book clubs and such. The professor puts a bow on this incredibly sad section by noting (for young readers) that “clearly we are all familiar with keeping secret something we find value in, something that captures our interests that we feared no one could understand”. Yeah, so there’s that. Sound like a string of ideas you want to unleash on your young reader? Later this same professor also shares this, “Which one is more true?... romance and fairy tales?... or heartbreak and villains?... Both and neither… What’s the point? If stories can’t direct us to the truth, what if there is no truth?”… to which he ends by simply walking out of the classroom. So again… there’s that. One of the primary side characters is a girl named Hen. When we meet her, she is doing something odd to “cleanse” their new living space as Lenny and his dad move on campus. She mentions their “auras” very matter-of-factly. This line of content ends up bringing up “zen” and “aura” a lot (e.g., “sounds like she lost her zen”). We hear of people described as “guru” or “zen philosopher”. Hen instructs Lenny to “do some light meditation. Your chi is all out of whack”. When Hen brings up principles of Taoism a professor thanks her for sharing “her truth” and later young readers see “look inside yourselves and find our truths” (a very dangerous and misleading, especially for children, postmodern concept). Taoism details are brought up more later (“The Taoists believe in living in harmony with the Tao, which means ‘the Way’. It’s about aligning yourself with nature”. A character also recalls “playing around” with mom’s old Ouija board. There is more quasi-spirituality when Lenny starts making comments about things like the clouds parting to reveal sunshine and he thanks… his deceased mom for it. A teacher instructs kids that “The key” is to simply to “remember the world beyond you and do whatever you can to make it a better place”. A comment is made about the universe that “The whole thing feels like a giant guessing game”. A college lecture content describes “wood carvings of witches mid-beheading and… werewolves chasing little children into the woods.” To which Lenny comments, “It’s totally disturbing and totally amazing”. A college student center plays a “spook fest” of movies where Lenny mentions his dad wouldn’t let him see “The Exorcist” before asking his friends if they want to go see “Stranger Things”. Later we read that something, “looks like a scene from The Walking Dead”. We read that “David turns our video game character into some kind of Robin Hood dark prince. We pillage, and plunder and steal”. In a dream the author has Lenny’s mom describe what readers will see as heaven to him in a very un-Christian like view (“I’m not unhappy”). Even small unnecessary examples of morality seep in throughout, such as when Lenny and his dad are walking on campus early in the book and the author throws in that “you’re supposed to stay on the path, but no one’s there to notice”. Or when a student says “Duh” to a teacher and they just ignore it. Or when Lenny tells a friend that his parent’s decision “sucks”. Or when a child asks another, “Your parents were cool with that?”, to which the reply comes, “What they don’t know can’t hurt them” finished up with a hooting “Go get ‘em girl”. Or when a girl takes a magazine from a library without checking it out, causing Lenny to say, “There’s my rebel”. Or when we read Lenny say things like, “Lying is not awesome, but sometimes it’s necessary” and “He also told a few lies to get here”. Or finally when the group sneaks out at night and is caught vandalizing school property with spray paint and the author has the super educated parents rudely degrading and looking down on the officers that rightly brought them into custody as if they were the bad guys. There is almost nothing to like from a moral standpoint with the main character Lenny. While it is true he is hurting, we don’t get the sense that is the source of the issue morally. He is incredibly cynical and negative about his new living and school situation, calling it things like “a waste of time”. He lies to his friends early in the book. When he is understandably disciplined for violating a rule Lenny remarks of his father, “He can’t disappear and then reappear only to boss me around… I’m going to start doing what I want from now on… what they don’t know can’t hurt them. That’s my new motto”. So what does he want to do? He lays out a plan to constantly lie to everyone, including his friends, about where he is going and what he is doing. He shirks all his work. He turns in fake school assignment content. Even in the last chapter when everything is supposed to be all good, we see Lenny sneak out again. The central element of this book (loss of a mother/wife) means it is a bit heavy at times given the genre. This is especially true because the characters are having such a hard time of it and because of the nature of losing someone so beloved to cancer. This is exasperated by the strained relationship between the survivors, Lenny and his dad. The group sneaks out to a football game when parents are distracted. Lenny and Hen sneak off campus across town, taking a city bus. Later Lenny does this again. Other items to be aware of: A character remarks “give me internet or give me death” Luck is brought up several times Adults drink wine at a party Lenny jokingly guesses “ghosts” when guessing the source of a noise Lenny uses “blah blah blah” to describe an explanation from his dad An Egyptian story of afterlife, judgement and gods is told Lenny hears his dad saying “words I’m not allowed to say yet”. Later his dad starts “rapping” a song. When Lenny asks him about it dad tells him he is leaving out the “graphic language” because it is inappropriate at Lenny’s age. A chapter is titled “Cartoons and Gods” A character is said to have “the most impressively wicked grin”. A hoodie with yin yang on it are said to make the wearer “both Zen and up to no good” (meant to be a good thing) Stolen supplies are referred to as “borrowed” The following references are made: Parks & Recreation, Assassin’s Creed, Shrek, Stephen King books, Sponge Bob, Keith Urban, Tik Tok, YouTube, Batman, Taylor Swift The following terms are used: Jerk, “ungodly hour”