Concerning & Potentially Concerning Content

The first and most important thing for parents to know is that this is one of those series that gets worse as it goes along. While this review is meant to be about the initial title, it is so important for parents to have a peek down the road at where a series is headed. As you can see from the Redeemed Reader review we linked to, parents actually went back and requested that they look further into future titles. While they didn’t do an extensive review of all books, what they found in a few later titles included very concerning elements (e.g., demon possession). --- The first book itself has interesting cause for concern. On the surface this seems like a harmless graphic novel but the undertones are very steeped in deception. The group uses their Bad Guy moves to try and do Good Guy things…the means justify the ends type thinking. There are also non-ideal motives (remember, God cares about the heart, ‘why’ we are doing what we are doing). The author seems to be seeking a transformative story of bad to good but it comes out sideways when lying is the foundation to change. This book is hiding behind deception to cast an image of good. It implies that people can change for the better on their own, that bad guys are usually not bad, but just misunderstood. Even worse, the guards/police are typically not very intelligent. --- None of the characters are specifically assigned a gender but it seems implied that the males are dressing up (impersonating, it the word the book uses) as females to trick people. In one case a character dresses as a girl to distract a guard. The guard is clearly infatuated and because of that decides to break the rules. --- There is some potty humor, specifically Mr. Piranha has very stinky farts, mild violence (cat scratching wolf out of terror, Snake swirled around, Snake and Piranha thrown against a wall in an escape attempt several times), some implied violence with threats like “I’m going to eat you,” and some name calling (stupid, crazy, loco).