The biggest thing to know about this one is that it is a Christian author who has woven a killer story, but one that is very intentionally aimed at young adults (something we are trying to add more of to this site). Because of that, there are things in here that many children won’t be ready to read. Nearly all of this revolves around trying to accurately portray evil in a situation (different, but very similar to our recent review of “Fairest of All”). We will share details here so that you can judge for your more mature readers.
- By far the biggest part of this comes from a description of just how terrible things have gotten due to evil expanding in this world. Part way through the story she unexpectedly finds two people who have been tied up and killed and a decent amount of detail is shared. The story turns out to involve a really, really bad addictive drug. One of the wicked dealers of this drug grabs Juniper (the main character) and says, “I had better plans for you in my bed. Fact, we’re heading there right now. If I like your performance, we’ll figure out what to do with you in the morning” (she users her self defense training to escape). Soon after a kind man is shot and killed, dying in Juna’ arms.
- The intense scene above ends with a flashback to a frightening scene where Juniper sees her 6-year-old self, thinking she can fly and intentionally attempting to jump out of a high-rise window).
- “Bloodied images of my past cloud my vision. Dad. Mom. Dead in the streets.” (remembering a traumatic childhood event)
- “My thoughts with images of… body parts mangled in twisted metal” (at a moment terrified something happened to her best friend)
- “I’ve seen guys like that drop dozens of trained men into pools of blood with nothing more than their fists and skill”.
- A girl is nearly drowned by a creature in an intense scene
- A man complains that “they murder us in our beds” (rebel complaining about evil men)
- We hear more detail in the account of Juniper’s parents’ death in a later retelling.
The main character is intentionally flawed (see notes on the biblical tie-in below), angry and hurt. Because of that we read lines like the following:
- “The day Plex City burns to ash will be the best day of my life”
- “Might as well go jump off the nearest high rise” (exaggeration in response to a crazy idea)
Here are a few other things to be aware of:
- The author affectionately mentions growing up on “comic books and punk music”.
- A character “curses under his breath”. Another smokes.
- A bird is referred to as a “bad omen”
- The following terms appear: idiots, morons, jerk