This is one of those books that just gets weighed down by a stream of unfortunate and unnecessary content. The worst of it treats darker content flippantly, blurring the lines between good and evil, right and wrong.

• Maybe one of the best examples of this comes late in the book in a simple comment. Readers are told that “to be the best Familiar, it’s important to understand all aspects of magic, including the darker ones”.
• Aldwyn is the feline main character, and he is supposed to be one of the good guys, but we see quite a few things like, “Stealing was one of Aldwyn’s favorite schemes to fill his belly”. Early in the story he tricks a blind woman as a part of this.
• The town is said to have a “sacred rock garden” of their “sun temple”. There we hear that people “pray for the sun to heal their ruined fields”
• An evil dog creature comes into the story. We are told it was “conjured” and it is referred to as an “apparition”. These creatures are referred to as “predatory demons”. The description gets surprisingly creepy, as young readers are told they have “no face, no nose, just a moving cloud of black” in a dog/wolf like form.
• Familiars are explained to be “animal companions of wizards and witches or any spellcaster”
• Sorcerers are said to be skilled at “necromancy, conjuring”
• A book is said to include “divining spells” and “divination”
• One of the just oddest parts of the book is illustrated, as floating eyeballs. To make this worse, Aldwyn wonders if they are the “gruesome remains of some hideous crime”
• A boy is said to have a “devilish grin” as if it is a compliment
• Someone remarks, “holy dragon eggs”
• A character says, “May the gods rest his spirit”
• A spell brings dead animals back to life
• A “good” character comes and tells the group they are missing a book and we are told the title is “Tome of the Occult”
• A group of frog characters are “born with the power of divination”
• As scene is described to look “as if the star gods themselves had painted the heavens with fireflies”
• Aldwyn declares he is “sure that they were witnessing an omen”
• At a wizard’s death young readers are told, “the ghosts of Kastaff’s family appears” to “guide him gently into the tomorrow life”. Then an animal ghost “tugged Kastaff’s spirit from his body” leaving a “ghostly wizard”.
• A strange witch enters the story. A legend is shared that she “burned to the ground her family’s wagon and all others in the caravan” when she was only 6-years-old. When the group approaches her home they see a human hand hanging from a tree with ants pouring from it as well as doll’s heads and other creepy things. The hut is said to be of straw, bone and rat skull. We see an illustrated creepy witch.
• A frog sees the future by peering into a lake (like a crystal ball). This is referred to as soothsaying.
• Later in the story Aldwyn notices that “clearly neither of them were as experienced at lying” (as if it was a bad thing).
• An evil man is said to have an enchanted, detached hog snout for tracking.
• A creature is referred to as “vampire leeches”
• In another really odd moment, a story comes up about a wizard who kills 7 dragons in a dark experiment. We are told the extra body parts were dumped into a well… and naturally this act produces hydra out of the well.
• A prophecy is said to be “chosen by the heavens”

A few other items to mention:

• A past battle is said to have been against a “Deady Army Uprising”
• An evil man is said to be using “black magic”
• Clover shares that “even spells can use a dash of good luck”
• Amazing circumstances are attributed to “good luck”
• In a bit of a more intense scene, a queen surprisingly betrays the group and tells her henchmen to “kill them” (referring to the main characters), later adding “I’m going to feed your corpse to the bone vultures”