Concerning & Potentially Concerning Content

The primary area of concern is the narrator. They glorify lying, at one point saying, “neither was a liar, which was unfortunate. As I am sure you know from experience, lying is an important skill to have. They later give tips on lying. In a similar way they mention “hating manners”. At one point they mention that “grownups have the habit of getting in the way when you want to do something they don’t approve of.” The also joke about core school subjects not really being needed. Late in the book they cut away from what is setting up to be a really nice apology and says, “I prefer to listen in on insults and curses.” They mention that the main characters “acted like heroes… that is to say, foolishly.” Later saying, “you shouldn’t be showing this book to your teacher anyway.” There are mentions of “annoying little brother” and “bossy big sister”. There is a shallow statement about a girl being “the second or third prettiest in the school”. There are strange statements, such as “teeth, as you know from watching television, are very useful when detectives are identifying cadavers” and about enemies, “you know, the ones you say you want to kill, but prefer to keep alive”. Mentions “a remote place where a body might rot and no one would know” and “lying in the kitchen in a pool of blood”. Also mentions a stabbing, misery and death and other threats as well as being burned alive, a cult, alchemy, an Egyptian god, a spinal tap, a sadistic contraption, and drinking monkey blood. One character says, “I hate you” and “I will kill you”. The bad guys plan to extract something from a character’s brain using a tool the Egyptians used to use to “harvest organs.” Mention of someone who “cut out his eyelids”. The main characters lie, deceive guardians, and break into a house. The young girl sees “perfect looking people” and “hates them on sight.” When heading into a dangerous situation she tells someone her plan, “in case they kill me or something.” After a frightening encounter the narrator asks, “have you ever been locked in a room for hours by people you have every reason to believe are capable of murder?” There is also a kidnapping that is described in some detail. A character the kids look up to turns on hip-hop that the kids “were glad their parents weren’t around to hear.” There is a mention of someone dying in a fire very flippantly. Quickly describes one character’s Dad perishing by lightning on a camping trip. During a story when two children are caught stealing they are simply instructed how to steal better. It is never elaborated on, but the main character has “two grandpas” who are always together. They mention to “not tell your mother”. Another character loves to gossip and grandpa loves to listen to it. There are two parents who are held up as comedic characters who have split up over something trivial, but still live in the same split home, completely ignoring each other. Later the book seems to be about to present a ‘happy ending’ for these two, which it presents as a ‘proper divorce’. There is also a “magician” character as well as hypnotism.