The book starts with a long and detailed definition of the term “con” (as in conning someone) for young readers. It is not really presented as a bad thing... and this is truly a sign of things to come. This book presents young readers with a near cover-to-cover mix-up of right and wrong.

This starts with a common storyline. Tom is a part of a group of orphaned kids who steal and deceive to survive. But here instead of quickly feeling the pull towards goodness and honesty, we instead see details of an elaborate system of the orphans teaching each other all types of ways to swindle people.

Tom’s mentor (a character shown in a positive light through Tom’s eyes) says that, “Magic is a wonderful skill to have. It shows how easily the human mind can be deceived” and he suggests that deception of people is “in your blood”. We find out he taught Tom in detail how to steal (some is shared with the young reader). He also teaches Tom to fight dirty. When Tom steals from two people we are told that this would have made this mentor proud. We also meet a very likeable woman who is a ‘fence’ with a warehouse of countless stolen goods. Kids are educated that fences find buyers for stolen items. Tom’s new mentor affectionately recounts sneaking out of his room at school often in the middle of the night. Other morally mixed up comments are there, like “Shadow thieves have to stick together”.

This line of concerning content really comes into focus when the school is introduced into the storyline. The core of the story revolves around every immoral skill a thief could ever potentially need. We hear about pickpocketing, forgery, fake identities, fake passports, financial scams, counterfeiting, etc.. We soon find out there are sister schools for assassins, people who deceive through politics and for spies. So there’s that. Tom’s first “assignment” is to steal for the woman we just described (which he does). A dentist associated with this school/town tells Tom that straight white teeth will help him con people. Similarly, a teacher instructs that people will ignore signs that you are conning them if they trust you (“the secret to a great fraud, is trust”). The magic shop in town is said to have a “fortune-telling automaton. A newspaper clipping basically brags about assassins killing a foreign presidential candidate.

The author takes a couple swings at making this seem “ok”. We hear that the school takes action (theft, deception, murder, etc.) to make sure any one empire doesn’t grow too big or powerful. Really the book mostly just doesn’t show any of this behavior as wrong.

Blurring the other way, we (sadly) find out that the first villain we meet is the “constable of this parish” who is “charged by the church elders and their parishioners”. We find out this means kidnapping kids with no homes and forcing them into slavery for profit.

You should also know that this book has a pretty significant amount of material that would probably surprise most in its intensity given the age group. We will attempt to give a glimpse of this through specific examples below:

In a flashback we find out an evil man beat to death Tom’s friend Morris, with a bit of detail given.

Tom has scars of being beaten and of having a cigar put out on his skin.

Tom is violently kidnapped, being beaten in the process.

A rumor about the workhouses is shared: “Workhouse snatchers… kill ‘em and sell their skin for black magic… to some old witch”.

When attacked Tom threatens the boys, “I’ll scoop your bloody eyes out. And I’ll feed them to the dogs”, repeating what an evil man once said to him. Note: Tom is doing this in order to deter these boys from further trouble.

“Odds and experience suggest that at least 3 of them (the orphaned kids) would be arrested for stealing. Some might even be dead”.

Horrendous workhouse conditions are described.

When angry, Tom things that he “suddenly wanted to claw that smile off the Corsair's face”.

A couple times Tom pictures punching or attacking someone he is upset with. In one scene he does really hurt a few boys, although it is to escape capture and further violence.

We find out a wicked man put a cigar out on Tom in the past

A woman we meet early in the story is burned to death in a fire (“all he could think about was Jessica’s body lying in the smoldering ruins of her warehouse”).

At a competition for students, “it was not unknown for the pupils to be assassinated by those same Shadows in order to preserve the secrecy. It was brutal, but seen as necessary”.

An evil man says he “would be happy to see your corpse picked to pieces on the traitor’s wall”.

When we first meet kids from the assassins school we hear they are determining how to administer poison to murder someone, but they also have backup plans like “drowning their victim in the bath or pushing them down the stairs”.

Tom pictures kids “receiving a beating from the wardens”.

A young girl is held at gunpoint by an adult man (“Stay exactly where you are. Don’t move a muscle or I’ll put a bullet in your skull”).

Someone graphic effects of a terrible chemical attack and similar diseases are shared (“He could never forget those swollen crimson faces, gasping for air as their lungs burned and foamed”).

There is a decent amount of alcohol and related content. The worst of these comes when Tom’s close friend and mentor tells him that alcohol “made me clumsy. But it was wonderful stuff” (certainly never shown as wrong). Tom’s later mentor also smokes and drinks (cognac is mentioned). A barrel of wine is the prize for a competition. A guard asks another for “a light” (presumably for a cigarette) and a cigar is mentioned. A party has “champagne and cocktails”.

Other things to be aware of:

The term “ghosts in the night” is used. One of the groups at the school is called “Ghost House”.

There are several references to someone swearing throughout (word not shown). For example, Tom “swore and called Corsair an ugly name”.

When angry Tom is compared to a demon.

Tom holds an immense grudge and won’t forgive for a really long time. He also says he hates someone he barely knows.

The town is said to once have chained enemies before shooting them.

In a competition Tom trusts in “blind luck”

The “Janus house” of the school is mockingly called “Anus” house.

A kid mock vomits when news is announced.

The following terms are present: idiot, nosy devil, shut your face, there will be hell to pay.