Concerning & Potentially Concerning Content

In setting up the story there are a couple of scenes that have the potential to be very frightening. In one a group is gossiping and tells a story of two children who took a dare to see if they could stay in an old house for 5-minutes. The story goes that they ran out so terrified that one accidently ran off of a cliff and another lost his mind afterwards. Both were said to have blood on their hands. The start of this story includes a detailed description of how a body is supposed to be in the decaying in the home. Directly after that the character who responds by saying they will take the same bet, comes running out screaming, remembering a very scary scene in which a body was discovered. This sets the mystery off. Later it is mentioned that an older daughter of the family drowned, and many believed she committed suicide in order to avoid choosing a life choice she felt forced into. The other major concern category comes with the characters. The author makes for a long list of potential suspects by jumping back and forth between a collection of very unlikable people. This makes for an interesting ‘feel’ to the book, where you enjoy trying to figure out what is going on, but the lack of anyone ‘good’ is a bit disturbing as well. The author certainly doesn’t give the impression of being a Christian as the ‘religious’ character is dark and strange and is always mumbling about sin and judgement. A disabled character asks himself if there is a God why he is like this, a point that is mentioned and then never resolved. Maybe the worst character in the book, a self-absorbed, racist, terrible mother wears a cross. Other characters include a bratty young girl who kicks everyone, but still believes she is ‘pure of heart’, a dad who pushes his son too far for achievement and says things like, ‘the victim deserved to die’ and a woman who fakes an injury and is only focused on being noticed. Again, this adds to the mystery as they all seem to be potential criminals, but it is something to consider. There are no heroes here. This also leads to the occasional instance of terms like fat, freak, idiot, etc. There are also a few drinking references, including one character who drinks from a flask. One more caution. ChristianBook (surprisingly) sells this book, but please don't let that confuse you into thinking this is a Christian work. As described above, that is by no means the case.