This book is marketed towards younger teens, but has content closer to what you'd read in an adult fantasy novel. The main character bashes motherhood and marriage, which were topics that seemed out of place in young teen fiction. By the end of the book, I was seriously missing the lack innocence in teenhood, and regretting the unattached, grittiness that I had read.

Ahem hum hem...'unnecessary sexual content will limit appeal to preteens'...more like their parents will take it away..uh, let me think...BECAUSE OF YOU. Limiting appeal at puberty? Snort.

i loved this book!!! i became obsessed with it so quickly :) prince po and katsa are perfect for each other. the violence isn't that bad, there's many other books with that much violence, voted for younger ages.

I enjoyed this a lot. There is a lot of fantasy violence, and some disturbing imagery, but I got past those pretty quickly. Nothing 13 year olds can't handle.

Great book, whether or not you should read it depends on your own knowledge and maturity.

This book is great! I think that if you're 13 or older you should read this great book! Yes, the characters have sex like 2 times but it doesn't even describe it! Katsa stands up for what she believes in, but she is a warrior so there are fights.

i absolutly loved it. in the beginging i had to read it for school and personaly i hate to read, but this was an exception for the rule. i couldnt put it down.

Honestly, when I read the review saying that the characters engage in sexual behavior, I was pretty surprised. You can call me dumb or slow or whatever, but I never noticed this happening throughout the book- it's really hard to tell. Sure, Katsa and Po kiss- I caught onto that part- but that's all I could tell. I think unless you tell a kid what's going on in the book, it will just go over their heads like it went over mine. The book is violent though. Honestly, the first chapter is about a 3 year old girl "accidentally" murdering her uncle! You really should know your kid if you want them to read this book. Just don't take them to a movie based off of this story, if one is ever made.

I have to start by mentioning the cover. It's gorgeous, which only makes it even better. The book didn't interest me so much at the beginning, but I soon got wrapped up in it. It's long, compared to other books, almost 500 pages, but it's so worth reading. I love the language. No one speaks like that anymore, which is a shame, it's beautiful. I loved the characters too. Randa is so hateful, Katsa is so independent, and Po makes such good company. I think he's my favorite. I love how Katsa shows that a girl can and always should stand up for herself and not rely on a man. The story itself is awesome. A twist I would have never expected. Yes there is one part with sex, but it's so vague, a younger child would have no idea what it was talking about. Oh and one violent part at the end... I enjoyed this book so much, I think everybody has to at least try it! It made me so happy and sad and angry, it was incredible!