Crooked Kingdom: Six of Crows, Book 2

Parents need to know that Leigh Bardugo's Crooked Kingdom, the follow-up to the riveting Six of Crows, is related to her Grisha trilogy, but you can read Six of Crows and this sequel without reading the other series first. As with Six of Crows, the content is consistently mature and a better fit for mature teen readers -- high schoolers, not middle schoolers. Characters are complex, flawed, and sometimes responsible for some of the worst violence. While there's no arena fighting in this one, there are a few jarringly gory moments, the worst being a gunshot in an eye socket: "[T]he blast didn't just take her eye but most of the top of her skull." An important character is shot and killed, a torture scene includes a mallet that almost shatters a leg, and main characters take some truly bloody beatings (killing some in the process, including a man with broken nails in his windpipe). They are also shot at repeatedly and pelted with knives and throwing stars (one time on a high wire with no net). Explosions injure people, and corpses turn zombie-like or are taken out of morgues. Other mature content includes kissing and flirting, both straight and gay, and some drinking and drug and gambling addiction among teens. Strong language is pretty infrequent, with only one use of "f--king." Characters are driven by revenge and the fight for their own survival but also by a need for connection. They work to protect each other from those preying on the powerless.