Firebrand: Elemental, Book 2

The refugee characters' desperate straits drive much violence in Firebrand. Characters use guns and knives often, and some suffer serious wounds. One character dies in a fall from a tall mast. A villain's shot in the head and devoured by rats.

In Firebrand, the characters have more time than in Elemental to indulge in romantic experimentation and the jealousy that can come from it. Sixteen-year-olds Thomas and Rose share a night of physical intimacy, although it's not clear how much it progresses beyond kissing and making out.

Parents need to know that Firebrand, the exciting second volume of a fantasy series set in a dystopian near future in North Carolina's Outer Banks, features pirates, a colony of treacherous refugees, and a group of survivors with the power to command the elements. Beatings, gunshots, and stabbings are common, but gratuitous description is rare; one scene shows a villain being shot in the head and then eaten by rats. Three characters form an awkward romantic triangle, but there's little sexual content; in one scene, two teens spend the night together, but the details of their physical intimacy go undescribed.