Strange the Dreamer

Less than two decades before the story begins, girls just old enough to menstruate had been taken from their homes, raped, forced to have children, and then sent home again with their minds wiped of their memories. Also, much talk of babies slaughtered in a nursery after five adults are murdered. Two characters die in the main timeline of the story. One death from falling and the gory details of getting impaled on a fence. Another death through an explosion. Ghosts attack with knives and cause minor injuries. As a child, the main character is disciplined with switches and getting locked in a crypt overnight. He watches another boy beaten by his father.

Characters have sex, with brief mention of top-up nakedness and climax. Other characters kiss and dream of more. Talk that Sarai has witnessed much bedroom activity. Two women have a relationship and share a bed.

Versions of "damn" only.

Spirits are drunk on the last day of a journey. A man staggers around a street drunk.

Parents need to know that Strange the Dreamer, a 2018 Michael L. Printz Honor Book, is the first in a two-book fantasy series by the acclaimed author of Lips Touch Three Times and the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy. As in Laini Taylor's other books for teens, she doesn't shy away from mature subject matter. Here, there's talk of slaughtered babies and girls who, years before the story begins, had been abducted, raped, forced to have children, and returned home after their memories were erased. The main character is treated harshly as a young orphan; he's beaten with switches and sent to sleep in a crypt when he misbehaves. One character dies by falling and getting impaled by a fence. Sexual content is also mature. One couple has sex, with a few details of the experience described. The messages here will resonate with a more mature audience ready to contemplate the nature and cause of discrimination and hate. Main characters work toward compassion and understanding while others remain committed to violence.