The Alex Crow

Ariel survives his entire village being massacred by being shot at gunpoint or covered in poison gas. Later, he hears terrible stories from people he meets, such as about a brother who was shot in the face for questioning the existence of God. A teen recalls being beaten and raped in a refugee camp. A group of Arctic explorers dies of starvation and sickness, and then one of them goes insane and stabs and shoots four people. A woman passes out after losing blood from a cut to her leg. A mentally ill man shoots at three teen boys. A teen defends a younger boy by stabbing and injuring two assailants. A man is blown up, as is a bridge.

Lots of masturbation references. At camp, one bunkmate is heard "jerking off," to the horror of all the other campers. One character says he's "horny all the time" and obsessively comes up with creative and descriptive euphemisms for masturbation such as "deporting troublesome foreigners," "unclog the ketchup bottle," and "drop off our babies at the fire station." In the late 19th century, an adult man describes his "corrupt" "companionship" with another man in a way that makes it clear they were lovers.

Strong language includes "f--k," "f--kheads," "f--kers," "s--t," "s--twads," "a--holes," "dick," religious exclamations, and more.

Teens smoke weed, and they drink beer and vodka at summer camp. Boy soldiers as young as 10 smoke cigarettes in Ariel's war-torn home village.

Parents need to know that The Alex Crow is another bizarre, time- and genre-bending coming-of-age story by Andrew Smith, who won a 2015 Michael L. Printz Honor for Grasshopper Jungle. Although Smith once again tackles incredibly tough topics such as civil war, refugee camps, immigration, and bioethics, this is, like all his books, a tale about self-discovery and storytelling: what it costs to tell others about your painful truths. It's also a story about history (and life) repeating itself. There's less sex (although plenty of references to self-pleasure) in this novel than in his others, and there's a noticeable absence of female characters, because the stories are set mostly in an all-boys camp or on an all-male expedition. The language is strong (including "s--t" and f--k"), but it's authentic, and Smith is so good that this is the ideal book to introduce to teen boys who think there are no cool books to read.