The Blessed

The Blessed portrays sadistic violence as virtuous. Sebastian, presented as a saint, kills an enemy (who would have killed him) by forcing water from baptismal buckets down his throat until he bloats like a water balloon and dies. Religious implements are used to torture and kill. Sebastian heats up metal saint bracelet charms and brands himself with them. CeCe is shut into an Iron Maiden, and her hands are stabbed through with knives, leaving her with stigmata like those of Jesus. A hospital orderly is choked into unconsciousness and later murdered. There's repeated dwelling on the gory details of the deaths of the original Agnes, Cecilia, Lucy, and Sebastian, complete with beheading, eye-gouging, rape attempts, and more. One main character has attempted suicide.

For a book in which there's no overt sex, there's a constant sexual charge in the girls' relationship to Sebastian. Agnes, Cecilia, and Lucy each describe their martyrdoms through a fevered haze of spiritually veneered lust for Sebastian, with death as the consummation. There's also a sexualized fascination with wounds, as in a scene in which Sebastian applies healing oil to Agnes' cut wrists and there are references to his being "inside her" as she "quietly moaned."

"F--k," "s--t," and the like are used frequently, as are abusive terms such as "bitch" and creative permutations like "cla--holes" for jerky fellow students.

Drinking and drugs land Lucy and CeCe in the emergency room. CeCe also supplies an alcoholic homeless poet with liquor; later, someone else uses booze to make the poet reveal information.

Parents need to know that dark, confused fantasy The Blessed, by Tonya Hurley (author of the bestselling, much more lighthearted ghostgirl series), has something to upset practically everybody. Religious readers will be aghast at the violent, smarmily sexy behavior of so-called saints (contemporary teens who take on the identities of some ancient Christian martyrs), while nonbelievers will be appalled by the unfocused religious mumbo-jumbo. There's profane language galore ("f--k," "s--t," "bitch," and more), as well as murderous violence described in morbid detail, not to mention a suicide attempt, tombs, bones, and implements of torture. There's also repeated dwelling on the gory details of the deaths of the historical Roman saints Agnes, Cecilia, Lucy, and Sebastian, complete with beheading, eye-gouging, rape attempts, and more.