Parents' Guide to The Gilded Blade: The Grandest Game, Book 3

Parents need to know that Jennifer Lynn Barnes' The Gilded Blade is the third book in an offshoot series set in the same world as The Inheritance Games. This time the older teens and young adults aren't competing for a prize, but are searching for one of their group who's mysteriously disappeared. Reading the first books in The Grandest Game series will deepen readers' understanding of the returning characters and their motives, and the story so far. Violence includes revisiting childhood trauma (when a character saw a victim of suicide after hearing gunshots, seeing and stepping in blood; another remembers being abused as a child by a tormentor who threw him into the ocean shackled to heavy rocks, and eventually smashing the tormentor's head many times with a rock). There's also mention of blood and dead bodies with broken bones from a building collapse. A video shows someone slashing an unconscious woman's throat. People accidentally die in a ritual involving choosing which cup to drink from. Blood drips from a bullet wound but there's a safe resolution. A few punches, scuffles, and hard slaps. Some brief self-harm when a character hits a wall with fists until the knuckles are torn. There are a few kisses and lots of flirting and romantic tension. Strong language is rare but includes "bulls--t," "a--hole," and "damn." Extreme wealth and power are glorified, but the characters don't abuse their privilege and want to change things for the better.