The Killing Woods

Punching, shoving, and wrestling are part of frequent but rarely bloody fight scenes, which occur mostly in the context of a hide-and-seek-style game being played willingly by all participants. One game participant likes to be choked to get high; there's brief discussion of this behavior, called by such names as Seven Seconds and Gasp. Video footage of a crime leads to solving the mystery. Some descriptions are vague; others, including the last moments of the victim's life, are more clear and detailed but not gory. Minor characters' experiences reflect the violence of war: One suffers from PTSD after shooting a civilian; another's father was killed by an exploding IED, and at one point a friend speculates graphically about that moment. There's some mild gore when a rabbit is being skinned and rare, nongraphic mentions of blood elsewhere in the story.

Sexual incidents are infrequent but emotionally powerful. The victim's boyfriend frequently remembers sexual aspects of their relationship; he mentions being hard and being inside her, describes oral sex briefly, and vaguely describes bringing her to orgasm manually. An emerging portrait of the victim reveals someone who uses the promise of sex to get what she wants: "She'd sat on my lap and wiggled her bum in just the right way. She'd known it would make me want her."

"F--k" and variations are used frequently. Other strong language occuring half a dozen times or less includes "piss," "s--t," "bastard," "dick," and "p---y" in the context of name-calling. Strong British language includes rare uses of "bollocks," "wanker," and "poof" and calling someone a "knob end" ("knob" being slang for "penis"). Twice characters "flip the bird."

Damon, one of the two teen narrators, drinks and uses drugs; focused on one night in particular when excessive drink and drugs caused blackout and memory loss, the story revisits his physical and mental state frequently. Emily's mother drinks to excess. Characters frequently smell of booze; some recall a past incident of getting drunk in a pub when underage. "Fairy dust," a nonspecified drug in powder form, plays a prominent role on the night of the crime. Damon smokes an entire joint one night and hallucinates. Friend Mack offers marijuana, booze, sleeping pills, antidepressants, and more of the unknown powder to Damon to help him sleep. Teens are occasionally depicted smoking.