The Whisper: The Riverman Trilogy, Book 2

Not much of the violence feels very real since it happens in fantasy worlds or in flashbacks. The real people who create the fantasy worlds, however, can get their souls sucked out through their ears with a straw. It's not known whether they're gone forever or not. Monsters populate the fantasy worlds and attack, killing one real boy with an animal horn to his chest. Figment people are killed with blood everywhere. Stories of a boy hitting his head on a rock and dying, animals killed in a hunt, wasps stinging, tentacles suffocating figment people who are pierced with a quill, a wolf eating a baby, a bear eating an old lady, a girl who died of infection, and a kid getting beat up in a bathroom. Repeated talk of something that happened in Book 1: Alastair shot a gun and hit another boy in the stomach.

Mentions of a couple of kisses.

Rare strong language: mostly "hell" and "damn" with a couple "ass," a "b.s.," and one "brother-trucking."

Mentions of figments drinking beer or having too much to drink and figment high schoolers smoking cigarettes.

Parents need to know that The Whisper is the second book in a thought-provoking coming-of-age/fantasy trilogy and a great choice for reading along with kids. There's a discussion to have with kids about what went wrong in the fantasy worlds kids created in this book. Can they live in a world with all good things they create? Why do we need challenges in life? Great coming-of-age lessons for sure! This sequel stays mostly in the fantasy realms, so expect violence to feel less real, though there's a possibility that the real kids who create the worlds are dying in a sinister way: Their souls are sucked out of their ears with a straw. Monsters attack mostly figments, but one boy is killed. The main character keeps remembering his grave mistake from the first book: shooting someone in the stomach. Language stays pretty mild (mostly "hell" and "damn"), and only figments drink and smoke.