Parents' Guide to Watch Over Me

Parents need to know that Watch Over Me is an eerie ghost story about recovery from trauma by award-winning young-adult author Nina LaCour (We Are Okay).There's very little violence, but past trauma and abuse are remembered without gory details. Parental loss and abandonment are prominent themes, and all of the non-adult characters are in varying degrees of recovery from trauma. Mila and her mother lived with an abusive man who manipulated them emotionally, psychologically, and physically. A child has a bent finger because it was broken at some point and never set. There's a brief but non-gory description of someone burning to death while passed out in bed. Overall themes are positive about our ability to heal and recover, and the diverse group of characters all model good ways to support someone through grief and trauma into recovery. Older teens drink wine once, and there are a couple of mentions of adults drinking. The villain frequently drank to excess in the past. Strong language is extremely rare but includes "s--theads" and "f--k." The ghosts aren't evil, and most characters aren't afraid of them. Some characters' fear of the ghosts adds to the dark and eerie atmosphere.