| $@%&! level: Low “Bedroom” level: Medium-Low (Lots of kissing & mildly suggestive situations, but nothing immoral happens) Violence level: Medium (but the low side of medium, in my opinion) Back Cover: “Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps, and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever. Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them. In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.” |
So, I was sort of on my guard because of the similarity, which means that I did notice a few things parents might take issue with, specifically the idea that when a parent says they're imposing rules for the teen's own good, the teen can and should immediately ignore them. There was also the rampant skipping of school, although it could be argued that trying to save someone from death and/or possible madness is a valid excuse for missing a few classes.
So much for the parent's viewpoint. In terms of story, I actually found it intriguing (with the caveat that a mystery that is only maintained because multiple characters refuse to explain anything is more frustrating than mysterious). The setup of the family curse was pretty cool, and embedding it so deeply in history was a great touch. Frequent magical visions of the past gave more information about the curse than the people who should have been doing the explaining, and I was very interested in the family trees that are mapped out within the book. Some fantasy authors would have put them at the front or in an appendix, but I thought it was kind of nice to have them just there where they're mentioned. And I really loved the way that the small country town, where nothing changes and nothing is ever surprising, turns out to be completely full of all kinds of hidden magical influences. And then it's great because it's always been that way, which means it's still somehow the same sleepy little town where nothing ever changes!