Rating: Not for me (the occult, voodoo)

Reading Level: High School

Parents should know the magic is darker and more closely representing the occult than something like Harry Potter, where magic is a bit more kitchy. Possible concerns:

  • Occult. Palm/card reading, Crystal balls, divination, conjuring dead souls to come tell a story, entering minds
  • Ancestor Worship, and something to do with soul being fallen stars? Not quite sure but stars were more than burning balls of fuel. “The sky binds us all together” is a motto.
  • Voodoo, Juju, and more. Charms, conjuring spells and plants, frequent travel in and out of the underworld. “Sweeping out” bad spirits with a broom, using a magic tree to receive warnings and to catch bad spiritual forces, holding back the rain with dancing and stomping spells.
  • Underworld theology. A whole new theology about life after death, humans as “keepers”/guides for dead souls, and various sections for where people go when they die.There us also a prison for (living) criminals in the underworld. No positioned as hell, and no mention of heaven.

Parents should also be aware this book includes:

  • Issues of race, slavery. The main character has a different kind of magic because she is a descendant of a former American slave (and crossing slaves over the Atlantic changed their magic).

What I’m trying to say here is that as with book 1 in the series, this book is not just an ethnically diverse version of Harry Potter. The issues go much deeper than good vs evil, and the magic is less childish.

Other possible concerns:

  • Mild body/potty humor, usually as fart jokes
  • Luck
  • Magical creatures, fairies, walking plants, leviathan beast.
  • The main character’s dad is head keeper of the dead, and he has dead skulls hanging from his hat.
  • Conservatives on gender identity should know there is a character that uses they/them pronouns who lives in a separate, hidden dorm neither for boys nor girls.
  • Living little statues that are dead saints giving warnings and opinions.
  • Much like witchcraft, putting magical powers on spices and perfumes, conjuring elixirs and potions and charms with magical properties, conjuring a tree with magical powers.

See also my review of Book 1: The Marvelers