Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Language: A dozen expressions of deity. A few uses of other common swear words. Hell is used a few times as a swearword as well as a few times in reference to the place. The term MILF is referred to and explained without actually using the swear word.

Violence: Several mysterious accidents occur in the town that are described: a boy falls to his death from the roof of the school and a bloodstain is left on the court where he landed, a girl dies is a house fire (we learn later that she was tied to her bed so she wouldn’t be able to escape), a car accident occurs in the school parking lot in which the victim is bleeding and her body is limp, a school lunch lady is badly burned when a vat of frying oil is overturned onto her legs.
There is a mild bar fight with a few punches. Some mild sports violence when a boy is hit head-on in a rugby game and suffers a broken ankle and a concussion.
A girl commits suicide on school grounds and is found with her throat slit lying in a pool of blood. Another girl envisions and experiences the incident as if she were the one who committed suicide. She feels the cold knife on her neck, the “blood bubbling from the slit in her throat” and the terror and panic right before she dies. Descriptions are given of what some punishments might be for sinners when they reach hell: “hung from their eyelids, burned, tortured, torn to pieces and stitched up again.”

Sexual Content: A girl dumps a bottle of water down her cleavage to cool down and then struts past a group of boys who stare at her.
Lady Capulet, from Romeo and Juliet, is referred to as a MILF.
At a high school party, boys play a game where they throw marshmallows at the chests of several girls and then try to retrieve them using their mouths. A boy streaks through the party.
Reference to a “horny boy” who just wants to “get in her pants.”
A boy tries to force himself on a girl, tells her he thinks she has a nice rack and that he only wants a “quickie.”
Pre-marital sex is discussed. There are characters who believe people should wait until marriage to have sex, while others express the opposite opinion.
Prom dresses are described as “too slutty” or “not sexy enough.”
A girl admits “I’ve pretty much done it all — well, almost.”
A girls asks another girl if she’s had sex with her boyfriend and if she’s seen “it”, gesturing to her groin area. They talk about what boys want and if she should bring up having sex with her boyfriend. Sex is referred to as “getting down and dirty.”
A several pages-long conversation between a boyfriend and girlfriend about whether they should have sex and what the consequences might be of an angel having a physically intimate relationship with a human.
Girls talk about sex. One girl tells another not to have sex with someone she loves “because when it ends, you’ve given away something really special and you can’t get it back. If you give it to someone you don’t care about — it won’t hurt as much.”
A girl losing her virginity is said to have “lost her V-plates.”
Several passionate kisses described. Several quick kisses. Two times a kiss is forced on a girl.
A girl takes off all her clothes in front of a boy. He then strips as well. They embrace and lay in each others arms for several hours. They don’t have sex.
A boy and girl sleep together (again, no sex) in the same bed.
Many other very vague references to sex.

Adult Themes: Instances of underage drinking and smoking are mentioned several times throughout. References to drugs.
Many instances of religious things: God, heaven, hell, angels sent to earth on a mission, demons, Lucifer, death, spirits after death.
A scene in a cemetery with evil spirits entering and possessing the bodies of teenagers. Chanting, calling upon evil forces, teenagers screaming out in fear and pain.
A girl is tortured and endures the fears and pains of the entire world.
Teenagers lie to and deceive their parents.
Love is a main theme in the book and it’s mentioned several times that a girl can’t stand to be away from the boy she loves. Being separated from him (even for a few minutes) causes her physical pain and she goes into a near comatose state when she thinks that the relationship is over.

Synopsis

Bethany, an angel, has been sent to earth from Heaven, along with her brother Gabriel and sister Ivy, in human form to help save mankind from the influences of dark forces. She isn’t supposed to form close bonds with any of the humans she interacts with, but the rules are broken when she meets Xavier. The two form a quick and passionate bond that could possibly jeopardize her mission on earth as well as her entire celestial future in Heaven. When a darkness settles over the town, Bethany has to summon the courage and her angelic gifts to save her friends and the town.

I had high hopes for this book as it was listed as a Young Reader’s Choice Award Nominee for the year, but I was disappointed in many ways. Aside from the shallow characters, the slow (sometimes non-existent) plot and the sappy dialogue, I was most frustrated at the main character Bethany. She’s an angel sent on a mission to help lift the lives of humans on earth and to do good around her. Within the first few chapters of the book, she seems to entirely forget her divine purpose in exchange for crude conversations with friends, prom dress shopping and falling madly — and in my opinion, dangerously and unhealthily — in love with the first boy she meets. Stories like this give a very unrealistic view of love, which I think can be very dangerous for children and young teenagers. Bethany describes having “physical pain, like a cramp in my chest” when she’s not around Xavier and “when it came to him, I had a ravenous appetite that could never be satisfied.” She tells him later that “I just wanted to die” after they didn’t speak for a few days. These are just a few of the many examples of her complete dependence on their relationship. He does everything for her, treating her like a breakable object, even answering for her in class when the teachers direct questions at her. And eventually Bethany says that she would sacrifice her entire heavenly home and purpose just to be with him. A young reader who has little experience with love and relationships might look at this as the way things should be when they first have a relationship. I think giving this expectation of love can be dangerous and damaging.
While looking further into the Young Reader’s Choice Awards, I found that this was a nominee in the Intermediate Level, which is for 7th – 9th graders, and on Amazon.com it is recommended for readers 12-years-old and up. In my opinion, this book is too mature for that young an audience. With the unhealthy relationship described above as well as the level of sexual content, violence and somewhat evil, scary imagery, I would suggest this for a much older audience, older teenagers and young adults.