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

2010 Top 10 Best Books for Young Adults, YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association)

Ratings Explanation

Language:  Swearing is abundant throughout this book.  The B word in particular is used 18 times.  All commonly known swear words are used, multiple times, along with words like sucks and wuss.

Violence:  Someone lost two fingers to a wolf and now carries the finger bones in a pouch around his neck.  Someone sticks his bloody hand in the popcorn bowl.  The cats lap up the pooling blood.  The ravages of war are mentioned.  Estella is an ambassador to Hell.  She makes her way down to hell every day through the fires to meet and bargain with the keeper of souls.  A girl sings a song and kills everyone around her that can hear her voice.  The Druj go into human bodies and use them however they want.  The crows pick out human eyes.  Beasts are chasing and Mihai swings his blade and severs the monsters hand.  The blood is black.  Wolf shifts from human and attacks another.  There are eyeballs of humans and animals all over in the room.  The druj queen leaves the body of Esme.  Esme is in severe pain and screams and thrashes.

Sexual Content:  The peacock sounds like it is screaming “rape”.  Kizzy watches a couple and his knuckles are resting on the underside of her breasts.  She wishes someone would hold her that way.  Kizzy watches another couple press against each other as he sucks her lower lip.  Kizzy and Jack share a cigarette and they say they shared a kiss by proxy.  She “knew how to light a man’s imagination on fire.”  Kizzy explains how male butterflies rape new female butterflies before they can fly.  Kizzy wants to make love on the balcony. Kizzy wants to “taste” a non-smoker.   Kizzy has Jack’s head in her lap as she strokes his hair.  Kizzy and Jack kiss.  Mab starts her period and there is blood all over.  As she is naked and washing, a crow cithra leers at her.  She crosses her arms over her “small breasts”.  A boy is brought and he is naked just like Mab. The Druj enter the bodies of the boy and Mab and have sex.  This happens several times until Mab becomes pregnant.  Mihai has a memory of kissing someone with her legs drawn up, biting an earlobe and so forth. Mihai takes his clothes off and is naked.  He swims and when he gets out, he sits by his clothes.   Esme and Tom hold hands and kiss.

Adult Themes:  Teenagers are smoking cigarettes.  They meet during school by the vent to disguise smoke.  Teenagers also drink coffee and wine.  Animal rape is discussed.  The idea of hell and bargaining and trading for the souls of people is presented.  The keeper of the souls places curses on people because he thinks it is funny.

Synopsis

Lips Touch Three Times is a book with 3 separate stories in it, each revolving around a kiss.  Before each book are illustrated pages that preface the story.  The first book, Goblin Fruit, is about a teenage girl named Kizzy.  Kizzy, who has always been in the shadows suddenly becomes the focus of the handsome new boy at school.  Kizzy is aware of the fear of Goblins in her family and knows they prey on young girls and can transform themselves into human form.  What is this boy?  Goblin or not?

The Caged Bird is the second story in the book.    Here the story revolves around a girl who was cursed at birth by a vindictive spirit in hell.  If she ever speaks aloud her voice will kill all who hear it.  As she meets a man she learns to love, she must decide if she is willing to risk his life by being with him.

The last story in the book is called Hatchling.  Here a girl finds out that the life she is living is, in reality, not at all what she thought it was, and she is not who she thinks she is. She really belongs to another world, with dreaded and vile creatures who transform from animal to human form.  The queen of this world keeps babies and raises them until they are of childbearing age and then uses them for breeding.

I hold no affection for this book whatsoever.  It was creepy, dark and twisted.  Vile.  The strong language and sexual references throughout the book left me feeling dirty and sad.  18+ is my recommendation for this book.