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

Violence: Eva is bitten by a snake (turns out to be a hologram and it didn’t really happen). Many explosions and fires as the Sanctuary is under attack. A large and scary-looking beast, Besteel, uses a “boomrod” to blow things up and knock other characters unconscious. Besteel is a hunter and captures many other creatures. He ties up Eva and Rovender and hangs them upside down from a tree. He kills one of the creatures that he has captured with a lance and slices it up and eats some of the meat. Besteel chases Eva many times and each time it causes a catastrophe around them. Homes are ransacked, buildings are blown up, other people are run over or blasted out of the way. During a chase with Besteel, Eva jumps from a bridge and is worried that she broke her arm. Eva’s robotic mother, Muthr, is found in a pool of water and is thought to be dead. Eva is captured and is placed in a glass cell. Other creatures around her are also in cells. She watches as one creature is “prepared for display” by having the glass cell it’s in filled with a clear liquid. After the liquid is drained, the skin from the creature has dissolved and all of the creatures organs are visible and ready for display in a museum. The “taxidermist” in the room talks about preparing Eva for display as well. Eva encounters a sand-sniper which strikes at her with it’s long claws. This bends several of her fingers back and slices her hand badly. A large plant hypnotizes Eva and Rovender and wraps them up in its vines. Muthr gives the plant an electric shock to force it to let them loose. A group of guards riding hovercrafts is knocked down and lands with explosions. Sand-snipers attack Besteel with their sharp pincers and drag him underground. Muthr is blasted with the boomrod and “dies.” (Eva’s mother is a robot, so technically she can’t die, but she sacrifices herself for Eva. Her braincase is cracked open and some sort of thick liquid oozes out leaving her lifeless.)

Adult Themes: Eva is raised in an underground facility by a robot mother. She has never met another human before. Rovender talks about losing his mate to sickness and later mourns Muthr’s death by screaming that he should have been the one to die. Futuristic view of Earth after most of the humans are gone and other creatures have inhabited it.

Synopsis  

Eva Nine has lived her whole twelve years in an underground home called the Sanctuary. She has been raised by a robot called Muthr. She’s never met another human (or any other creature, for that matter) but holds dearly to a small, worn picture that depicts a girl, an adult and a robot walking happily, hand-in-hand — a picture she calls her WondLa. When her underground home comes under attack and she is forced to the surface, she takes the chance to search for the happiness (and other humans) that she’s seen in the WondLa all those years. The surface is not, however, what she expected it to be…

The illustration on the front cover of the book made me immediately think of Star Wars, which almost turned me off from reading the book since I’m not a huge fan of science fiction. But I was very pleasantly surprised. This is a science fiction book that I can say I love. And I think it’s a great read for kids. While there is some violence, nothing is graphic or disturbing (again, think Star Wars and the fantastical creatures, weapons and battles — highly imaginative and far removed from reality). I really enjoyed this book and even though it was a little predictable, (I guessed the twist at the end about halfway through the book — although younger readers may not) I’m still excited to read the second book in the series to see how it all plays out. It’s filled with incredible illustrations and very fun characters and action that I think most kids would enjoy, science fiction lovers or not. I think the recommended age group of 5th grade and up is perfect.