Concerning & Potentially Concerning Content

This story has frequent references to superstitious things that we as Christian would want our kiddos to avoid. There are references to luck, crossing your fingers, signs, good omens, bad omens, etc. There is a vague statement that everything happens for a reason and all will end well. There is a “benevolent spirit from the deep sent to watch over them”. When something goes wrong a character wonders if it is a sign from “the gods”. There is a cleric character, but even when he does something like praying it quickly says he is praying to “his gods”. At one point when someone says the cleric is praying the captain remarks, “good, always best to cover all of the bases.”. The main character mentions that he didn’t pray much and that his family had put their faith more in the seasons or in nature than any particular god. He decides to send up a prayer to “any higher benevolent god.” Later he quips that “he’d clearly done some enormous wrong in his previous existence. It was the only explanation for why he was (in this situation)”. A sea monster is described as a devil from the deep. Someone who dies is referred to as “godforsaken”. There is a reference to a benign spirit and later a ghost. Someone is described as running like a boy possessed. — While violence is not surprising in an adventure story like this, it seems to go a bit further than you may expect in a few spots given the feel of the rest of the story. There is a mention of “thrusting a sword through their leader”. Character is given a knife and told, “if someone comes near you, stick this in them”. They come upon 20 men, women and children who had been killed (mentions being stabbed in the back”) with the scene preserved by being frozen in ice. A knife is described as “the one they were planning to use on us later to cut us up for their gods”. — The main character is solid through much of the book, but there are several exceptions. He lies to his friends, seemingly to avoid embarrassment. The term “Leif’s Book!” is used. When asked what it means he says it allows you to curse without upsetting your mom. He later lies to try and help friends. He remembers back to sneaking to spy on his brother and a young lady (implies romantic, but nothing described). He steals a kitchen knife and calls it borrowing. Even more unfortunately this behavior doesn’t really come across in a negative light. — When bathing a bully steals his clothes and the main character is described as “naked”. Later a girl goes down to “her underwear” in order to shed all weight to avoid drowning.