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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Some
Children are incapacitated by agonizing pain whenever they approach the town limits
Language
Barely any
Almost none — one kid calls another a "spaz," plus a flatulence joke about an adult
Sexual Content
None
Common Sense Media marks it not present
Substance Use
Some
A boy realizes the adults are secretly drugging him to suppress his memories and stops taking the medication
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The premise is that every adult in your life, including your parents, has been lying to you since birth and is running an experiment on you
What this book is about
Common Sense Media rates it 9+ and its violence note is the book's central threat: "The kids discover that they can't leave town, because an unseen force inflicts terrible pain on them," alongside an important character dying in a crash, adults drugging a child, and physical fights. Drinking and drugs are flagged "very little" only because one character realizes he is being medicated to erase what he has learned. Language is a single "spaz" and a flatulence joke. iPads, Xbox and eBay feature heavily as plot tools.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Adults covertly drugging children
Every parental figure revealed as a deceiver
A character killed in a crash
Reader Verification
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