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Content snapshot
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Violence
A lot
Western violence and gunfights throughout; some deaths in the frontier register
Language
Barely any
Mild language; 19th-century register
Sexual Content
None
No sexual content
Substance Use
Barely any
Significant drinking — Rooster Cogburn's drinking is a character trait
Emotional Intensity
Barely any
Mild: the adventure stakes and Mattie's determination create tension without significant psychological distress
What this book is about
Fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross, a formidable Arkansas girl with an iron will and more practical intelligence than anyone around her, hires the hard-drinking, one-eyed U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn to pursue her father's killer into Indian Territory. Charles Portis's 1968 novel is one of American literature's finest: narrated in Mattie's distinctive, arch, utterly unsentimental voice, it is simultaneously comedy, Western adventure, and a portrait of extraordinary character.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
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