Thank you for getting to this page to learn more about the books and take care of yourself as a reader. It’s not possible to put full conversation about potentially difficult plot themes in an online book description, but I’ve tried to put everything you may need to consider here. I’m also happy to provide details (i.e., this happens to such and such character in chapter XX), including spoilers, on request. Just use the contact form on this website to ask.
Short version:
- The work contains the following events or themes.
- Fight-related violence, war
- Blood and injury
- Self-harm for magic-related purposes
- Character serious injury and death
- Implied past child abuse (not described)
- Implied past domestic violence
- Prostitution/brothel/sex work
- Suffering of displaced people
- Racism
- Death of a child (reported, not on page)
Long version:
The Crane Moon Cycle is set in a world similar to ours in the sense that violence happens to innocent people through no fault of their own, and one of the underlying questions for me as an author was about how people, even people with magical powers and good intentions, live in that world. Violence is part of the world. The characters suffer violence and some of them inflict it, and their main goals are to survive and protect those they care for. Some characters do not survive.
Blood plays an important part in the story as phoenix blood carries healing and can be used for spells. Thus there are many scenes where the phoenixes injure themselves to get blood for healing, or where they are injured by those who want to use their blood for other magic. Blood also appears in scenes of violence.
A main character has a childhood that involved domestic violence and abuse. This is not described in detail but has a strong effect on her personality.
The second book is set largely inside a country that is at war. Refugees and displaced people and their suffering are part of the story. Again, this is part of the reality of living in a world where violence is real and innocent people suffer and die from it, and where none of the characters have the power to change this reality or stop the violence.
Some scenes in the Common Federation setting, which is inspired by the 1940s United States, include racist microaggressions. As an American historian in my professional life, I know that racism existed at all times and in all places in the United States. Racism didn’t and doesn’t exist separately from everyday life, but structured everything from international politics to personal relationships to the design of cities and of course immigration policy. Because of this, the Anglish characters in the Common Federation setting sometimes perceive the Daxian characters as “exotic” even when they are childhood friends.
Finally, there is one scene set in a brothel in both books. In this setting the existence of the brothel is the result of human trafficking and the participants in sex work are not freely consenting. To me, these scenes are less about sex and more about ways in which people are caught up in a world of violence and coercion and find ways to survive.