Content levels
Trigger warnings
Positive tags
Protagonist archetypes
Tropes
Themes
Synopsis
Timid twelve-year-old Teddy Mathews and his mother move to a small, remote desert town in eastern Washington, where the tree next door, mutated by nuclear waste, eats children and the friends Teddy makes turn out to be dead.
Is The Dead Boys appropriate for my child?
Suitable for most readers 11 and up.
Parents should know this book contains horror elements including a tree that eats children, child death, and supernatural themes. The protagonist befriends ghosts of dead children, which may be unsettling for sensitive readers.
What to know going in
This book has moderate violence, no sexual content, and mild language. Content notes include death, death of child, and grief (see the full list above).
Who'll love this
Kids who like spooky stories will enjoy this tale of a boy who moves to a strange desert town and discovers his new friends are ghosts.