Jennifer Hartz
Desert Breeze
Published May 20, 2013
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After hearing a legend about a man who conquers demons and receives great power, six teens return to the site of the story and poke around. They flee following an accident, but over the next several hours, each begins to manifest a special ability.
Though the group is at first undecided on what to do with their new gifts, the team quickly realizes having these abilities makes them a target for a host of demons. They work together, using seeing gifts to sense demons and attack abilities to defeat them.
The fighting only gets harder as with each battle the demons seem to learn new ways to attack. Where are they coming from? The team must find out and must stop these demons before they are completely overrun.
Unleashed is a fun superhero team story in which each member takes turns narrating. While the opportunity to be inside each character’s head is great, some of the characters’ emotional landscapes leave few surprises. One fills readers in right away about his anger toward his dad and its sources. The peripheral characters are often one-dimensional as well. Despite this, young readers may find the intense battles against demonic hosts and romantic entanglements between the characters to be enjoyable and entertaining.
Jennifer Hartz has chosen to donate a portion of her royalties for this novel to The A21 Campaign, a group which fights human trafficking and the sex-slave industry. Visit the author’s web site for additional information.
Mild. Contains some crude language but not profanity.
Sexual Content
One boy fondles a girl he’s dating. References to the fact that characters are having sex without descriptive details.
Spiritual Content
While there are some references to Christian theology on demons and one character uses scripture to fight them, much of the battle strategy is physical, and only one character is described as having a relationship with God. The others do not even seem to question the spiritual implications of demons’ existence or how that might affect personal beliefs.
Violence
Character use superpowers to physically battle demons. Demons defend themselves by biting. Few graphic details.
Drug Content
None.
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