Gunslinger Girl is a fast-paced Western set in a richly imagined post-war future in which humanity exists in small, gritty towns and opulent, ordered cities. This dystopian future is imaginatively reminiscent of other popular action movies and books but maintains it individuality so well that is does not feel derivative. The book is filled with themes that will resonate with modern readers – themes such as economic and resource scarcity, class disparity, and the struggle for individuality in a world that has set roles that people are expected to fill.

The story of Gunslinger Girl is filled with action and intrigue, friendship and betrayal. The characters are colorful and full of personality, and the author skillfully introduces them in such a way that the reader is drawn to them and develops and empathy for many of them. Even the villains have traits that make them more multi-faceted humans and less one-dimensional bad guys. This graceful balance of character development and action makes Gunslinger Girl a book that is hard to put down.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: 13 religious exclamations; 56 mild obscenities; 4 religious profanities; 7 derogatory names; 15 scatological words; 5 anatomical terms.

Note: The word “whore” is used to reference a profession (not tallied).

Violence/Gore: A few verbal threats; characters threaten each other with guns a few times; report of a death in the past with no details; a few reports of deaths in war; a few reports of executions; a character has a bad scar from a previous attack; report of a suicide; report of deaths by disease; a few reported murders; report of an accidental death; characters find a dead body; an adult hits a teenager; a character breaks another’s finger; characters have blood injuries from previous battles; a man chokes a woman without injury; a bloodied body is displayed as punishment; a fight in which characters are shot to death and killed in an explosion; a character sees the dead bodies of executed criminals; a character is killed by multiple snake bites; a character is executed; a scene in which one character is shot and another is knocked out; a fight few fights with broken bones, bloody wounds, and deaths; a character is shot to death; a character draws a picture using blood; a gunfight with deaths and bloody injury; a character sends people’s heads with messages; a scene in which a man is tortured then executed; dead bodies are described after a fight, and one of them has gory injuries.

Sex/Nudity: Characters flirt verbally a few times, including flirtation with characters of the same gender; characters hold hands, hug, or kiss a few times; a man kisses a woman’s hand in greeting; a girl finds a man attractive; a girl gets flustered when a man she finds attractive touches her while taking measurements for clothing (not sexual); prostitutes flirt with customers; discussion of birth rates and women forced to marry; discussion of the sex trade; brief discussion of sterilization surgery; gingerbread cookies have exaggerated anatomical correctness; people make out in public (no details given); a scene in which characters, one of whom is a minor, undress each other and caress each other, and it is implied that sexual activity follows; characters hug and kiss, and it’s implied that sex follows in a few scenes; prostitutes wear clothing that reveals breasts as they flirt with potential clients of the opposite and same gender; a woman is naked in a bath as another woman, wearing lingerie, bathes and massages her; a woman is partially naked during an on-stage performance; characters are naked after sex.

Mature Subject Matter:

Cross-dressing; prostitution; government corruption; war (reported); biological warfare (reported); thievery (reported); forced adoption away from parents; arranged marriage for profit (reported); death (parent, friend); domestic violence; elective sterilization; gambling; plague (reported); capital punishment; suicide (reported); alcoholism and drug addiction; street gangs; class disparity and poverty.

Alcohol/Drug Use:

Adults drink alcohol; teens drink alcohol; adults smoke cigars; drugs are used medicinally; characters take unspecified recreational drugs; characters are drugged to unconsciousness with tranquilizers; characters take recreational drugs (unnamed, but narcotic); alcoholism and drug addiction; characters use birth control medications; characters smoke cigarettes.