The End of Our HTTYD Journey: Why We DNF the Series

HTTYD 7: How to Ride a Dragon's Storm by Cressida Cowell

Back in the last book, we began to sense a new theme within the How To Train a Dragon book series. Things were getting less playful and humorous and becoming darker. This book tipped us over the edge.

We did end up finishing this book and trying book 8: How to Break a Dragon's Heart but we DNF'd that book within the first few chapters.

Review: In How To Train Your Dragon 7: How to Ride a Dragon's Storm Hiccup ends up on a slave ship bound for America. He must figure out how to free the slaves and keep the villain from killing him in time to return home for the Inner-Tribe Friendly Swimming Contest. This book has a lot more Possibly Concerning Content than usual due to the slaves. Check the guide below. We recommend to proceed with caution but honestly you could skip this one.

Possibly Concerning Content (Spoilers ahead!)

• Language: Big Boobied Bertha is described multiple times including “Big Boobied Bertha’s boobies are flapping so joyfully that they looked as if they would carry her off into the sky like a couple of hot air balloons.” “Bertha’s boobies drooped.”

  
  

• Romance: None

  
  

• Violence:

  •  The deck is described as being bloody red and the slaves threaten to eat the vikings livers.

  • A dragon is 'picked clean' where it's body rests at the bottom of the sea.

  • Slaves force a permanent 'slave mark' on Hiccup by using a sharp implement dipped in blue ink and digging it into the skin above his ear. He is forever tattooed and must hide it for the rest of his life or the other vikings will immediately take him into slavery due to the mark.

    
    

• Magic: The Soothsayer is mentioned along with his potions which sometimes made you feel worse than before you took them and whose soothsaying rarely worked.

  
  

• Other: 

  • A boy prays to 'the gods'.

  • There are slaves who 'put a curse' upon the ship. This is described in two different chapters that the slaves are ‘laying a curse on the ship, a curse on the voyage, a curse on every single Viking man, woman and child who was keeping them there" and that it makes Hiccup's hair stand on end.

  • The slaves make Hiccup swear on his slave mark that he will help them.

HTTYD 8: How to Break a Dragon's Heart

Review: This is the book that ended the series for us. Between the concerning content in the last book and the way this book began we made the tough decision to stop reading the How to Train Your Dragon Series, and to hesitate on reading anything else by Cressida Cowell.

Possibly Concerning Content (Spoilers Ahead)

Within the prologue, there was already mention of a father killing his son and the bloody wars that followed. In the first chapter, there was a ghost that haunts the ocean searching for her lost child and will steal the heart of anyone she meets and take it below. Then, the Beserker tribe is apparently sacrifcing people to a creature they call 'the beast.' At that point, we turned off the audiobook and decided we were finished reading the series.

Passing it Forward

If you do continue to read the series, please leave reviews wherever you can that mention any possibly concerning content so that parents like us can find information about these books before purchasing them. We ended up using Christmas money to buy this book and the next book in the series at the same time and will not be reading either now, nor can we get a refund as they were through audible.

Hopefully, I have given you enough information to decide if this series is right for your young reader. That's why I created this blog, after all.

Ever yours,

K.L. Miracle