SPOILER ALERT My 9 year old son loves this series for their fun and adventure, but I hope this is not the beginning of the end for our enjoyment of these books. I personally read it after my son brought it to me with concern. I found a good amount of the content scary and downright disturbing and a big change from the others- and none of this is revealed in the Amazon description of the book. I usually don't write reviews, but I'm doing so as a warning to other parents that may be concerned about some of the things that bothered me. The story contains a witch that tries to kill Hiccup, Scarers are blood sucking bat-like creatures that smell fear and swarm you the more afraid that you are, characters speak of human sacrifice and hear screaming on nearby islands, unacceptable "runt" infants are abandoned to die on the sea or exposed on a mountainside, a ghost legend is told about a woman that searches for the runt infant that her husband disposed of, and a father murders his son by running him through with a sword.