Young Adult Literature; Coming of Age; Adventure; Mythology
The main characters in godless are all about sixteen (a.k.a. young adults). They are smack-dab in the middle of figuring out how they relate to their peers, to their parents, to the ideals they were raised with, to the opposite sex, and to the stuff of childhood—home-drawn graphic novels and X-Men pajamas—versus the promise of drivers licenses.
There are coming-of-age elements throughout: Jason's nighttime ninja escapades require him to face some big-boy consequences, and of course the very exploration of what he believes about god is a fundamental part of his maturation process. Even his dad acknowledges at the end that Jason is old enough to decide what he believes, and while Jason might still have a lot of unanswered questions when the book wraps, he's come a long way in terms of taking responsibility for his faith.
It's not all heady stuff, however. You've got your tower-climbing, night-swimming, and death-defying adventure scenes in the book as well. And we would be horribly remiss if we didn't give Hautman a shout-out for his deft use of Biblical parallels and imagery, as well as the marvelously crafted Chutengodian mythology.