Yes. I think they would enjoy it. It isn't young adult fiction, but it will work for them. I also don't know if girls will enjoy this book more that boys, but I won't be surprised if that is true. Female characters have large roles in this story, not to mention the heroine. This isn't anything like Tolkien's male-dominated tales, so your daughters may find alot of common ground in it.
There is one spot of immorality in it, but it's handle very cautiously, even a bit confusingly. And late in the story, when all of the excitement is building, there's a spot of torture which confused me a bit too. I don't think either of these descriptions are worse than anything Tolkien or Lewis described in some of their tense scenes.
I could also say there are possibly some scary spots, but it's hard to say what is actually scary for different people when you're talking about fine lines within the words.
Good review of the book. I enjoyed it a lot, and heard that the next book will have quite a few nasties in it. But I won't mention the ending of this book. ;-)
Phil, would this be a good book for kids? My wife likes to read for our two pre-teen daughters books just a bit more advanced than they can be expected to read on their own. After Narnia, Tolkien, At The Back of The North Wind, Little House, The Black Stallion series, Wind in the Willows, most of the Newberry winners from the last century, Little Women, etc, etc, we need to scratch a bit deeper. What can you recommend for this purpose?