After a long break from working on my book, (in all ways) I see it a little differently. I am able to catch mistakes that I have missed, see parts that are not so dynamic in the flow of the story, and also repeats of the same thought..... So, as I am looking over my story and listening to it on my phone (since I figured out how to get my phone to read it to me), I am noticing a huge conflict in my style and content...

My style--I think--is simple, like a children's book, but the content of the story is for mid- to older teens (15 or 16 through 19-ish) ... I didn't really know what age group my story was for until I completed it....but I think how I wrote it is simple enough for someone 13 or younger.... To me it doesn't match up.

Does anyone else encounter this problem? If so, what do you do?
Please help me fix this.
In that, if I'm going to match it up, I'm going to have to revise it a LOT! and take out or change a lot of dark parts; don't want to give kids bad thoughts or bad dreams...ya know?

I think it's alright. It makes the dark content seem lighter if the story is written like it's geared towards a younger audience. For me, anyways. The message can come through more clearly if it is written simply, as well. *nods* So, overall, I think it'd be all right.

I see what you mean by the problem... sometimes when I read grownup content in grown up books, I don't mind, but then I might read grownup content in a book for younger children and I don't really like reading it.. even though it's not really the content I mind. I dislike seeing mature topics in a book for younger children, because I do not think it would be good for them, and also because it seems to make light of things that are really pretty serious.

I don't know, I guess I could help you more if I had read some of it and knew more about the content and the style you have. But I think it would be good if you did not have too much description (when I was younger, a very little description was enough to make things very real to me), and also that the serious things are kept serious when they do come up.

Or you can change the style to fit the content better, though that would be more work.

Who do you believe would be best served by the story that you wrote, teenagers or younger children?

That's true... If it is just that your style is simple, and not that it is.. light in tone, I guess.. then I don't think that would be bad.