Keeper of the Lost Cities: Books 3 and 4
Spoiler Warnings
After reading the first 2 books of the series, I was completely addicted to the main character’s nonexistent relatability. Guess what? She only gets worse. While in the first 2 books she develops all these abilities and is super powerful, she finally starts developing a God Complex. She believes that only she can solve the problems because she is the only one powerful enough to do that. So what does that lead to? She almost starts a war between the elves and ogres. Thanks Sophie Foster. Since she almost started a war, she gets banished.
This book series was clearly written for elementary to middle schoolers, but here I am reading away. It is pathetic how all her male friends seem to be interested in her, with her only friendzoning one of them. The other 2 she appears to be leading both of them on, which is manipulative and honestly, I don’t get why they like her wet cabbage personality. The plot actually starts picking up the pace, and it gets interesting. They set up the stakes that actually seem to matter, as they involve the wellbeing of the species in the world.
They added a political aspect which involves the treaties between the sentient creatures, and the book explores how delicate that balance is and how even a tiny push can start a war, which Sophie Foster almost did. The ogres are holding a threat over the other species heads, which is very well planned and thought-out plot wise. They also introduce secret societies working to help the world, but they are painted as the villains, making it hard for them to function. The world building is immaculate. They have all these rules for abilities, and there is actual lore behind the story. For a book with the most triggering main character, it has a surprisingly good story line, although it is 9 books long and continuing. The different species and their surrounding cultures are unique and diverse. They genuinely had interesting aspects that are uncovered as you learn with Sophie Foster because as the books constantly remind us, she is so unique and quirky for living with humans.
Calla's Tree after she transformed.
The other characters, or the side characters, are so much better than Sophie Foster. Keefe, Dex, Mr, Forkle, and even her adoptive father, Grady, are way more interesting. Grady even burns someone's hand off which was pretty cool. Sophie manages to gain less personality. She thinks that she is so empathetic and kind, watching out for her friends, but really it appears she just makes things worse.
The books are getting better, but if they don’t solve the problem with Sophie Foster’s nonexistent personality, this book series is unreadable.
-9/10
-Jonathan Chen
Hi Jonathan! The names of these characters is absolutely hilarious and sound like this series would suck. Hopefully Sophie falls on her head and gains some personality but sounds like this is spiraling into a trash pile. I will definitely steer clear.
ReplyDeleteI am a little disappointed that it's not a 10/10, and just a 9, but for the second and third book, I kind of agree. However, the fourth book on deserves a perfect rating. I love the picture of Callas tree. Sophie's personality only continues to develop, in the same way you discribed from book one to three. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHi Jonathan! I have always wanted to start reading the Keeper of the Lost Cities, but never got to. Now I see it is 9 books long. Wow! I'm glad you enjoyed this book(for the most part excluding Sophie Foster), and loved your description of her as being "wet cabbage personality". She does seem like an interesting girl. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHi Jonathan! I've never read Keeper of the Lost Cities before, and you have pretty much convinced me against it now. I think the plot of this series has some potential but I agree about Sophie Foster's personality -- she doesn't seem like a very good main character. Although I've never read this series before and probably never will, I think the plot will keep developing and getting more interesting, like you described in this review, but Sophie will never have her huge character arc. Great review! I look forward to seeing where this story goes next!
ReplyDeleteHi Jonathan! This was a really fun review! I love your intense comments. I’ve read the series, too. I think it's a great series, minus Sophie (I find it best to try to treat her like she is not a very important character), Fitz (the guy with anger issues), and the slow start.
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