Keeper of the Lost Cities (Keeper of the Lost Cities #1)

My kids liked it. The world was authoritarian, and governed by irresponsible secrecy, rewards, and punishments. Not only do the kids in the book but into this structure, but the adults–nearly without exception–foster uncritical and uninformed respect for authority and nobility. The author seems to recognize that this isn\’t a virtuous structure for a society, but hasn\’t reflected enough on the moral bankruptcy of such mostly \”benevolent\” authoritarianism to treat it with depth or realism. So bullying at all ages and levels of society is normalized, and is an acceptable, if unpleasant, part of life. People can also commit high crimes through accidents of birth or curiosity, and the author has created a world where that\’s mostly fine. We won\’t be purchasing the next book for our kids.

I read a review similar to the one I\’m writing now and thought: \”Wow, what a bitter, grouchy, liberal conspiracy theorist!\” I made it to chapter 15 when I realized she was right. The main character goes to a whole new world, where she is told hundreds of times (not exaggerating) \”I can\’t tell you that yet\” and \”Don\’t worry about it\” and the like. She\’s told she\’s a \”good girl\” for following blindly. It\’s awful. She swallows a lack of answers and follows blindly in a way that I hope my children NEVER will. Read Harry Potter or Fablehaven, or something with thinking characters. This main character made me sick – so sweet, but so stupid.

This book is amazing because it has humor and I think it made me cry like 14 or 15 times, but also the voices are so gentle if they need to or so scared or angry, if you are sick (I am) this is a nice relaxing book to listen to, really recommend it on audible, you won\’t regret your lose of cents, truest me. My mom asked me why I like the performance so much? It\’s because even when they sought they don\’t acutely scream like in story thieves or in the land of stories even thought both of them are very good. Another thing is if English isn\’t your first language this is the best thing to improve it, not this book only (even thought this book is AMAZING), audible and reading. Won\’t spoiler but REALLY RECOMMEND!!!!

Another book I read because of a Harry Potter-esque recommendation. I don’t know what it is about it, but this book felt very epic to me. I am getting ahead of myself though. This is about a 12 year old girl, Sophie Foster, who has been able to read minds since she was five. One day she meets a boy at a museum whose thoughts she can’t hear, and he tells her they have been looking for her for twelve years. And he also happened to mention he’s an elf, and by the way—so is she. Sophie now needs to contend with who she always thought she was and who she will turn out to be, a whole new world, with not only a vast set of possibilities (Magic! Immortality!) but a set of strict rules too. As she tries to find her place in a new society and at a new school, where she really needs to work to keep her head above water, it slowly begins to look like there is even more mystery surrounding who she is than she initially thought. Also, there are these mysterious fires popping up threatening to kill humans, and nobody seems too bothered about stopping it from happening… I like Sophie’s character a lot. She is brave and tenacious and outspoken, all of the characters in here are very likeable, except when they’re clearly not supposed to. Most characters are a lot less whimsical than in Harry Poter, and like Harry Potter it’s very clear who are supposed to be the ‘good guys’ and the ‘bad guys’ and like Harry Potter the school setting is at times fun and a little ridiculous at times. It really like how the world and the magic is described, you get a very clear picture of how some of it works, and how it all looks. But there are two things I really didn’t like, and those were the insta-crushing on the cute boys, and how she went from being a moderately ok student in some subjects, to being a boss in all the things, without showing the reader how she made that progression I think this book sets up the series very well, and I think it will only get more interesting as the characters age with the story. I’m hoping things will get less black and white as this tale progresses, and the thought processes and conflicts get more intricate. Excited to continue the series. If you loved the pranks in Harry Potter (which I personally didn’t), a very driven main character, school rivalries, fun friendships, even if they are still a little superficial, another beautiful and lush world to discover, and a very colorful magic system, a compelling mystery, and adorable creatures to boot, I would recommend this to you! I think the narration for this was very good. It matched the stateliness of the older Elves, and all the characters; personalities shone through, but I think she made Sophie\’s character sound a little whinier at atimes. That could also be because she is really young in this book

This book is a total copy of Harry Potter. This author literally took Harry Potter, and changed a couple of things. Straight up BRUH

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