Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: Aladdin

Pages: 496pgs

The Story

Twelve-year-old Sophie Foster has a secret. She’s a Telepath—someone who hears the thoughts of everyone around her. It’s a talent she’s never known how to explain.

Everything changes the day she meets Fitz, a mysterious boy who appears out of nowhere and also reads minds. She discovers there’s a place she does belong, and that staying with her family will place her in grave danger. In the blink of an eye, Sophie is forced to leave behind everything and start a new life in a place that is vastly different from anything she has ever known.

Sophie has new rules to learn and new skills to master, and not everyone is thrilled that she has come “home.” There are secrets buried deep in Sophie’s memory—secrets about who she really is and why she was hidden among humans—that other people desperately want. Would even kill for.

The Review

I may not read a terrible lot of middle grade books - if not ever - but I just knew this one was going to be an exception for me. And it definitely was! It was adventurous, smart, witty, and just had this great combination of unforgettable (and unique) characters. In some ways, I kind of wished there were more books like this one back when I was a kid because I would have totally fell in love with it!

Now I'm not going to lie here. Like some readers have already pointed out in their book reviews, KEEPER OF THE LOST CITIES shared many similarities with J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. It really did. So while I understand why those particular readers didn't like that similarity aspect since Harry Potter is pretty much the best fantasy series ever, but regardless of that, it still didn't affect my overall opinion of the book because it was very well-written and so, so good. Sure I may have wanted the book to be not as long as it was because at times it did drag and certain events that occurred just popped out of nowhere, but this is the kind of book that everyone should read and it's the kind of book pretty much anyone can read no matter the age gaps between you and the characters!

Sophie was absolutely a winner through my eyes as a main heroine and she is the perfect example for  readers, especially those of a younger audience. Sure, she maybe only twelve and pretty naive, but there's so much more to her character and so much depth in her too. She's smart, witty, protective, caring unlike any other young MC I've ever met, and she just had this great innocence about her which I think a lot of readers will come to love and relate to. I just loved her as a MC and I think you will too! Even her supporting cast were equally as great as she was - especially Dex who is kind of like Harry Potter's Ron Wesley mixed in with some good old Neville Longbottom. I kind of wished for more scenes with Finn, another boy Sophie meets at the beginning of the book, but Dex makes up for everything! He was a super fun character  and annoying in a typical boy way as well but on a whole he was still super fun! 

Overall, KEEPER OF THE LOST CITIES is a fantastic start to a middle grade series and not to mention was a super fun book! I'm now very eager to pick up the sequel, Exile, which is coming out later this year in October!

The Rating

4 1/2 / 5 stars