Book Review: Keeper of the Lost Cities

A good story for someone who doesn't like fantasy

Keeper of the Lost Cities is a story about communist elves (complete with classes!) who kidnap a girl elf from her human caretakers in order to bring her to a world of elves that is charged with maintaining planet Earth from all of the terrible things that humans are doing to the environment. I read it because it was on my kids’ bookshelf and I had nothing to read when I needed something to read.

Ok, that’s my cynical review. In reality, Sophie Foster is part of a large conspiracy to wreak havoc within the world of Elves. She is a prodigy formulated by the rebel group but due to her human upbringing is behind in developing her skills. Book 1 of this series is about her learning to control and use her skills all while battling the emotions of a preteen and also dealing with the pain of being snatched (there is really no way around this harsh description of what occurred) from her human family and trying to integrate with her new elvin family.

I’ll stop there in order to avoid too many spoilers. Overall, the first 40-50% of the book is a little slow, but picks up quickly from there. The elvin powers that are described are interesting (telepathy, emotion reading, “technopathy”, etc) and I didn’t really roll my eyes too much, though at times they do seem to conveniently “manifest” in order to solve a problem at hand. I would say the book probably follows many superhero tropes (mainly what I would call the “Superman Trope” given that in the story, a superhero is raised by humans), though I wouldn’t expect much more from a book series aimed at young readers who are probably only being first exposed to such storylines and/or wouldn’t care if the story is predictable if the characters are overall relatable.

In terms of the characters, I think they are developed nicely and are in fact overall relatable to kids in the 2010s (when the book was published) and even today, though technology is generally absent from the book, which may actually be a good thing for this day and age. Sophie shows appropriate emotions for someone her age, though the author may go too hard on the puppy love (it never goes beyond that) aspect common in this stage of life (Sophie blushes on like every other page and basically after every interaction with someone from the other sex, thinking about it now it gets a little old).

The most intense emotion raised is momentary suicide ideation, but it is mentioned in passing and is not fixated upon so I will let it pass, though I did think it was a little weird to mention such a thing in a book targeted at 10-12 year olds. Overall her emotions are dealt with properly and the adults she relates them too are helpful and affirming of her emotions and actions, so A+ for healthy mental behaviors being reinforced.

This may have been the first fantasy book I have ever read (at least since elementary school) and I not only got through it but was excited to read it towards the end. The end may have been cliche (think “happy endings for everyone”) but again, that’s what kids this age want, so I don’t think that is anything to criticize.

Buy Keeper of the Lost Cities on Amazon (affiliate link)