And that’s exactly why I’m so disappointed that this book does not hold up to the rest.Jamboree! To many country music fans the word conjures up memories of Saturday nights around the family radio listening to live broadcasts from that haven of hillbilly music, West Virginia. I have recommended the series to just about every reader I know and gotten at least three peopled hooked on the books, too. I have been an enthusiastic fan of the Keeper of the Lost Cities ever since I read the first book. Because his brother is really him, after all. They show up to his funeral and plant his seed and then it’s back to normal, like he never existed. (I’m sure no reader can imagine real twins getting upset when people treat them like freaks or act like they’re interchangeable, like they’re the same person.) So much so, that, even though he explains he wanted everyone to mourn the death of his brother, we don’t and neither do the characters. His story makes twins a real “Other.” It seems, you see, that he and his identical twin brother are basically the same person. Forkle’s story does not help the case of twins. Even though the books are supposedly all about pointing out how the Elves are prejudiced against multiple births, Mr. Forkle, however, disappointed me most of all. She’s really just there so Sophie can decide that she loves her after all (despite totally forgetting about her for months) even though “they’re not really sisters.” (I do think this is a slap in the face to adopted children everywhere.) Though we hear so much about how humans are not really useless and she can help, etc., she does not help the mission in any way. Even Amy’s character receives less time than might be expected. seem to be playing bit parts, popping up when their powers are needed. I can imagine readers being furious at this bait-and-switch.) Other characters like Tam, Linh, Grady, etc. (In part, Fitz’s disappearance seems to be so we can play up the Keefe relationship for at least two books now, even though Sophie and Fitz are clearly going to get together in the next book–all the rules of YA say so. Dex has faded into the background for several books now, reappearing as necessary to bestow technology before disappearing again. This makes it difficult to root for them.Īlso making it difficult to root for the Black Swan is the fact that there are just too many of them at this point and Messenger is not adept at handling them all. Lady Gisela is running the show with impunity because apparently everyone in the Black Swan is out of their depth here. Instead of fighting the Neverseen or going after her human parents (which is the ostensible goal), the Black Swan keep running errands for their enemy, bringing her back items and information in exchange for very little. It makes the book read like a video game full of side quests. They fail to do a single thing in this book without the aid of Lady Gisela. Meanwhile, Sophie and her friends continue to be all but useless. She just chooses not to…because she’s holding out an increasingly foolish hope that her son will join her in her quest. She keeps asking them to perform tasks for her, but it seems pretty evidence that she could perform the tasks herself, if she really wanted to. Is there any particular reason that she needs to ally herself with Sophie and Co. Is there any evidence that she is working against her former allies? No. are working with a previous villain because…why? Did she do anything to earn their trust? No. However, I think the real reason I could not understand the plot is that it is not really understandable. Altogether, this is a disappointing installment that feels very much like the stereotypical “middle book”: it is doing nothing but taking up space.įor a long time, I could not get my bearing in the story and I feared that it had been too long since I had read Book Five. Many of the characters we have come to know and love fall by the wayside, as Shannon Messenger struggles to handle her large cast. There is no clear point to the story or to any of the characters’ actions. In Nightfall, the series has finally lost its way. Still, I have loved every ridiculous minute of the series until now. I recognize that the Keeper of the Lost Cities series is not well written and that it often borders on farce, especially with its love square (pentagon? hexagon?) and the fact that the characters give themselves ship names. And Sophie isn’t sure she should trust one of the villains. But only one person knows how to get there. The Neverseen have taken them to Nightfall. Sophie is looking for her parents–the human parents she’d forgotten she’d had, until it was too late.
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