Keeper of the Lost Cities or KOTLC, in short, written by Shannon Messenger is a very popular series. The characters have a secure place in our hearts and the deaths in it have left us stricken. Recently, some talk has come about KOTLC being cringe and too long; and to some extent, I have to agree.
Keeper of the Lost Cities as soon as I read the first book, immediately became my favorite series... but not for long. The first two or three books were very intriguiging, but after that, they became repetitive, to the point where I had to force myself to finish the book.
Here are some things I don't like :
1) The are too many characters. Way too many. Instead of just keeping a few characters main and the others as side characters, everyone is given the centre stage and then suddenly pushed off. You know who I am talking about... cough Dex cough. Right now, including the bodyguards, there are 19 characters in the main gang. And this is not even including the other important characters - people like Bronte, Oralie, Mr Forkle, Edaline, Grady, etc and this is only the so called 'good' side.
3) The things here are unreal. Not the magic part, I mean things like how the elves are afraid of just holding a knife. Hello? Haven't you ever cut an apple? Why are they so scared of blood? Haven't they ever cut themselves? I understand that elves are so called 'pure' but when someone in your own species can torture and kill humans for experiments, can another not lie without their heartbeat picking up? Also, I think Forkle should have just stayed dead.
4) The love triangle : This brings out the worst in everyone. Fitz is shown only with Sophie or thinking about her. Does he even have a life outside? Talk to anyone else?
Keefe is also shown either thinking about Sophie or his mom. He needs to talk to other people. Everyone in the gang cares about him and he doesn't realise that.
5) Character development - There is no visible character development; I mean Biana and Stina became better ig, but why? Stina still acts stuck up so we can't even call it development. Biana for no reason suddenly likes Sophie and would sacrifice her life for her. Fitz has only gotten worse. He is mean and cares only about himself. Keefe has lost everything he cared about due to his obsession with Sophie. And Sophie herself? She is the most useless character in the series. Sure, she has 5 powers but they are used so rarely I can't even remember the 5. Or was it 6? She always thinks she knows best, gives her "don't risk it" speech, does something risky that harms the team, apologises, and does the same thing again.
6) Lastly, I feel Shannon doesn't know what comes next and is hence just stretching the story on and on. It is better to take some time to get good ideas than publish crap... like book 8.5. There was nothing of importance in that book. It just said things we already know. The first few books were amazing.. then after that, I could predict EVERYTHING. It was long and repetitive.
Yeah... idk what Messenger can do to revive the series. Let's see the next book.. oh wait the next book is a graphic novel.. recaping the first part of the novel.. WITH FITZPHIE IN THE COVER!!