You could describe Shannon Messenger as the Lucinda Riley of young adult books - in any case, I don’t know any (or only very few) authors in the field of young adult books who manage to write the 9th book of a series as grippingly as the first time. That already explains that I devoured the again 1000-page part in the shortest possible time (I still have the mother, wife and other “side jobs” 😄) read through. And yelled an “Oh man!!!” to Shannon across the Atlantic when she included an extremely nasty cliffhanger this time, too. But if you’ve read the other books, you know that’s a specialty of hers, muhahahah! And wow - here comes book 10! Honestly, who can do that! Respect, lady!
I, on the other hand, have only recently discovered the series. I started with vol. 1 on Oct. 5 and have since read through all the books in one go, including vol. 8 ½, which I then ordered as a hardcover for once because the illustrations are totally beautiful. But who am I telling - those reading this review surely know what I’m talking about! And if not: immediately to vol. 1! The series is not without reason on the New York Times bestseller list. At first I was critical (“For Harry Potter fans” - who can presume to compare his story with the great J. K. Rowling - but I was quickly proven wrong. The series is simply great.
For those not yet familiar with the KOTLC world: Sophie Foster is an elf - raised in human care. But she knows early on that she’s different, she can hear thoughts, and it gives her a hell of a headache. When she is discovered, she is brought “home” to the elf world. But even there she doesn’t feel at home right away, some things explain themselves, but others remain mysterious. For example, she has brown eyes instead of blue like all the other elves. She finds out that she is an experiment, a genetic creation of a rebel group operating in secret. She was created for a very specific reason, to save the elf world (and the human world). She has other abilities besides telepathy, and knowledge that was implanted in her without her realizing it. She was secretly watched and protected in the human world by one of her creators, but also manipulated. Over time, she finds out everything that is kept from her, because she is very persistent in asking. She also has great courage and likes to fight. Her newfound friends in the elf world help her on various missions, during which her life is often in danger. There is another, hidden rebel group that goes against the elves, but we do not exactly know for what purpose at the beginning. In the elven world there is no natural death, but crimes and accidents. Elves have problems accepting death and avoid thinking of it. The criminals are being punished by being put into an eternal sleep. Other means of trying to learn secrets are by probing consciousness. Moreover, besides the elves, there are other races (dwarves, gnomes, etc.) who, among other things, work for the elves and are protected by them in return, and/or live in much smaller territories). In vol. 8 ½, you can see on a map where these peoples and their capitals are located. They have peace treaties with the elves, except for the humans. These live in ignorance of the elven world and the other races because the elves have withdrawn their protected status, and keep their realm hidden with illusions of light. The humans, however, are becoming a problem because they pollute the earth and are too invasive. The elf council, however, does not know how to deal with this. Therefore, as time goes by, unrest grows among the other peoples. The elves are also anything but an ideal society, there is definitely injustice, e.g. in the possibility of education. Only those elves with a talent for telepathy (or other abilities like disappearance or empathy) are admitted to the university, the others have either inferior abilities like water or fire mastery, the latter being outlawed because former pyrokineses started fires. Then there are shadow conjurers and technopaths (who can assemble devices and equip them with magical functions). And there are also those who manifest no abilities at all and are excluded from social advancement. These live in their own cities. In addition, you can’t freely decide whom to marry, you have to register for it quite early, then you get lists, and you are expected to take the most suitable choice if possible. For Sophie, who is unmatchable because of her unknown biological parents, this is a big hurdle, because she is secretly in love with Fitz, who has brought her to the elven world. But he’s a member of the elven nobility and can’t hide his reservations about being together with an unmatchable. Further on in the book Sophie gets more involved with her other secret admirer (Keefe) and realizes that there are more things they both have in common. But I won’t share it here - no spoilers!
It made me very happy reading Book 9 and accompanying Sophie and her group of friends fighting against the Neverseen. She’s tremendously brave and determined, altough she should sometimes listen to grown-ups. But Shannon Messenger never lets us forget that she is still a teenager! And that’s how it should be. I’m sorry I can’t write more but if I would - it would turn out to become a book of itself! There’s so much to describe. But you dear reader go ahead and see for yourself. It’s worthwhile.
