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.
I first came upon Shannon Messenger in her Sky Fall series, and since I loved that so much I decided to check out her other books. This is her debut work, but the series is still ongoing, so I figured what the hey, let's dive in.
The best part of this book (and I assume the series to come) was the world-building. The elf/magical world is basically a Utopia with no poverty, sickness, and very, very little death in general. Thing is, with the main character coming from our world the signs of dissent are a bit more obvious to us than those within. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the society uncovered in future books, flaws and all.
Still, exploring the world with kid gloves and experiencing another take on magic school, and magic in general, was great. Everyone has their own magical talent, usually psychically based, and that in turn creates their place in society. Younger kids stretch their limits generally trying to get their talent to reveal itself, while those with their talents revealed go into specialized training from phasing to mind reading to alchemy and more.
Sophie is kind of your general Special or Chosen One in that she ticks a lot of the boxes you've seen before. She's from our world but was really supposed to be in the magical world all along. She's super powerful, with a mind that can't be read by even the most powerful mind readers, but thought it was a curse until being shown how to control it. She was created for a secret purpose that hasn't come to light yet. She's both super popular and bullied because of her special status. She feels alone, singled out for things beyond her control, but also can't divulge all her secrets for fear of being even more ostracized. And, of course, rules don't apply to her because of extenuating circumstances (or because she has friends in high places). But besides the tropes, I did like Sophie's love and loyalty towards her family, and I'm looking forward to her friendships continuing to expand in the future.
But as much as I can overlook some of the Chosen One tropes, I wasn't thrilled with some of the other tropes running throughout. First off, you have the mean girls trope. Not only is there a girl bully who has it in her head to make Sophie's life miserable, but you also have girls in general tripping each other to claim the affections of one cute guy. Sophie does manage to have one close girl friend, but there are still constant quips about "not being that kind of girl". I'm just tired of girls being so venomous toward other girls for seemingly no reason other than it's a convenient alienation technique.
The other tired trope is how Sophie's age is the main reason she isn't allowed to know relevant information. Yeah she's twelve, but if something is actively hunting her down she should still be informed of it, no? I mean, I get trying to protect kids and their psyches and whatnot, but if they're already in the middle of some dark stuff it'd probably behoove the people in power to empower the kid instead of (trying and failing to) keep them ignorant. Don't they know that fear of the unknown is just as stressful than fear of a known? I'm hoping Sophie and crew don't have to deal with this one forever, but when the adults are practically immortal, that's a lot of ageism to overcome.
Hopefully her friends will be enough to help her out on that front, cause them I liked. Fitz is her first contact within magical society, so comes with a bit of hero-worship in addition to his good looks, but seems genuinely friendly towards her. Dex seems very much the boy next door, nice and eager to help, but perhaps a bit overprotective when it comes to Sophie, and a definite chip on his shoulder when it comes to the upper-class. Keefe is the bad-boy rebel with a surprisingly good heart who likes to keep Sophie on her toes, but also has her back. It'll be interesting to see what, if any romance develops between these three boys... I feel like it's leaning towards Fitz what with their psychic connection, but if I know anything about kids, 2 years difference is A HUGE deal until you move into high school, and even then it's still abnormal in most circles.
As for her girl friends, I'm not too enthused thus far. As I mentioned above, there's a lot of girl vs girl sentiment going on. Sophie seemingly has one girl on her team, Marella, but it hit me as more convenience than actual friendship. Marella hates the bully girl and sees an opportunity to get back at her by supporting Sophie. Then there's Fitz's little sister, Biana, who starts out antagonistic towards Sophie, but is forced by her father to befriend her. Supposedly this forms into an actual friendship, but the jury's still out on my end.
Ultimately I'm definitely interested to see where the series goes. I can see a lot of political intrigue peeking at the seams of this society, and I can't wait for the dark underbelly of this supposed Utopia to be exposed. I'm also interested in Sophie's continued magical education, seeing more of the creatures and citizens that coexist there, and what relationships may develop. I believe there are 8 books so far, so I've still got a lot ahead of me. Perfect for diving into when you can't go out, right?
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