This review is for those who have read or are familiar with the previous books, Keeper of the Lost Cities, Exile and Everblaze, or don't mind knowing spoilers for them.
SPOILER ALERT
Sophie Foster is on the run—but at least she’s not alone.
Her closest friends from the Lost Cities have gone with her to join the Black Swan. They still have doubts about the shadowy organization, but the only way to find answers is to start working with them. And as they settle into their new lives, they uncover secrets bigger than anything they’d imagined.
But their enemies are far from done, and unleash a terrifying plague that threatens the safety of an entire species. Sophie and her friends fight with everything they have—with new allies joining them—but every choice has consequences. And trusting the wrong person could prove deadly.
In this game-changing fourth book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, Sophie must question everything to find a truth that will either save her world—or shatter it.
I was extremely exited for this one—after all, we're finally joining the rebellion full-time and getting into all the secrets. Right? ...Right?
First, on the all-important romance front, Keefe is being pushed super, duper hard right now. And I get it, Keefe's the bad boy so we've got to know the most about him, otherwise he'd just appear to be a dick and no one would root for him. And his story mirrors Sophie's in so many ways (being estranged by your biological family, welcomed in by a found-family, learning that your biological family is working against the government, and that they had secret plans that involve you) that it's hard not to root for him in all aspects. But I'm still hoping for a bit more Dex involvement, with Fitz being my least favorite of the three suitors (primarily due to his boring perfection, and him being a jerk to Sophie in the 2nd book).
If I had to assign a major theme to this book, it'd be expectation or responsibility. Now that Sophie is out of school and with the Black Swan officially, she's seeing more of what is hidden from her. This also results in her expecting more of herself, taking on more responsibility, and wanting to make more of a difference. This is helped by one of the Black Swan gnomes who helped in Sophie's creation and believes the Moonlark is destined to bring about great change. I guess it's true to some extent, but...
As far as the kids joining the Black Swan went, it was actually pretty underwhelming. The kids are still treated like kids, so their involvement was fairly limited. It was basically, "stay at this safehouse and train your various abilities until we need you." And their plans never seemed all that great to begin with, requiring massive improvisations or martyrs. So I guess I'm happy that they didn't think it wise to thrust 13-15 year-old kids straight into super dangerous situations, but at the same time it was disappointing to not at least have school as a welcome distraction. At least at first...
Sophie and co. do eventually go back to school, but this time at the outcast school, Exillium. There they train in various skills such as overcoming hunger, holding one's breath for extended periods (like 30+ minutes!), and other survival techniques. An interesting concept, I suppose, but it's never really fully explained. These children have been banished from the elven cities due to unwelcome behavior, so I get that survival techniques might be important...but extended underwater excursions seem more like militia training than just survival. Plus that whole mandatory masks and cloaks thing read more like a faceless army than discipline for juvenile delinquents. But since that is one thing we do get to see resolution to in the end, I suppose I can let it go.
I know some of my expectations thus far are unfair, especially because the characters are still fairly young, but I wish ethics and such would just get hammered out already. The treatment of the kids in Exillium was one thing, but there's a section of Exile, the magical communities' prison, where some of the life-long prisoners are kept sedated:
Sophie wasn’t sure the whole sedate-the-evil-people plan sounded all that solid—but what did she want the Council to do? Kill them? [38%]And then the subject is dropped, never to be brought up again. This happens over and over again, throughout the whole series. The outlawing of pyrokinetic elves, being prejudiced toward someone for something they were literally born with and had no choice in, is brought up but just as quickly swept under the rug again. The same prejudice comes up with a new character with shadow-based magic. She knows it isn't fair, that prejudice is bad, and (seemingly) that treating the pyrokinetics badly spurred them to rebel in the first place, but never takes it upon herself to enact change.
And that is perhaps the most frustrating thing about middle grade books, and even YA to some extent: they rarely have the power to change things around them. Fight a war? Sure! Gather intelligence behind enemy lines? Of course! Enact policies to change the underlying systemic injustices that brought about the conflict in the first place? Nah. Stick to the fighting and romance, kids, and leave the governing decisions to the grown-ups (who got them into this mess in the first place). But maybe I'm just more receptive to that type of stuff now with all the civil unrest we're facing in the real world. I just wish that some of these issues—just one, even—would actually be addressed, discussed, and worked toward a change instead of just teasing us with them. You'd think the guilt of putting things off would be getting to them by now.
But I suppose my frustration with their society is just one reason more to keep reading. After all, this is only book four of at least nine. We've got to build up the tension for the greater and more satisfying release. That's another thing that was great to see here: some of the secrets coming out. Not all of them (because, again, we still have more books to go), but some rather important ones concerning secret identities. It'll be interesting going forward to see how Sophie's interactions with them will change...
Ultimately, I don't think I can go into too much more without spoiling, or predicting what might be coming next. Being in the center of the series, I figure if you've gotten this far you've probably already chosen to stick with Sophie, and if you haven't then you'll need to wait until closer to the end of the series to get a look at the bigger picture. I'm happy to say that the quality and action are still holding strong, even if I'm struggling to reconcile my craving for societal change within and without the books. So, yeah, a strong continuation of the series, with a cliffhanger ending that's sure to keep you coming back for more.
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