Book Review of Shannon Messenger’s Keeper of the Lost Cities: STELLARLUNE
STELLARLUNE is the ninth and newest book of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series. In this book series, our main character, Sophie Elizabeth Foster, a Telepath (or someone who can read minds), has been “hidden” in the Forbidden Cities (human world) for the first 12 years of her life. One day, she meets a boy named Fitz who also happens to be a Telepath, and from him, she discovers that she is an elf. He introduces Sophie to the Lost Cities, a seemingly utopian elven world. However, there are many dark secrets within this world, and the Neverseen, or the villains, are trying to use these secrets to create havoc and take over. And Sophie, with the friends she makes throughout the series (Keefe, Dex, Biana, Wylie, Tam, Linh, and more) and her creators, the Black Swan, a secret elven organization that works to improve the elven society, must stop them. However, despite Sophie’s many talents, the Neverseen prove to be really tough to handle, as their plans are always steps ahead of Sophie’s.
In the novella of Book 8.5, UNLOCKED, Sophie comes across the unknown terms Stellarlune and Elysian from a forbidden secret. And then at the very end, Sophie’s amazing, hilarious friend Keefe runs away, scared, to hide in the Forbidden Cities after his Neverseen mother used Stellarlune to trigger some new, terrifying merged ability in LEGACY (Book 8).
So, in STELLARLUNE, Sophie tries everything to find her missing boy, Keefe. Unsuccessful, she decides to trust that Keefe knows what he is doing and, putting this side problem aside, shifts her attention to breaking other more essential mysteries. But will Keefe ever come back to help the group out? Anyways, back to the mysteries, with the help of Councillor Oralie (Sophie’s mom) and Dex, Sophie manages to uncover some more forgotten secrets from a cache containing the erased memories of Kenric (a supportive Councillor who had died in Book 3, EVERBLAZE). From the secrets, they learn that Elysian is a powerful power source, which the Neverseen are trying to get their hands on to help them perform greater crimes and secure more power. Digging deeper into this subject, Sophie and Fitz discover that Wylie’s mom, Cyrah, created a starstone, that allowed the holder to light leap (or quickly travel to a destination via light) to Elysian before she had gotten killed around ten years ago, but the whereabouts regarding this essential item is unknown. Can Sophie find the missing starstone and reach Elysian before the Neverseen?
STELLARLUNE was epic. Despite ending on a cliffhanger, it answered some of the confusing mysteries proposed in the other books with some unexpected yet exciting answers. And just like her previous books, it is absolutely hilarious. Messenger also included a good amount of friendship drama in the mix, making the book more interesting. You should definitely read the entire series, including this book. What’s not to love? Even though the books look thick (averaging to around 700 pages per book, more or less, thick), I promise, you will breeze through each book in a day or two, for Messenger’s descriptive writing is very clear. Keeper of the Lost Cities is the probably best fantasy book series I have read so far. I would highly recommend it; it has to be beyond a 5/5 rating.
-Kaylee Z
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