Rate this book

Gardiens Des Cités Perdues (2014)

by Shannon Messenger(Favorite Author)

4.41 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

2371020044 (ISBN13: 9782371020047)

languge

English

genre

Paranormal Fantasy

publisher

Lumen

series

Keeper of the Lost Cities

review 1: If I could give this book 6 stars, instead of 5, I would! Shannon Messenger tells a marvelous story! I'm betting my 12-year old grandson & 10-year-old granddaughter will love this book. They are often the inspiration for books I search out to read. (We love discussing books. They've shared their favorite reads with me since they were little.) This is a quick and easy read. The chapters are good lengths for reading one or more, taking a break and then returning to read more later. Can't say enough good things about the book!
review 2: Perhaps I expected a lot of this book because of the amazing ratings and because I'd seen some about it on BookTube. Despite my issues, I will say that this had commendable pacing and there were a few lovely characters. I... more wanted to love this more than I did. My main issues wasn't even the Harry Potter similarities (which you can read more about in any other sub-five star review, probably), but because of one plot device and a general feeling. The plot device was the withholding of vital information as a means of advancing the underlying mystery. At one point, I thought Alden was evil because most of his scenes consisted of him assuring Sophie that everything was fine when they clearly weren't. In the end, Alden tells her pretty much everything with little to no consequences so I don't understand why he had to keep everything a secret. It got very annoying as the plot was filled with this nonsensical device of everyone but Sophie knowing things. The general feeling was one of being ill at ease with some of the developments. I understand that this was middle grade, but it rose some very disturbing things that it just glazed over. This little girl was ripped from her family and the way she was dropped into new circumstances, manipulated, and jerked around was icky. She was genetically modified and someone hijacked her mother's IVF. These things are casually dropped in and mostly glazed over. I found Sophie's reactions insufficient, not alway necessarily brave.I was also a little annoyed about the beauty trope here. Everything was beautiful and everyone was the most beautiful. When Sophie figured she was adopted, her immediate thought was that it made sense why she was a slender blonde in the middle of a family of chubby brunettes. Eye roll. There was a brief mention of brown skinned gnomes who weren't *servants* but who totally loved working in the gardens or the white skinned elves...The world building and character development was entertaining, but not very tight or detailed. I loved, loved Grady and Edaline and their story was heartbreaking. All said and done, I would keep reading the series. Not my favorite middle grade by far, but good. less

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