D.J. Edwardson’s Reviews > Keeper of the Lost Cities > Status Update

My girls have been reading the whole series of these? finish and tell me what you find out

Well, the first half was a slog, and the world-building was extremely trite (it is geared toward younger kids, though, so I suppose we can't expect too much). The main characters are supposed to be elves, but they act exactly like 21st-century western people so all the fantasy elements are basically window-dressing.

But by the second half the characters and plot improve considerably. That's when it changes from a Harry Potter/School Days story into a suspenseful and surprisingly poignant story about a girl trying to find her place in the world and, most importantly, in a family. Some really nice moments towards the end.

I might read more of the series at some point, but there are hints of romance ahead that I am not looking forward to and also more of the high-school-level drama that happens in the school scenes. If you could take those elements out, it's an engaging and thoughtful story, though. It's also extremely clean. No real content issues to speak of, so I give it high marks for that. And the value of family really comes through in a powerful way, so in my view it's worth putting up with the other elements for that.

I can see why younger readers would enjoy this, but older readers will have to wait until the second half before the story really comes into its own.