Spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk. (Excuse typos)
Review of Unraveled (Keeper of the Lost Cities Another .5 Book)
Okay, so here’s the deal: I didn’t like Unraveled. I get that Shannon Messenger puts a ton of effort into her books, and I respect that, but this series is dragging, and this book was just… slow. Like, painfully slow. The first few chapters are literally just Keefe lightleaping all over the place—no dialogue, no excitement, just him hopping around the globe. And the last two chapters? They’re basically copy-pasted from Stellarlune, just in Keefe’s POV. We didn’t need that. The last chapter with Alvar convincing Keefe he and Sophie are good for each other, again unnecessary to the PLOT, but does give those readers who read for the romance rather than the plot what they want i guess. But again, does nothing for the plot that needs to be wrapped up.
And speaking of the plot—what plot? The whole book is basically about the Wrights (aka the London people) plot thread, and honestly, how many books has that plot thread been hinted and dragged on about? Not enough for this to feel satisfying. And spoiler alert, we learn nothing of significance about the London people except that Keefe didn't read the letter that he delivered, and that the man is dead but the daughter is alive. Like, what? But there’s so much more about the London people like why Gisela chose them, how are they relevant to stellarlune, and so much more. Why leave room for more gaps and questions in the next books when you could've wrapped up a significant portion of this plot thread in this book itself? An entire 400+ page book dedicated to this one plot thread that isn’t even addressed enough? It’s just not justified. The only “big reveal” in this book is about the Wrights, and personally, I didn’t find Alvar’s return to be much of a reveal. He was just there to keep Keefe from being the only character in the story and to make it less boring because otherwise Keefe would have no one to bounce his dialog off.
The character development in this book mostly focuses on Keefe’s abilities, which is fine, but even that’s not enough to carry the whole thing. Again, Alvar was added just so there’d be a second character in the book, and that’s not a strong enough reason for his inclusion, but he does show significant character development if that counts for anything since he’s really not of the main cast. (There are SO many main characters to keep up with as well.) This entire story could have been condensed and added behind the novella in Unlocked. Plus, Unlocked itself had over 500 pages of worldbuilding that read more like a history textbook or report (I read the first 2 pages of unlocked and skipped to the main story, I don’t think all the world building info was worth reading to understand the story) and it wasn’t necessary—we already know enough about the world through the main story. So instead Shannon could have done the Unlocked novella, and this book merged into one sophie pov, with a keefe pov immediately after, as the Unlocked cliffhanger was Keefe running away. It would've been the perfect pick up point for this book.
I understand how much effort goes into writing a book, and it’s great that Shannon Messenger has the freedom to write as many books as the story needs. But here’s the thing: that freedom should be used in a way that benefits and maximizes the story. The Keeper series could have ended as a solid 7 or 8 book series. High fantasy books that create an entirely new setting sometimes need more time to establish the world, but even then, there should be limits. Compare it to a series like Percy Jackson, which is a low fantasy and takes place in the real world and wrapped up perfectly in five books. Saying that for a low fantasy book, a high fantasy like KEEPER at max needs like 7-8 books.
Shannon could have always written a second series set in the same world if she wanted to keep exploring it. But the main Neverseen vs. Lost Cities plotline? It needs to end. Like, yesterday. There are so many itty bitty loose plot threads lying around, so many that they just aren't cohesively integrating with the main Neverseen vs. Lost cities plot anymore. It's not making sense, it's taking too much brain power to keep up with every loose thread, some that are even forgettable. This book even did like a paragraph where Keefe's thoughts summarize the entire series one by one. (Like, first Foster was kidnapper, then she found an alicorn, then she faced the neverseen, then even I don't remember what happened... was it lodestar, was it trolls? mommy dearest? (also pls stop calling her that, it's annoying).... blah blah) just so we as a reader are reminded of everything that been going on. That's not how its supposed to be, we don't need to have sparknotes summaries in every book to follow with the plot. Everything is kind of everywhere, like a messy room with clothes strewn about in all different directions, and its needs to be cleaned up real fast, before the room self destructs. The plot needs to be wrapped up before it gets dull, repetitive, and readers lose trust and interest in the story
Let’s talk about Keefe’s arc. He’s been talking about ending his mom for several books now, but nothing major has actually happened between him and his mom individually except the whole his mom ingrained him with light and shadow and that was in LODESTAR, like five-six books ago? Which is like 7-8 years ago for us as readers. That’s not enough to keep this plot thread alive, just end it already. Keefe keeps talking about how he’s going to take down his mom, repeating it again and again over so many books, but HE as a person hasn’t actually done anything major– things have happened TO him, but HE just runs away and plans and plots again and again, it’s getting boring and repetitive. Or, to rephrase, Shannon doesn’t GIVE him anything big enough to do. Yes, he’s desperate about it. Yes, he’s scared. Yes, he plans and plots, makes reckless decisions, and even faces his mom with his friends. But the entire Keefe’s legacy plot thread is long overdue for a big, epic showdown between him and his mom, individually. It keeps building and building without reaching that pivotal moment, and honestly, it’s starting to slow the momentum of the story.
This review from another reader on Reddit, (Easy-map) sums up everything perfectly: “I think SM is either scared of ending the series or doesn’t know how to. The last 3 books were almost entirely filler. 8.5 was completely unnecessary, in my opinion. It was just a buffer to allow her more time to write stellarlune. She’s gotten into this strange habit of making Sophie sit around and complain/debate/worry for the entire novel before squeezing in some kind of battle (that Sophie typically loses) in the final 50-100 pages of the book. This has resulted in books that stretch out the most mundane and uninteresting events into 200-500 pages of filler. I’m worried she will be so stingy with her plot points that nothing of importance will happen until the very end of the series, then it will be super rushed and anti climactic (as usual). If she continues the current trend with book 10, the series will need an 11th or even 12th book to tie up all of the loose strings. SM needs a new editor who can give it to her straight and tell her that her books are becoming boring.”
If you’re binge-reading this series between the ages of 8 and 11, or maybe even 12 to 14, and you read this without expecting too much, you’ll probably enjoy it for what it is, without thinking too hard. But for those of us who started this series in middle school and are now in college, who have to wait 1-2 years before every next installment in the series, it’s frustrating. The audience is aging out, and the books aren’t keeping up.
The blurb says its a "can’t-miss installment" but honestly... i don't know I feel about that with everything that actually happened in the book. It wasn't enough to be a "can't miss" you know what I mean?
I really think Shannon needs to announce how many books are left in the series. Readers deserve to know, and more importantly she deserves to hold herself accountable. Otherwise, it’s just going to keep dragging, and the longer it drags, the more likely it is to fizzle out instead of ending on a high note.
Again, I respect Shannon Messenger and admire her hard work, but Unraveled felt unnecessary for an entire book to itself—a slow, loose plot, no antagonist, minimal stakes, and answers that weren't enough to justify an entire book. I didn’t enjoy the book. If you’re still invested in this series, you might find some enjoyment here I guess. But if you’ve been waiting for resolution, you’ll probably be disappointed. For me? It wasn't exciting enough, and frankly unnecessary for an entire separate book. I’m just reading now to see how it all ends.