This book is something that’s basically taken my school by storm. Although it blew up with popularity in epic proportions, there are (I’m sorry – is it just my taste?) way better books out there deserving attention. Also take in mind that I wrote this review after only reading the first book.
Spoilers ahead~
TL;DR (it is 500 pages…), this story is about an elf that doesn’t know she’s an elf. Sophie is 12 and she lives amongst humans but she has a secret: she’s a Telepath, which means she can hear other people and elves’ thoughts. When another Telepath called Fitz comes and whisks her away to the elf world, Sophie finds out her life is a lie. Unfortunately, there are secrets deep inside Sophie’s brain – secrets some are willing to kill for.
Sophie Elizabeth Foster is our genius in high school. She’s got brains but she just doesn’t fit in. She’s an ordinary girl until she’s noticed by Fitz. And then she just instantly gets drawn to him because.. uh he’s okay looking? Anyway, ignore the romance bit because we need to talk about what a strange character Sophie is. If some random person pops up and comes up to me saying he knows I can hear people’s thoughts, you’d think my first reaction is to run away. Right. Sophie does run away at first but then ends up with Fitz again and then she holds his hand and trusts basically her fate to a complete stranger? RED FLAGS, NO GO! Especially considering how Sophie’s parents raised her to be a cautious girl because of her prodigious abilities, it just simply does not add up. Even more frustrating, Sophie is so oblivious, can’t express herself well enough, tugs her eyelashes out for no reason (nervous habits should change), and is just painted too much of a helpless, emotional girl. She gets her hopes up so quickly and falls into emotional despair when things don’t go her way.
Our girl is such a pushover. Alden basically tells Sophie nothing – this irritates me throughout the book because Alden expects Sophie to trust him yet he doesn’t reveal anything to her: “Sorry! Oops, it’s classified.”
It also doesn’t make sense why everyone’s falling in love with Sophie. Yeah, she’s our awesome main character with those cool brown eyes and everything but her personality is kinda normal if you think about it. From my perspective, there’s no reason for 3 boys to fall head of heels in love with her (4 if you’re counting Valin). At least, not enough reason to be realistic. For me, it just seems like these boys like Sophie because she’s the ‘new thing’. Which is kind of unacceptable! Adding on to that, this is just my personal opinion, but I really don’t like the way all the elves treat Sophie in the book. I mean, it just get a really condescending feel from them, with their insanely annoying supercilious behavior. Even Sophie’s friend, Marella, just makes me feel as if she’s the one doing Sophie a favor for being her friend. Just me?
I can’t help but compare KotLC to Harry Potter. I’ve read some other reviews upon my completion of the book and it turns out, I’m not the only one. Harry (Sophie) is an orphan who lives with a family of 3. He gets brought to the magical world of wizards (elves) by Hagrid (Fitz). There, he attends Hogwarts (Foxfire) and makes 2 friends, Ron and Hermione (Dex and Marella), and makes an enemy, Malfoy (Stina). Hermione is a muggle and is looked down upon (Dex is a bad match and is looked down upon). There’s a secret force out there that’s slowly brewing up tensions, Voldemort and his dementors (Blackswan). There’s an incompetent and corrupted Ministry of Magic (the Councilors – failure to address the Everblaze, and Bronte’s prejudice against Sophie). There are three Unforgivable Curses that are looked down upon, the Killing Curse – Avada Kedavra, the Cruciatus Curse – Crucio, and the Imperius Curse – Imperio (Three powers looked down upon: Pyrokinetics, Mesmerizers, Inflictors).
The entire setup of the book gets me irritated. Most of the book is like realistic fiction Although I thought I was in for the adventure and thrill, all I had was mostly Sophie juggling grades, unfavorable teachers, social issues, enemies and friends, boy problems and so on. When the action does finally appear, it’s just Sophie getting drugged and knocked out repeatedly. Okay, yes the everblaze is connected to the elves and theres a pyrokinetic on the loose. But what I really want to know about is Sophie’s past. As someone who has read a lot of fantasy and thriller books, the ending and everything discovered within the book was mildly anti-climatic. By that I mean I had easily connected the hints and saw what it meant. It felt like the first book was just a major setup and a reality show of settling in an elvin land – I get that it’s a series but the novel itself is still inherently a book and it would have been nice to see some plot.
Not the best book, or maybe it’s just my preferable style? Good stuff: Hm… I like the writing style, it helps me understand things clearly and basically the use of language arts is super nice. Yeah. I hated but also kinda liked the way the first book wanted me to read the second book because all my questions went unanswered in the first. Along with the discovery that Blackswan might not be that bad, I feel very troubled as to who is the true identity of the antagonist.
Tired of my inability to figure things out.