Neverseen by Shannon Messenger

Fantasy. 672 Pages. 5 Stars

Synopsis:

Sophie Foster is on the run—but at least she’s not alone.

Her closest friends from the Lost Cities have gone with her to join the Black Swan. They still have doubts about the shadowy organization, but the only way to find answers is to start working with them. And as they settle into their new lives, they uncover secrets far bigger than anything they’d imagined.

But their enemies are far from done, and unleash a terrifying plague that threatens the safety of an entire species. Sophie and her friends fight with everything they have—with new allies joining them—but every choice has consequences. And trusting the wrong person could prove deadly.

In this game-changing fourth book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, Sophie must question everything to find a truth that will either save her world—or shatter it.

My Review:

Four books deep and I’m still very much enjoying this series. I love all of the plot twists, even the ones I see coming–and there are a few of those. This story just adds layer after layer with each new book. The plots are intriguing and ever-expanding just like the world.

The plot of this one follows Sophie and her friends as they try to adjust to Black Swan life in their new homes. There was a lot of emotional depth in this book, too, which isn’t all that surprising considering Keefe’s development and arc in this book. The plot had a lot of waiting around, which I can see would contribute to some people saying it was kind of slow in some parts. But the action bits and the development of the overall plot were pretty huge and more than made up for it in my mind. Plus, I don’t always mind some downtime. I loved seeing the characters train in new ways, oh, and the whole Cognate thing is awesome! I hope there’s more of that to come!

To be honest, I was a little worried about the setting changing in this book initially. At the end of the previous book, the kids determine to join the Black Swan; and though that’s a cool development in the story, I was a little disappointed. I liked the Lost Cities and seeing the unique development Messenger had put into this worldbuilding. But I was also partially excited to see the elves react to the human world or Forbidden Cities and see the roles reversed for once where Sophie had a grip on things and they didn’t. Well, we didn’t actually get more than a scene of that since we basically went right back into the elvan world, but we did get to see more parts of it like the Neutral Territories, Ravagog, and Exillium. I must say Exillium was probably my favorite new setting to discover. I liked that subplot a lot and seeing how the program worked and changed along the way.

The characters are so much fun. I know I keep saying this, but I really, really like Keefe and Fitz and Biana and Sophie’s little posse. I really loved how they all came together in this book as a team, sort of solidifying the group in a way. We got to see a lot more of Della, too! Which I loved. I missed seeing Alden as much, cause he’s one of my favorite characters, but we saw many returning characters that moved the story on just fine. Messenger actually does a really good job with such a large cast, balancing everything and keeping characters straight and clear. We dove into our primary characters and deepened them (and even some of our secondary ones, too), which is one of my favorite parts of stories and long series. We got to see a lot of Keefe development here and I really enjoyed that! He’s a lot of fun, even though I wanted to hug and thump him quite a bit throughout. Oh! And we met two new characters that I thought were super cool! Loved their talents and am excited to see more of them in the future. A few other new characters thrown into the mix rounded the story out.

Content: No swearing, nothing more romantic than some blushing over a crush, and mostly mild violence. There’s some scarring, mild PTSD, and allusion to torture, but it’s all pretty mild mannered. Even the fights are mostly G rated with a little bit of blood. It’s a middle grade book. I’d feel fine giving it to a preteen, personally. The book does ask some questions about guilt, anger, and betrayal/loyalty that would make for good conversations with your kids. 

More:

Book 1 in the Keeper of the Lost Cities is Keeper of the Lost Cities (5 Stars)

Book 2 is Exile (5 Stars)

Book 3 is Everblaze (5 Stars)

Book 5 is Lodestar (5 Stars)

Book 6 is Nightfall (5 Stars)

Book 7 is Flashback

Book 8 is Legacy

Book 8.5 is Unlocked

Click the links above for more information on the books. I’m reading through the series now as I get them in from my library, so you can scroll down and see my reviews for the ones I’ve rated.

This series must be read in order.

On GraceBought

If you missed it, check out my thoughts on the previous books below! And stay tuned next week for my thoughts on the next book in the series 🙂

Keeper of the Lost Cities, Exile, and Everblaze