#kotlc annotated edition

[kotlc-deleted-scenes]

KOTLC Annotated Edition Deleted Scenes

Hey there, Keeper readers!

I hope you enjoyed all of my annotations. (And, you know, the book itself!) And good news: The fun isn’t over quite yet!

Another interesting fact about Keeper: the published version you just read is draft twenty! (Yes, really! I had a lot to learn about writing a book!) And because of that, I have an abundance of deleted scenes tucked away in my old writing files.

So I thought it’d be fun to share a few of my favorites with you guys, along with quick introductions explaining where the scene used to be and why I chose to cut it. Hopefully this will provide a small glimpse of how drastically things changed through all that revision—and maybe even give you some new insight into the world and characters.

Happy reading!

~xo,

Shannon Messenger

1. This scene used to come immediately after Sophie drugged her family and left the human world forever. I felt like she needed a moment to regroup, and I thought Fitz would feel bad after seeing her so upset and would try to cheer her up. But I cut it because it slowed the pacing and really wasn’t adding anything to the plot. Plus, I realized Fitz actually felt a bit responsible for what she was going through. So when I cut this, I added that quick scene where Fitz apologizes after Sophie meets with Elwin.

“Salty ocean winds whipped Sophie's face as they reappeared in a small cove with a crescent-shaped beach. Strange, almost melodic barking sounds echoed through the night.

Sophie frowned at Fitz. “This isn’t your house.”

“I know.” He plopped down on the sand, which glinted gold in the moonlight, and patted the spot next to him. “Have a seat.”

She slipped her backpack off her shoulders and sat beside him—but she couldn’t bring herself to let go of Ella. She hoped Fitz wouldn’t notice in the darkness. “What are we doing here?”

“You’ll see when the next wave hits.”

Sophie followed his gaze, surprised at how still the dark water was. The beaches in San Diego always had constant waves.

A few minutes passed without anything happening, and Sophie started to wonder if Fitz was messing with her. Then the water slowly swept backward, its glassy surface curling into a crest.

The swell rose so high, it absorbed most of the tide. Then it just sort of hovered there—a tower of water in the center of the cove. The strange barking stopped, and the wind calmed, like everything was holding its breath, waiting for the wave to crash. And when it finally pounded against the sand, it was like hundreds of fireworks erupted.

Neon blue and green and red and purple flashed through the water, so bright Sophie had to squint. Then it faded to a glittering mist, twinkling all around them as the winds returned and the barking resumed and the waters slowly retreated to a calm.

“Pretty cool, right?” Fitz asked.

Talk about an understatement. Sophie waved her hands, trying to catch the sparkling particles. But they evaporated at her touch. “How is that possible?”

“Selkies.” He pointed toward a jagged shadow far on the horizon. “They live on the rocks out there, andtheir skin secretes an oil that calms the waves and causes the light show at night.”

“Is that what that weird barking is?”

“Yep. And be glad they’re far away. They smell almost as bad as gulons.”

She had no idea what a gulon was, but she was pretty sure she didn’t want to find out. “What do selkies look like?”

“Imagine if a seal, a snake, and a penguin had a baby.”

Sophie shuddered. That did not sound cute.

“This is the only place you’ll find selkies in the entire world,” Fitz explained. “The Council moved them all here a few centuries ago to protect them from humans. They were hunting them to extinction. Thought their skin was ‘magic’ or something.”

He laughed, and Sophie tried to smile. But it was hard to hear him talk about humans like that. Especially since she still felt like one.

“You know, once you get used to it, you’re going to be glad you’re an elf,” he added quietly. “Elves are way better.”

“I hope so,” she whispered.

“Trust me, we are.” He nudged her with his elbow. “I know I’m happy you’re an elf.”

“Really?” Her heart jumped into “double time, making her head feel swimmy.

“Yeah. Now I don’t have to go on any more quests looking for you. It was really eating up my free time.”

“Oh.” She hated herself for thinking he was going to say something else.

And how many quests had he gone on?

Was finding her really that important?

“Feeling any better yet?” he asked, standing up and dusting the sand from his legs. “We should probably get home before my dad starts to worry.”

Actually, everything inside her felt like it’d been squeezed into a tight knot, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to untangle it. But she couldn’t tell Fitz that. So she stood and took his hand, clutching Ella as Fitz grabbed her backpack.

“Nothing bad is going to happen when we get there, is it?” she whispered as he held the pathfinder in the moonlight.

Fitz squeezed her fingers. “No. You’re already through the hard part.”

She released the breath she’d been holding. And she tried to believe him as the light whisked them away.

But she had a horrible feeling it was only the beginning.

2. Originally I wrote about the entire week of Sophie’s detention, because the scenes were just so much fun. But for pacing reasons, I whittled it down to only the three where we learn the most important things. This scene used to be Day Three and led into the day with Lady Galvin as the Detention Overseer. But nothing actually happens in this scene, so I cut it and had Keefe mention Lady Galvin at the end of Day Two to make the transition work.

“This has to count as cruel and unusual punishment,” Sophie grumbled, plugging her nose as she recorked the glass vial. The clear liquid inside smelled like sour milk mixed with morning breath.

Keefe laughed. “Don’t be such a baby.”

But he looked a little green as he sniffed a similar-looking vial and quickly shoved the cork back in. “Okay, I can’t prove it—but it’s possible something died in there.”

They both stared at the stack of vials they still had to inspect.

“Have you ever thought about labeling your bottles?” Sophie asked Elwin as he collected the vials they’d already checked. He had everyone searching for one filled with sasquatch tears, which apparently would smell like sweaty socks soaked in BO.

Elwin grinned. “Thought about it. But where’s the fun in that? Besides, what would I have you guys do for detention?”

“Oh, I can think of lots of things we could do,” Keefe said with a smile.

“I’m sure you could. And I’ll be needing that vial you slipped in your pocket a few minutes ago—don’t think I didn’t see that.”

“Aw, man,” Keefe mumbled, digging out the tiny glass sphere and handing it to Elwin.

Elwin uncorked it and took a whiff. “Ghoul droppings? I can’t even imagine what kind of havoc you’d cause with that.”

“Give it back to me and you’ll find out.”

Elwin laughed. “I’m supposed to keep you out of trouble—not help you get into it. Now get back to work. I need those sasquatch tears so I can make my next flavor for your lockers.”

Everyone groaned.

“Oh, you love it. I keep things exciting around here.”

“But we have Foster for that now,” Keefe reminded him. “As long as she’s taking alchemy, it’ll always be an adventure. Will today be the day she blows up the school?”

Everyone laughed.

Sophie sighed, pulling her hair around her face to hide her blushing cheeks.

She was not going to blow up the school.

Well… she hoped she wasn’t.

“Tomorrow should be especially interesting,” Keefe added, gagging as he sniffed another vial. “Lady Galvin’s monitoring detention. So I hope you’re good at ironing, Foster. It probably wouldn’t be good to burn more holes in her capes.”

The bell rang before she could ask him if he was joking.

3. This scene used to be a few days after Sophie accidentally bottles the quintessence. I’d wanted to show what the elves used the starlight for (a tradition I’ve never ended up working into the series)—and I felt like I should let Sophie recover from everything she’d discovered and lighten the mood a bit. But it felt really out of place and like it was killing the tension and momentum I’d worked so hard to build. And I felt like maybe Dex wasn’t the right character to truly make her feel better, since his motives aren’t always about friendship. So I chopped this and eventually added the scene where Tiergan leaps her back to the human world, which felt much more appropriate and let me reveal a whole lot more.

Billions of stars glittered overhead, but Sophie kept her eyes glued to the blades of purple grass, which looked almost black in the moonlight. She wasn’t sure she’d ever see stars the same way again.

“Why are you way over here?” Dex asked, plopping down beside her.

Sophie shrugged.

The rest of the school was gathered toward the center of Foxfire’s purple field. Apparently it was Foxfire tradition to have the Universe Mentors present a special light show using all of the starlight they’d had the prodigies bottle.

But with everything Sophie had on her mind, she didn’t really feel like talking to anyone—especially since Keefe kept teasing her about her “mysterious disappearance” during the evacuation. She just wanted to be alone.

Not that Dex seemed to notice.

“I was worried they might have to cancel the show this year after what happened,” he said. “But I guess not.”

“Yeah,” Sophie agreed, hoping if she didn’t say anything else, he’d take the hint and let her be.

No such luck.

“Are you okay?” Dex asked. “ ’Cause you don’t seem like you are.”

Of course she wasn’t okay—how could she be?

But Dex wouldn’t understand.

No one would.

“I’m fine. I’m just… tired.”

Dex stared at her for a second, and she had a feeling he was going to ask another question. But instead, he said, “Well, if you ever want to talk…”

“Thanks.”

She waited for him to get up, go join his other friends—the ones who didn’t break the law or almost blow up the school. But he stayed by her side. Which was actually… nice.

A low chime rang through the night, and everyone fell silent.

“Here we go,” Dex whispered as a blinding flash lit up the dark sky.

Sophie had expected the light show to sort of be like fireworks. But it was more like the elves were painting in the sky. The chimes played a soft melody as streaks of color stretched across the darkness, forming a vivid red bird. Sophie blinked and the bird was moving, soaring among the stars until it vanished in a flash, replaced by a giant orange saber-toothed cat. It raced and prowled through the sky, leaping at them in a terrifying pounce that blinded them with a flash of color. And when Sophie opened her eyes, she was staring at a purple dinosaur with narrow wings. It opened its mouth and shot yellow flames that swallowed up the stars.

On and on it went, the soft chimes paired with images so real, so intense, Sophie didn’t even notice she how close she’d moved to Dex until the last of the lights flashed away, leaving them in darkness.

Warmth flooded through her arm, and Sophie was stunned to realize she was leaning against him.

She jumped back slightly, hoping Dex couldn’t see her blush. “That was… wow.”

“Yeah,” Dex agreed.

But something about his smile made her wonder if he was talking about the lights.

4. Once I cut the previous scene, I added this one, but it still wasn’t right. (Ha—you’re getting to see multiple stages of this process. I was SUCH a wasteful drafter with this book.) It got chopped almost immediately because it was distracting from the important plotline with Sophie’s hidden memories. Plus, it was talking way too much about boys and crushes for this early in the series.

So…,” Keefe said, dinking uninvited into the seat next to her. “A suspicious substance got the whole school evacuated—and Sophie Foster was nowhere to be found. Coincidence? I think not.”

“What—you think I had something to do with that?” It was hard to keep her voice steady.

Keefe snorted. “I know you did. And I don’t hear you denying it.…”

She suddenly became very interested in her slice of mallowmelt.

He laughed. “Fine. Keep your sense of mystery. But I’m watching you, Foster.” He pointed to his eyes and then to hers. “I’ll figure you out soon enough.”

She refused to look at him as he walked away.

“You and Keefe seem to be pretty friendly,” Biana mumbled when he was out of earshot.

Sophie stabbed her dessert harder than she needed to. “That’s only because he loves annoying me.”

Marella snorted. “You say that like it’s a bad thing! He can annoy me anytime he wants. Right, Biana?”

“Yeah,” Biana agreed—and then turned pink. “I didn’t mean it like that,” she added quickly. “I mean, why would I? He’s my brother’s friend.”

“Uh-huh,” Marella replied, not looking convinced.

“Isn’t he too old for you guys?” Dex grumbled.

“No!” Biana and Marella answered immediately.

“He’s only fourteen,” Biana added.

“Really?” Sophie asked. “I thought he was the same age as Fitz.”

“Nope. Keefe’s a year ahead.” Biana explained. “He’s a genius.”

Her eyes turned dreamy, and Sophie had a hard time not giggling.

“Sounds like someone’s got a crush,” Marella teased.

“I do not,” Biana insisted, but her face was bright red.

“Can we change the subject, please?” Sophie asked, deciding to come to Biana’s rescue.

“Sure,” Marella agreed. “So who do you like, Sophie, if the Keefster isn’t your type?”

Everyone at the table fell silent. Dex seemed to lean a little forward in his chair.

“No one,” Sophie mumbled, hating her voice for cracking.

“Come on,” Marella insisted. “There must be someone. There always is.”

Sophie looked down at her hands, afraid of what Biana might read into her silence. “I swear—there isn’t.”

“Seriously, enough girl talk,” Dex jumped in, pretending to gag.

“Aw, do you feel left out, Dex?” Marella asked him. “ ’Cause we can talk about your secret crush if you want.”

Dex gritted his teeth as he blushed from head to toe. “I don’t have a secret crush.”

“Sure you don’t,” Marella agreed, rolling her eyes. She glanced at Sophie and then back at Dex. “Whatever you say.”

5. In much earlier versions of Keeper, Sophie stole Gildie from a classroom at Foxfire. The fires also weren’t in the human world back then, so any pathfinder could leap her there to bottle a sample. She still needed help getting access to a pathfinder, though, so I chose to use Keefe (since he would be in the halls between classes), and that’s what you see in this scene. BUT, I ended up getting rid of Sophie’s cryptozoology session at Foxfire because I was worried it felt too similar to the Care of Magical Creatures class in Harry Potter, which meant I had to have her steal Gildie from Havenfield instead. And I decided I needed more “clues” planted throughout the book to keep the mystery present, so I went back and added the necklace in Sophie’s locker and moved the fire to a human city. All of which makes this scene feel especially lost now—but it’s a moment I still love nonetheless, and I thought it’d be fun to show you guys an example of just how much things changed throughout all the different revisions.

The Leapmaster won't work,” Keefe announced behind her.

Sophie covered her mouth to muffle her scream and spun around, finding the shadowy corner where he crouched.

Keefe laughed. “They turn it off during sessions to prevent ditching—which makes it a perfect place to hide.” He walked over to her, folding his arms. “Going somewhere?”

“I—uh…”

“Let’s see… you’re ditching session, leaving school grounds, and”—he pointed to Gildie’s cage—“stealing school property? Are you trying to show me up, Foster?”

She knew she could tell some pathetic lie and retreat with her tail between her legs.

But… she needed help. “You told me if I ever needed help ditching…”

“I meant skipping session, not breaking enough rules to get expelled.”

“Please,” Sophie said, meeting his eyes. “It’s important.”

“I don’t suppose you’ll tell me what you’re up to?”

“It’s probably better if you don’t know.”

He laughed. “You keep claiming you’re not mysterious.…”

She stared at her feet.

He sighed and pulled his pathfinder out of his pocket. “Fine. Where do you need to go?”

“Moonglade.”

He started adjusting the crystal. Then his hands froze. “Wait. Isn’t that where the fire is?”

“Like I said. It’s important.”

He studied her for a moment, clearly piecing a few things together. “You’re sure you want to do this?”

She nodded.

His eyebrows pinched together. “And how are you planning on getting back?”

“I… hadn’t thought about that,” she admitted.

He shook his head. “Okay, here’s the deal.” He held out the pathfinder. “I need this back, agreed?”

“Agreed.”

“And if anyone catches you with it, you didn’t get it from me.”

“Of course.”

He nodded. “Do you know how to use it?”

“Um…”

He sighed again and held the crystal in front of her. “See the way these markings line up with the cuts in the crystal?” He pointed to a pattern of parallel lines. “Recreate this pattern exactly, and the path will take you back here. Got it?”

“Yes.”

He spun the crystal again and handed it to her. “I set it for Moonglade.”

“Thanks.” She took the wand and held it up to the light.

“Hey, Sophie,” he said, going with her real name—and not smirking or smiling. “Be careful.”

“I will,” she promised. Then she tightened her grip on Gildie’s cage and let the light pull her away.

[everliving-everblaze]

hey. hey guys. how have i never seen anyone talk about this @ shannon drop the file IMMEDIATELY

[sophitz]

Hey everyone, great news! As you may know I run @kotlc-deleted-scenes , an archive of all of KOTLC’s bonus content. I have all the edition-exclusive short stories, the deleted scenes from Keeper Summer 2021, and the deleted lines that have been shared on Shannon’s Instagram sporadically since 2020.

As of today, I have officially finished digitally transcribing all the deleted scenes (in addition to the already-transcribed short stories).

These are useful if you:

use a screen-reader

don’t own the special editions of the books with short stories

need to easily refer to these scenes when making fan content

just want to revisit the bonus content

I am also currently working out the best way to transcribe the deleted lines, as well as the deleted scenes from the Annotated Edition of Keeper 1.

[bookwyrminspiration]

ok so i have owned two of the first book in kotlc, and i had to eventually throw it away bc it was like 6 years old and falling apart, but the thing is is that in that version when sophie first meets keefe i vividly remember his eyes being described as sky blue? but in the new copy (which is the annotated version) his eyes were described as ice blue

do u know if

A. in the first book it was described as sky blue, they just fixed it in the annoted vers

B. they found out about the sky blue thing and changed it so any future copies would be ice blue

or C. it still says sky blue in the original copy, its just a dex's curly hair situatuon

To my knowledge, it's not any of those options. In the non annotated version, Keefe's introduction is around page 195, and he's described as having "curious, ice blue eyes." This is also true in the pdf and three digital scans I checked of the books, but it's possible there's an earlier edition that has sky blue as the descriptor. Shannon was using aquamarine to describe Fitz's eyes in the beginning before shifting to teal, so a sky -> ice change isn't unreasonable. However, they didn't go back and change all instances of aquamarine to teal, so I don't see why they'd change sky to ice.

The only character described with sky blue eyes is Fintan (Exile, p. 219) in his introduction. Is it possible you're confusing Keefe and Fintan's introductory eye colors?

Either way, if Shannon did introduce Keefe with sky blue eyes originally, I don't have that copy and she has since officially made it ice blue. That's what it is in the official character bios and registry files and what she uses in her writing now.

If someone does have an earlier copy of book 1 that has his eyes as sky blue, please do share! Just because I don't have it doesn't mean it doesn't exist!

[tierganoutsold]

the art is from the kotlc special edition with photo and annotation!!

wait omg?? I need it

[keeperseries]

I didn’t buy the annotated editions because it felt redundant, so if anybody wants to send me annotated spoilers you are more than welcome to.

[dizznee]

bro no one told me the annotated edition had DELETED SCENES???

[maesramblings]

KOTLC Analysis: Worldbuilding

(Here’s the better quality version of it.)

To begin my analysis of the Keeper books, I would like to begin with discussing one of the most important aspects of fantasy novels: World Building.

Currently, I’m on book one of my re-read. I only got to book five by the time I originally stopped reading the series, so if something new has been mentioned in the newer books since, feel free to let me know! It’s been a few years lol.

The Actual World

What do we know about the world? Well, we know it co-exists with the human world, as illustrated on the map above. Maybe this was just me lacking brain cells, but I truly believed that the elves lived in a different “world”, not alongside ours. This clarification would have saved me some headaches, as I don’t remember there being a specific explanation on how the Elven world works in connection with the human world. Are the Elven locations simply invisible to the human eye, or are they actually different, “hidden” location unbeknownst to humans?

A quick quote from book one states, “The Ancients didn’t want violence, so they disappeared, forbid any contact with humans, and left them to their own devices.” (Book One, Chapter 4, p. 26)

Nothing much is mentioned on how the elves “disappeared”.  It did happen a long time age, so it would be natural for humans to forget the existence of elves, but how exactly was it done? Wouldn’t humans remember that at some point, actual magical beings were living alongside them? The treatment of humans in the series is a whole different conversation, but one that I would like to acknowledge. It’s very strange how the series treats humans as useless and elves as these super powered and smart creatures that are superior to humans in every sense.

In the annotated edition, Fitz even gloats that “Elves are way better.” (Book One Annotated, Deleted Scene 1, page 1144 (The page number is so high is because I’m using the e-book version of the annotated edition)) in comparison to humans.

To be fair, the elves’ powers are implied to be superior to that of other intelligent species as well.

According to the book, the intelligent species are:

Humans (formally)

Elves

Gnomes

Dwarves

Ogres

Goblins

Trolls

(Book One, Chapter 4, p. 26)

One of the first creatures introduced to us are gnomes. Here is an expert from chapter 7:

“So… you have gnomes as servants?” (Sophie)

Alden stopped to stare at her. “We would never have servants. The gnomes chose to live with us because it’s safer in our world. And they help in our garden because they enjoy it. We’re privileged to have them. You’ll get your first taste of gnomish produce during lunch, and you’re in for quite a treat.” (Book One, Chapter 7, p. 56)

The way this was worded is, um, interesting to say the least. The relationship isn’t necessarily parasocial, but it does feel that way since the gnomes are actively helping the elves constantly by gardening and harvesting food but all the elves do in return is “protect” them.

Let’s go to the goblins. The goblins are frequently used as bodyguards in the books. That’s how we are exposed to them, “Two elves with floor-length velvet capes draped over their black tunics emerged, followed by dozes of bizarre creatures marching in military formation down the rocky path.” (Book One, Chapter 4, p. 25)

We know that the gnomes help the elves because the elves give them protections, but what about the goblins? They don’t need protection, they do the protecting.

Another question that I have is: How many elves are there exactly? Since they’re immortal, and have a governmental matchmaking system in place, you’d expect a decent amount of elves to exist. However, there seems to be very little culture among the elves. In fact, the only schools that we know to exist are Foxfire and Exillium. On top of that, the teacher to student ration should be near even, considering that all teachers have one-on-one lessons with their students. “She’d be a “prodigy” - their word for student - and she would carry eight subjects, most of which were taught one-by-one by a Mentor, who were members of the nobility.” (Book One, Chapter 11, p. 95)

To touch again on the subject of culture, the Elven cities seem to be very spread apart, as shown by the map above. I could write a whole essay on the topic of the BIPOC in the books, or the lack thereof.

Atlantis seems to be the most “different” of the cities (at least that I know of). “She’d begged to wear pants, but apparently it was a sign of status for a girl to wear a gown, especially in Atlantis, which Alden explained was a noble city, which meant members of the nobility had offices there.” (Book One, Chapter 9, p. 71)

A lot of fantasy books get passes for the lack of world development because the authors have limited amount of pages in their books or because there simply aren’t enough books in the series. Well.. that clearly isn’t an issue for the Keeper series. Shannon defiantly had room to develop the world more, instead of making it simply interesting on its surface.

Again, feel free to remind of anything I didn’t talk about in this post! Especially if you disagree with some of the points I made, I think it’s interesting to see other perspectives!

[amirahtheauthor09]

A bunch of random Keeper crew memes

(Cover of Nightfall)

Lol

OH so they have this in color? (From KOTLC illustrated & annotated edition where Fitz actually looks cute)

[an-absolute-travesty]

I am here to feeded your multitude of souls- How is your day so far? What’s your favorite kind of bird? Have you had enough water today? (fanon) Ruy or Alvar? What book are you currently reading? If you had to wear one color for the rest of your life what would it be? Fan on or off while you sleep?

Thank you I have many souls. Whether they are mine or not are not important. 

I’ve had a pretty good day, nothin’ special

My favorite bird is either a crow or a raven, I don’t really know he difference honestly. Funky lil omens of death, I love them 

I’ve drank...liquids today *cough* soda *cough* but I've had some water?

Fanon Alvar. Awkward gae boi. Me too Alvar, me too

I’m in a big ole reading slump but I’m in the middle of...six books rn

-King of scars

-kotlc 1 annotated edition 

-the faithless hawk

-skyward

-carry on

-let the sky fall 

........oops

One color for the rest of my life would be blue. I love the color blue a concerning amount. My outfit is 90% blue today.

Fan off while I sleep, I like the room to be old but I don’t want there to be goddamn w i n d in my room, no thanks 

[theunmappedstar]

so i’m reading the anointed edition of kotlc and i’m not sure if you’ve read it, but she comments a lot on the other characters and their personalities, but not so much on fitz. do you think that has something to do with his character arc?

hm, i’m not sure! i only saw, like, one fitz annotation (that i remember) and it didn’t seem to be very deep or into his personality...

bored? send me an ask!

[kotlc-deleted-scenes]

KOTLC Annotated Edition Deleted Scenes

(Source)

Note: The deleted scene sent in a Shannon Messenger newsletter on 9/21/2015 is included in the annotated edition—it is the one with Elwin. (Source)

[everliving-everblaze]

Annotated Edition Spoilers

okay so everyone is talking about how we got official Elwin art

but no one

is talking about how

BULLHORN IS IN THE SCENE TOO AND HE’S SMOL AND CUTE AND FLUFFY AND SLEEPY AND LOOKS LIKE A TEDDY BEAR

[cowboypossume]

my annotations during this Awful Class™️

I Would Like To Dedicate This To Every Tumblr User Who Has Written Fanfiction Better Than And/Or Quoting Cannon With God Tier Characterization Because Yall Have Helped Me Remember Some Stuff, So Thank You.

another big shout out goes out to my seventh grade english teacher for making me way too confident in using semicolons

not me remembering plot points from future books so i get to be suspicious of it in this book and use it as characterization and/or notes and comments

not me changing the wording of phrasing so my teacher thinks this is actually in my grade level

also it’s important for y’all to note that the only two requirements were that i haven’t read this before and it’s in my grade level. i spent 15 hours on an essay in her class, while recruiting my father to help me edit it, only for her to say “i liked it!” and get a 96% on it without her telling me where the four points were taken off so i mean yee haw. and yes i sent her an email and she didn’t reply so she doesn’t deserve honesty. also she’s just kind of a bitch

DEX CHANGES HIS EYES TO RED SOMETIMES CANNONALY YALL I FEEL LIKE THE HALLOWEEN FANART OPPORTUNITY IS MISSING OUT

so many chapters end with fitz smiling or smirking??? like it’s an uncomfortable amount of chapters that end that way

YALL THE LOST CITIES DONT HAVE POLICIE THERE’S ONE GOOD THING ABOUT THIS BOOK WOOO

i really forgot there’s a scene where edaline talks about talentless people the way my conservative family talks about therapy. there’s even a “their kind” ITALICIZED AND EVERYTHING!!!!

analyzing kotlc is next to impossible because good concepts are so prevalent and this could be an amazing series where social constructs such as “there’s still poverty norms in a culture that doesn’t use money” or “rebels exist in eutopic kingdom so it eutopic or just the wealthy oppressing the poor (although in this case talentful oppressing the talentless) and ignoring their problems?” but no. we get sophie’s stupid fucking heart flutter, fitz’s teal eyes, and sophie being QuiRkY or clumsy.

i have to analyze characters because that’s apart of the assignment and i’m 148 pages into actually putting words onto paper and in just two pages of dex and his dialogue i know more about him than sophie. why? he’s not quirky or weird. i mean he is, but it’s not his personality. from two pages i can tell dex doesn’t get social cues which probably has a story behind it, he actually realizes there’s classism and does things to stop it (probably gets it from his dad), he’s curious by nature, and sciency stuff fascinates him. i know that, from TWO pages of interactions. all i know about sophie is she’s a telepath, has brown eyes, and is quirky and i’m 148 pages into rereading my notes.

same thing with fitz actually!! i’ve only seen him interact with tergan, sophie, and his dad, and i know he’s cocky, confident, comes from a wealthy family with good social connections, praised up by society, more of a “take action then think” kind of a person, trusting after he has a deep connection, and unaware of social problems. he really hasn’t been on too many pages and i know all of that about him because he had conversations that aren’t about his movie star smile.

i also understand that this book it’s written in sophie’s pov so it’s more likely for us to hear her doubts and insecurities but it makes me Hate analyzing sophie. i don’t have a lot to analyze her with because everything ties back into the fact she doesn’t fit in, except she does??

like ok ma’am when you went to high school no one liked you, now that you go to foxfire and have dex as a friend who doesn’t give a flying fuck that you have brown eyes and have only been living there for like two weeks, he really just accepts you, does it matter people don’t like you?

first character who’s black is a male and considered an outcast to society, and people fear him and his family. anyone else notice some racial profiling happening there? no?? just me? alrighty then.

holes would like to point out he’s the only black person with the absent father troupe

dex, and i’m saying this directly to you buddy, maybe, just m a y b e, you can angrily talk about fitz,,, to fitz,,,,, and as you’re talking about him,,,, slowly walk over to him,,,, and u h, m a y b e, saying something flirtatious like “i bet you think you think you’re good at kissing wonderboy”,,, and you maybe ask him to prove it,,,,, and it’s kinda like the ‘idk how to cope with liking a person of the same gender but f u c k this isn’t hate’ kind of kiss- l,,,,, “yea no even still you’re way too overhyped”,,, “oh?”,,,,,, and maybe change the main focus of upcoming books,,,,,,,,just an idea,,,, a really good one that would make more sense

fitz is a golden retriever. no i will not e-lab-orate (appreciate my pun) but i’m not wrong and you know it.

so alden or fitz says fitz was sent out to find sophie because he’s close to her age: but biana is literally in her grade level. so was she not sent out to find her because of heteronormativity or sexism? both

OH SPEAKING OF THAT!! i decided to count every time there was a patriarchical and/or sexist stereotype on a page i had to reread for notes presented in this book, and i got a total of 13 times, but remember i value my sanity a little bit so i didn’t reread every page so doubt that number highly.

i completely misunderstood what one of the things my teacher was asking for was about, and i don’t have the energy to reread everything looking for something, so i went to google. and it took my brain way to long to regester that sophie’s cannon art isn’t molly

i didn’t know how to say this book is paced like a fanfiction on my notes because my teacher needs to relate (although she seems homophobic and i said my girlfriend in that same paragraph so we’ll see) so i said it reminded me of the plot of a hallmark movie. i think it gives the same vibes

i really think that’s all folks. it’s one thirty am, i’ve been working on this for like 7 hours today and it’s still not done because w o w my teacher wants a lot (we’re up to 32 slides of notes and i still have at least 5 more to add). so yea. there’s my fresh input of this awful book i have to read.

in conclusion: this is a fanfic that doesn’t even have the queer content my ass is deprived of.

so i reread keeper of the lost cities and here’s my fresh input:

a note before we begin: you know how people fake throw up at things on tik tok? this book is the reason i now unironically do that.

dex and fitz really have the enemies to lovers troupe going for them and i’m ok with it. i really am.

so do sophie and biana at the beginning but it fizzes out so a better description is enimies to friends to lovers

marhella and stina give me such power top energy i cannot express how much i think that contributes to people not liking them

speaking of stina i wish sophie didn’t just immediately hop onto the bandwagon of “oh she’s evil” without investing further, especially with how much she is written as a ‘good’ person (which i can and will defend to the day i die that good people don’t exist but that’s for a different day).

there’s way too much heteronormativity and Patriarchical Ideas mushed into the book. like three hole pages of a 488 page book of teenagers being like “oooooo girls like guys and guys like girls” only for della to join in. not to mention the amount of times keefe is the reason for those ideas because he’s teasing like “oh fitz has a girlfriend”

keefe and fitz didn’t have as many bonding moments™️ in this book as i remember, but they stil know each other really well, have comfortability around each other, and would make a 10/10 best friends to lovers troupe.

oh my god s o many crushes i swear. like two teenagers of the opposite gender really can’t not like each other apperantly

i miss read a line and really thought there was cannon sexism for me to do a whole ass rant about in the notes part of my analyzation but n o p e

but we do have classism, sexist stereotypes, and the fact that there’s been SO many characters who’ve spoken and ✨🌺far too many of them are white🌺✨

oh also: no ones disabled. which annoys me because their society is described as ‘euptopic’ almost implying that it’s something that makes people problematic, which,,,, no

ok a side note on the society, i understand that the story’s message (kinda) is that things that seem perfect are probably deeply flawed, but something tergan said stuck with me. on a page i can’t remember at the moment he says something like “[the black swan exists] in a society that doesn’t have rebels”, which it suck with me bc that’s boarderline dystopic if it’s not there already. it’s one thing for laws not to be broken, but when you think your society is so perfect despite it having obvious flaws and you think that no one rebels, then i really hate to break it to you, you have a massive rebellion about to occur; it’s just scented as foul under your resplendent nose.

please stop flirting. i get its part of teenagers being teens but i swear if i read “s/he realeased a breath” or “their heart fluttered” or literally ANYTHING like that god no.

yall. i missed dex. he actually has more role in this book than ‘you can gadget and we need one’ and oh boy i really missed him. he’s a BEAN and deserves better.

hole’s said everyone deserves better and i absolutely agree so we’re adding that note here.

if you do what i did and read this book out loud to one of your best friends who has no clue anything about this weird fandom and give fitz a really deep voice for no reason it’s comdy GOLD.

i really think i’m reading too much into this point but iggy seems,,,, symbolic to me?

like ok with humans, sophie didn’t ‘fit in’, right? like she grew up hearing things like “why can’t you be normal like your sister” (which i can do a whole other rant about how that will affect her for the rest of her life just a s k)

not to mention looking really different from her family and graduating high school at age twelve 

but you know who never judged her?

m a r t y

so anyway sophie meets this teal-eyed, movie star smiled wonder boy who takes away her entire knowledge of everything she’s known while taking away her family too

and it turns out even in a place of weirdos she still manages to be the exception to everything

and she doesn’t have the comfort to hear what people are really thinking about her anymore (which as i said before say the word and i’ll deadass write a whole speech about how everything she heard will completely fuck up every relationship she has) which unfortunately means that she grew used to confirming people didn’t like her but now she doesn’t have that

she has to adapt to this new space and feel like she’s always felt, like an outcast in a place that was accepting, but yet again, she the exception to everything

but about halfway through the book she starts to become more comfortable around grady and edaline and that’s when iggy comes in

she finds him while cleaning garbage, and grady compliments her. they have a bonding moment and it’s because of this t h i n g. and then sophie actually feels proud not only does she take up a room, but she did something

and her new parents are proud of her

so she finally feels like she BELONGS because she helped out at the place where she lives/they work

to me it seems iggy is kinda a manifesto of the world building and character development that happens in this book

i think the plot/character arc is fixated a little too much on how different sophie is. like, i get it, she’s exception to everything, but the plot really didn’t need her to be that quirky. yes, she’s different, but there’s a lot more to the plot and her character than how different she is.

also, i had to reread pages a lot bc i needed an exact paragraph number and,,,, it’s really paced like a fanfic

some questions i have about the society is:

it’s established that they use books, physical papers, etc., and the only thing i remember about trees is the speech alden gave her about how she doesn’t know the name of their most popular tree, and the fact that people become trees when they die. even then i don’t think the second one is in this book. never o n c e do i remember something about planting trees that aren’t dead elf’s, so do they feel the affects of deforestation and that jazz?? like if they use trees, will they run out of them? can they??? and do they use the coffins of elf’s for paper??

this is more of a rant than a question, but here it goes anyway. in foxfire, students have a testing system very similar to the one in america: a huge test at the end of the year determines the future of a student. that in of itself doesn’t sound too drastic, right? well,,,,, not necessarily. several studies have shown that tests in general, but especially these types, don’t work. despite how good or bad of a teacher i think my past and current teachers have been, every single one of them hates this system that we have in place. they know it’s an unfair assessment that does it’s damnist to make you fail, and they’re trying so hard to denounce it. however, that doesn’t happen at all in the lost cities. in fact, most of the teachers pride themselves on failing students. so if elf’s are in such an advanced society, why do tests still exist? especially in an environment where the consequences are far greater than just staying back a grade. 

so sophie’s figuring out that major problems exist in the world the elf’s created, right? i wonder if more society structured problems exist more than ‘oh bad people do things and the law justifies which is what’. like, as i’ve previously stated, there’s sexist stereotypes presented (like girls like dresses and guys don’t), but does sexism still exist? does racism exist? it’s established that poverty isn’t a thing because of the fund elf’s have at birth and their limited usage of money (which if you understand please explain bc i don’t really get how they buy stuff but still don’t use money) but if someone gets shipped off to exile, do they lose their money? is it possible for elf’s to starve to death because they can’t afford food? do they pay for food?? if they did starve who would they call? because someone on this website, who’s post i tried to find but i couldn’t so if y’all know what i’m talking about please link it, brought up a good point that elwin is a school physician, he shouldn’t be dealing with the near-death experiences sophie has, so who would they turn to? especially if they don’t have access to foxfire because they got exciled??

is therapy a thing in this world? sophie and dex could really benefit from it, yet mental health has only been brought up when someone went insane, which REALLY shows how little they think about it.

that perfectly transitions into my next point: sophie and dex’s trauma. i really don’t get the vibe that there was much thought going into their kidnapping, other than sophie needed something to trigger her inflecting ability and establish the black swan are on the good side, which really sucks because wow trauma doesn’t happen lightly. and the fact that it happened seems rushed to me, but i’ll come back to that. but anyway, their trauma doesn’t get developed that deeply in this book because it wasn’t given the space to. they were beaten, tortured, starved, gagged, and who even knows what else for t e n d a y s, only for them to find them again, repeat the process, but someone saves them and dumps them into an illegal city and they both nearly die from dehydration, coldness, and lack of concentration, and you’re telling me after three days of conscious of bed rest sophie wants to get her failing out of school over with? ma’am, it takes more time than that to adjust to THAT alone, not to mention the realization that “hey your entire life is fake because people genetically altered you to be their weapon in a war so much bigger than yourself” that was recently dumped on her. like,,,, you really expect me to think that three days is what made her feel prepared and CONFIDENT? no sir. i don’t buy it.

coming back to it being rushed: the book starts out slow and then really hits the ground running and doesn’t stop. so much more stuff happens in the second half of the book than the first and it never gets fully developed it feels like. in the first half sophie moves away but gets a new family and struggles a bit but adapts, fires maybe but hey don’t worry about it, dex hates fitz, fitz is ✨d r e a m y ✨ but our main girl doesn’t like him like that, right?, stina’s a bitch, and sophie is a quirky girl and telepath but can’t tell anyone. pretty basic stuff, not too plot intensive. the second half though: sophie almost fails her midterms but doesn’t, grady and elaine want to unadopt her (which that’s never really explained as to why they do that but ok) fires exist in san degio but they’re fine but they’re actually a rebel elf so..., sophie accidentally breaks a law but it was an accident so it’s fine, update on the fires: sophie burns herself trying to get the evidence that it’s a rebel elf and it works, she’s the moon lark and basically a weapon bc no one knows her well enough to evaluate her safety, sophie and dex get kidnapped but fitz can now transmit to her and she has two new abilities so it’s all good, trauma doesn’t exist except for nightmare you can fix with sedatives, sophie doesn’t fail out of school, and yayyy her family doesn’t want her remove their adoption. there’s probably a lot more that i missed, it’s just that’s a LOT of stuff crammed into a little bit further than the second half of the book that really could have been devolped or explore further instead of forcing into less than 244 pages, ya know?

fitz’s eyes are mentioned seven times, the first time being on page TWO of the novel

his smile is mentioned three times

alden says “no reason to worry” five times, he writes it once, and sophie points out he says it a lot so he chances it slightly to something like ‘don’t stress about it’ so i didn’t count those though i should have

speaking of alden, in this book he’s absolutely creepy, but something that stands out to me is how much he calls sophie girl. i didn’t count it, but he said “that’s a good girl” to sophie too many times for it to be normal especially when you consider how he doesn’t do it to anyone else.

i kinda forgot i was annotating for sophie’s anxious habit of pulling out her eyelashes so i got she did it twice, but i highly doubt that number

but i will keep adding to this when i actually do the words with my annotations.

[bookwyrminspiration]

The annotated edition comes out today!!

[click for better quality]

In honor of the annotated edition, I redrew the cover with my own little twists, please enjoy!!

Also, thank you to everyone for the nice comments (the appreciation hours). I really wasn’t expecting that, and it was wonderful to wake up too

KOTLC Art Taglist:

If you wanna be added or removed, just lemme kno!

@bronte-deserves-better @ladystinaheks @kirithikaaaa @veebs @imaramennoodle @misty-the-girlflux-mess @we-have-no-bananas-today @theofficialkai517 @the-never-ending-void @holesinmyfalseconfidence @silver-snow @casually-being-ignored @ruewen-and-rising @linhammon-roll-bromance101 @never-ever-too-many-fandoms @kotlc-hoe @crumpledwitchfeet @ascendant-queen @fearlessladyfos-boss @tribblemakingalicorn @rainbowelizzy @worldwidepandamonium

[an-absolute-travesty]

I just remembered that I was supposed to reorganize my bookshelf today so I’d have space for the kotlc annotated edition that’s coming tomorrow but honestly someone kill me now because I don’t wannaaaaaaaa