Review by Frank Plowright

Since an accident at the age of five Sophie has been able to hear the thoughts of others, and as it’s beyond her control, the seven years since have been disorieting and sometimes embarrassing. Her life changes, though, with a trip to the museum where she meets Fitz, slightly older, and bearer of the news that Sophie is an elf living among humanity and she’s been sought for some while.

Keeper of the Lost Cities is based on Shannon Messenger’s very successful young adult novel series running to ten books so far. Such is the ground covered that over three hundred pages still isn’t enough to adapt the entire first novel despite Celina Frenn’s script wasting very little space. Sophie is whisked away to a new world to make new friends while acclimatising to new rules and surroundings.

There are a few jolts along the way, the most obvious concerning Sophie’s big decision. Whether down to the original novel or the adaptation, it doesn’t take much convincing for Sophie, at twelve lest we forget, to completely discard her family and what she’s known throughout her life and head away somewhere completely different with no possibility of return. There’s also a feeling throughout of Sophie transmitting as older than her age.

Wonders abound, with each elf having what is in effect a different super power. Some are obvious and others one of several mysteries kept concealed. Some of those mysteries are frustrations for not being revealed by the end, but that may be down to the sequel required for a complete adaptation of Messenger’s first novel.

Gabriella Chianello provides art telling the story well, but often low on background detail. What’s supposed to be a land of myth and enchantment is too frequently represented by basic illustrations and swirls of colour. There’s greater detail to the cast, with personalities transmitting, clothing well designed and people looking their age, but pretty well the entire cast have the same facial features and body types. It requires distinctive hair and clothing to differentiate them.

This opening volume is a book of two halves. Once the foundations have been laid it becomes a school story with a generic set of grumpy teachers and pupils on a scale from overly friendly to aloof and arrogant. Every school novel is someone’s first, but it seems misjudged to sideline the fantastic for page after page of Sophie’s more mundane experiences of settling into a new school, although it is a method of introducing new characters.

Misgivings notwithstanding, there’s enough to Keeper of the Lost Cities to hook younger readers into the graphic novel series as they’ve been hooked into the novels. Viable questions remain for Volume 2, not least why everyone makes so much of Sophie’s brown eyes.