these books are literary crack. i just can’t stop reading. ( )

Representation: Asian characters
Trigger warnings: Death of people in the past mentioned
Score: Seven out of ten.
Find this review on The StoryGraph.

Well. It looks like I finally read Neverseen. I wanted to read it for a while after reading Everblaze but not finding it as enjoyable as Keeper of the Lost Cities. I glanced at the blurb, making Neverseen seem intriguing, and did I mention Neverseen is the fourth book I've read from Shannon Messenger? When I closed the final page, I found it good, but not great.

It starts (more like continues) with Sophie and some other characters, who left Foxfire because of the conflict that has been happening since Keeper of the Lost Cities between the Black Swan and the (you guessed it,) Neverseen. I liked the worldbuilding expansion since I got to see Exilium, the school the characters mentioned in previous instalments after so long, I also liked the characters as usual, and I think they grew on me over time. However, Neverseen has flaws concerning many aspects of the narrative that I don't know where to start, but I'll try, the pacing is slow, making me disengage from the story sometimes. Sometimes slow pacing works when there's a slow burn, but when there's nothing happening, what's the point? Sophie and the other characters' journeys to places in the world can detract from the central plot, but removing subplots would tighten the reading experience. The writing style is enough to keep Neverseen going, though, and at least the conclusion picks up the pace with some action scenes, but I'll head in with lower expectations once I get Lodestar. ( )

I want to live in Alluveterre!

Oh man, my heart needs time to recover from this one. SO MUCH happened at the end! ( )

Ich genieße richtig, diese Geschichte mit jedem Band wachsen zu sehen. Je länger man ließt, desto interessanter wird es. ( )

Anger over the ending (Keefe's "betrayal") has brought this down from 4 stars to 3 ( )

3.5 stars
While still enjoyable, the book was noticeably much slower than its predecessors, causing the writing to fill long and chunky at some points. Unlike Everblaze which was in my humble opinion, the most fast-paced, this one was slow, maybe the slowest in the series. The characters in this series have expanded and some are good and interesting (especially the new characters) and some were just average. I enjoyed finding out more about the Black Swan and meeting new characters.

This book also had some repetition with certain scenes, the drama that was constantly repeated was someone hiding something, revealing something and then someone gets mad that it didn't come up sooner.

However, there were some revelations in this book, we learn things about the true identities of two of the leaders of the black swan.

The end made me immediately want to read book 5 still so that's a good sign.

Overall, while one of the weakest in the series so far, I am not even halfway through the series (10 books are planned) so since I still somewhat enjoyed it, the series will continue to be one I will read.

SPOILERS BELOW!
So we get to see the Black Swan's hideout and meet the leaders. We find out Mr Forkle is actually Sir Astin, a teacher at Foxfire and Magnate Leto, the new headmaster. We learn that one of the other leaders is called Granite and he is SIR TIERGAN. I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT.
It makes sense considering how mad Tiergan was about Prentice's exile but still...
I am hoping Prentice can be woken up eventually...
KEEFE!!!! I WANTED TO HUG HIM SO BAD BECAUSE HE WAS KINDA SAD THROUGHOUT THE BOOK.
ALSO HE BETRAYED THEM?????
SURELY NOT.
SURELY HE'S JUST A SPY.
RIGHT!!!!

( )

Reseña en español: http://boisde-merveilles.blogspot.mx/2017/07/neverseen-shannon-messenger-resena....

I really enjoyed this book; the prologue teases the reader with an interesting revelation that totally hooked me since the beginning.

After that interesting prologue, things slow down a bit, Sophie’s life changes when she joins the Black Swan with her friends, so she has to remain hidden, because of that there is not much action during the first half of the book, just theories and speculations by the main characters.

I think that even thou the book lacks of action for most of it, it compensates it with character development. I love seeing these kids grow up during the series, they started as normal kids and now they are revolutionary teenagers full of responsibilities they shouldn’t have. The character that has developed the most during the book is Keefe, and Dex had some development too, for the better. Also, in this installment we meet new characters that will become important for the Black Swan and the Elvin World.

In this book we finally can see part of the real plans of the Neverseen, they will stop hiding and show themselves and their plans to everyone. With this we can see more clearly all the flaws in the Elvin World that seemed so bright and perfect in the first book.

The book keeps the reader hooked since the start with new characters, revelations and more questions about what will happen with the Lost Cities. If you have started the series, you totally should continue, it gets more and more interesting with each book. If you haven’t started this series, you totally should if you are looking for a fantastic adventure with mystery, lovable characters and a well-built fantasy world. ( )

Rating: 98% (4.9 stars) ( )