Unlocked (Keeper of the Lost Cities #8.5) by Shannon Messenger

Unlocked (Keeper of the Lost Cities #8.5) by Shannon Messenger
Format:  Ebook
Publisher:  Aladdin
Number of pages:  764

Published: November 17th, 2020

Source:  Library

Opening Lines:  "One of the first things Sophie's given after Fitz brings her to the Lost Cities is a registry pendant-a simple choker-style necklace containing a special crystal that allows the Council to monitor her whereabouts."

Keeper of the Lost Cities book 8.5 is kind of a book geared toward the hard core Keeper of the Lost Cities fans.  It's chalked full of information about the main characters, has a full color map that pinpoints various locations from the story, Havenfield (Sophie's House), Wandering Woods, to name a few and even has some of the main characters registry files.  The registry files were ok, but I could have skipped the healing records.    There's artwork created by Keefe with his running commentary and as a bonus there is a 236 page novella of events that take place between book 8 and the yet untitled book 9.  There's even coloring pages, quizzes and so much more.  It's an impressive wealth of information on the characters.  Unfortunately,  the longer that I'm away from the series, the more the details begin to escape me.  While I appreciate all the information in Unlocked, I personally wanted more of Keefe and Sophie.  Things were starting to get very interesting while reading the novella, what with all the revelations about Keefe's new abilities, but alas I'll still have to wait for book 9 now to find out more.  Which makes me wonder what will happen if you decide skip this book thinking it's more of an encyclopedia of the world, or you don't realize that there is a novella at the end of it.  Things you'd be disappointed if you missed out on, new details, plot changes, not to mention some surprising Sophie moments.  I kind of feel like the people who know all of this information will be clambering for the last 200+ pages and waiting on bated breath for book 9.  At any rate, I did enjoy the recap of some of the important details and Keefe's lovely artwork.  I've seen mixed reviews of Unlocked on Goodreads, some are getting tired of the lengths of Messenger's books and the way she's had Sophie wavering between Keefe and Fitz.  I guess that's why I waited for this one to hit the library before reading it.  Some feel that the series should be coming to a finale.  I'm of the mind that Messenger has a plan for her story and why not let her ride it out to the conclusion.  I'm certainly happy to have read Keefe's POV and am curious about what the future will hold for their friendship.  It looks like the expected publication for book 9 is November, so not to far off I guess.