Some keeper opinions
Now, I have a very serious love/hate relationship with these books. It was my absolute favorite book series ever when I was twelve, so I do think that I will always have a little special place for KOTLC in my heart. Though I also am a sucker for crappy YA books, so it's quite possible if I read them now for the first time, I would enjoy them in my ripe age of seventeen.
I'm now going to talk about specific things I dislike, so unless you've read the books, some of this won't make sense. In no specific chronological, hate level, or book impact order.
In book 8, Legacy, Linh asks Sophie is she can talk to her bro who's with the Neverseen, and assures her that it'll be safe because Tam and Linh have this super secret code. So then Sophie's like, "alright, YOLO" and connects them, and the code the twins have is SO FRIGGIN OBVI and Sophie's like, "woah, what are they even talkin bout" like GIRL YOU WERE SOME SUPER GENUIS
That's another thing! In book 1, it's explained that Sophie is in 12th grade because "even the slowest Elven mind will outstrip the fastest Human one" but then Sophie gets by being insanely stupid the rest of the series. There is absolutely no backing factor for Sophie being a super genius. And before you say, "oh, well, that's just because she's among elves now and they're on the same level" well then shouldn't they all be so much smarter than they actually are? Like, maybe Sophie doesn't stand out anymore, but they all should be smart.
The Alicorns. I bring this up all the time, but the only way to really revive the race of the Alicorns is for there to be some serious incest going on. I don't really know how animal genetics work, obviously with humans (and elves) this is a big no-no. Even if genetics allowed it, Shannon has made the Alicorns such distinct characters, almost humanized them, so she wouldn't be able to have that happen anyway.
In Unraveled, Keefe has some interesting thoughts about Sophie. Like, he's guessing what her reactions are to his letter, and he thinks "maybe she'll laugh so hard she'll pee her pants." Excuse me? Sir? And it's supposed to be like, endearing, which kind of makes it worse, because like, why is Keefe fantasizing about Sophie wetting herself? It just made me feel weird.
Sophie tugging her hair. It's too much. Like, no-one does this. It's just typical of her "ugh, I'm so shy and quirky and different and not like other girls and...what's that? You're desperately in love with me? I mean, doesn't everyone love their friends? Let me blush anyways." Like, girl, get over yourself.
The shadowy corners that these bodyguards are always hiding in. You know, in a city of light, they have a suspicious amount of shadowy corners. I mean, I have these three little lamps in my living room (the biggest room in my house) that my mom turns on for mood lighting, and even then there's not that many shadows. It's so stupid.
Fitz. He literally has no redeeming qualities except he's handsome. Which isn't even a quality. Go watch some BBC, Sophie, then you'll have some standards.
*couch* Mr. Darcy *cough*The amount of time in Stellarlune spent on Kenric's cache is frankly ridiculous. It's like 3 chapters.
This is coming from an ex-SoKeefe shipper, but the whole chapter 42 thing just feels too much like fanfic. This seems to be a common complaint, and it's super valid.
Pretty much all of Unraveled. I hate it so much. Keefe was kind of the best character, he was for sure the smartest, but also could be foolish. He actually had maybe two or three layers to him, which contrasted with the other one-sided characters each with their own gags. But Shannon doesn't know how to write POV without turning someone into Sophie, so that's pretty much exactly what she did. The jokes seem forced and canned. He's not smart. He's not observant.
Same book. The entirety of Unraveled is just "what if your favorite character from another world came into yours and liked stuff" Like, it's just a nostalgia money-grab without the nostalgia. Shannon turned him into herself, which unfortunately is a basic white girl. He likes Taylor Swift, Hot Cheetos, and hates his dad. It was just too much stupid filler with no real weight except he's also angsty about potentially murdering people.
Same book. Alvar's character. As someone who absolutely loved Alvar's character, even when he was revealed to be part of the Neverseen, this character murder is actually insane. All of a sudden he's like "I like waffles and NyQuill"
Eleanor? She's some ninja fighter and no one knows she's alive? Ugh. Why?
The random gay people. I have nothing against a homosexual if done correctly. It's just so obviously "let me check off a box." Characters deserve better.
The Black Swan literally do nothing. Like, literally nothing. They exist, confuse people for no reason, and go sit in a treehouse. And Sophie and her friends join them because they literally do nothing, and then when Sophie actually does something (burning down the storehouse in Stellarlune) they all get pissed at her.
This isn't shoddy writing as much as stupid characters. It really irritates me that her whole friend group turns on her when she actually steps up as a leader. Firstly, every group over 5 or 6 people has a unofficial leader. Her group is like 20+ people, and she's "the chosen one" or whatever, so why shouldn't she be the leader? She has the most to lose. She's the most involved. Plus she was literally created to defeat the Neverseen. They're so stupid for getting mad at her. The fact that all of them would turn on her THAT fast shows that they were literally never her friends to begin with.
There's literally so much useless lore in these books it's actually insane. I genuinely don't know what they're talking about half the time. I know I could understand it if I wanted to, but I'm so uninterested at this point. Shannon has majorly lost the plot. Like, there's so much Harry Potter lore, but J.K. Rowling does such an amazing job with keeping the main storyline clear and importantly, active. It helps.
I really wish Shannon Messenger would step out of her little "me" and "fan" bubble and just try and create a good story. Her "me" bubble is shown because she can't write POVs that don't turn into her/Sophie, and how she wanted to plug all her favorite human stuff into Unraveled. Her "fan" bubble is shown in Stellarlune, with the whole Chapter 42 incident. Like, let Sophie go and do her own thing. If that includes a boy, it does. If it doesn't, it just doesn't. And if it changes later, that's fine, people and situations change. It all just feels so rushed and forced. This is an issue because I don't want her to pick someone obvious to be Sophie's dad just to appease fans.
The Song twins. They add nothing. They're just more angst to add to the group and to make it more culturally diverse. "They're like warmth and frigidity, like day and night-" shut UP. Ugh.
Silveny. I hate her. So much.
Bonus round: I hate the graphic novel art.