Let me start out by saying
that I wasn’t originally planning to read and review The Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz at this point in time.
However, since the Disney channel original movie Descendants just aired, I decided to binge read The Isle of the Lost since it serves as
a prequel to the movie; that being said, here are my thoughts on the book.
Right off the bat, I have to
say that I really liked this book, and it definitely serves as great set-up for
the movie since the book ends right where the movie begins with Ben deciding to
let Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos out of the Isle of the Lost and come to Auradon,
but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Given the fact that Mal is
the daughter of Maleficent, Evie is the Evil Queen’s daughter, Jay is Jafar’s
son, and Carlos is the son of Cruella De Vil, this book really reminded me of the
TV show Once Upon a Time since the
show really plays around with famous characters from various fairytales, as
well as other books like this book does. Once
Upon a Time has even featured Maleficent, the Evil Queen and Cruella De
Vil. However, both this book and the movie Descendants
is obviously doing its own thing with the characters just like Once Upon a Time has also done its own
thing with fairytale characters throughout the course of the show’s run.
The overall tone of the book
and the fact that the characters seem to view things that in the real world are
typically considered bad behavior and bad emotions as being good in their minds
and things that are considered good behavior and positive emotions as being
wrong really made me think a lot about the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket and how those
books are kind of depressing in a very comical way. The fact that the overall
tone of this book felt very reminiscent of A
Series of Unfortunate Events is definitely one of the things that I liked
the most about this book.
However, while overall tone
of the book reminded me a lot of A Series
of Unfortunate Events, the way their school and their classes were
described reminded me a lot of the Harry
Potter books and the classes that the characters took at Hogwarts.
While I really liked all of
the characters in the book, Carlos was definitely my favorite character.
Despite the fact that all of the characters in the book were raised to be evil,
I feel like the parts with Carlos had the most heart and were at times kind of
sad, especially whenever Carlos would talk to the others about what it was like
to have Cruella De Vil for a mother.
That being said, while I
liked all of the characters and reading about their interactions with each
other, I spent most of the book wondering what Cruz was building towards with
the events that were taking place throughout the course of the story. For most
of the book, I felt like I was just “watching” the characters as they went
about their daily lives. I honestly wasn’t sure where the story was going, and
I don’t mean that in a good way. The way the story was structured and the fact
that it took so long for the action to pick up made me feel like I was playing
The Sims and just watching the people in the game go about their lives. That
definitely made the book kind of boring, but at least the characters didn’t wet
their pants because they didn’t have foresight to go to the bathroom and pee
there when they needed to like the people in The Sims sometimes do. Fortunately,
I thought what the characters were doing was very interesting and enjoyable to
read about throughout the book. The story simply could have used more action
and excitement. Honestly, it wasn’t until the end chapter 19 that I felt like
the story had really built towards something when they all went into The
Forbidden Fortress together in order to find Maleficent’s Dragon’s Eye.
The fact that Mal, Evie Jay
and Carlos faced a series of challenges while they were on their quest to find
Maleficent’s Dragon’s Eye reminded me a lot of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s
Stone. If you ask me, that was definitely the most exciting part of the book.
However, I thought the part of the book where they kept being asked what their
mother’s one true love was and were guessing incorrectly until they figured out
that the people were referring to Carlos’ mother, Cruella De Vil, was rather
heartbreaking. Carlos was forced to admit that his mother’s one true love was
her furs, and not him. That was one part of the book that I felt had a
surprising amount of heart compared to the rest of the book.
Eventually they managed to
get past all of the challenges and got to Maleficent’s Dragon’s Eye. However,
Mal was initially knocked unconscious when she touched it. Once Mal and the
others returned from The Forbidden Fortress, Mal gave Maleficent’s Dragon’s Eye
to her, but Maleficent still viewed Mal as being a disappointment. I know that
Maleficent is supposed to be a villain, but I was really hoping that even if
the kids’ parents didn’t all come to love and genuinely care at least about
their children, at least Maleficent would come to truly love Mal since she
(Mal) is her daughter, but that unfortunately didn’t happen.
While the book didn’t end
with Maleficent, the Evil Queen, Jafar and Cruella De Vil realizing that they
truly loved their children, the book ended with Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos all
realizing that they were all friends in their own weird way, which I really
liked. If you haven’t watched the movie Descendants
yet, the book ends pretty much were the movie begins with Ben deciding to let
Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos out of the Isle of the Lost and have them come to
Auradon.
The fact that Ben wasn’t
introduced until the very end of the book when he decides to have Mal, Evie,
Jay and Carlos all come to Auradon is definitely one of the biggest problems
that I have with this book. While the focus of the book is supposed to be on
Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos and how their parents are all evil, I really think
that Ben should have been introduced a lot earlier in the book. I have several
questions about Ben’s decision to have Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos all come to
Auradon that I really think Cruz should have given the reader at least some
insight into. Was it something that he had been thinking about for a while, and
he finally decided to share his request with others? Was the decision based on
some kind of sudden epiphany that Ben had that he hadn’t thought about very
much? I really think that if Cruz had introduced Ben earlier in the book, then
she could have given the reader some kind of an answer to those questions and
some more insight into Ben as a character.
Even though I really liked
this book, I don’t think that it’s a truly great book. While I like that the
book plays around with characters that I’m very familiar with (Maleficent, the
Evil Queen, Jafar and Cruella De Vil) and that Cruz puts her own spin on those
characters, especially by having their kids all know each other, the book
itself has a major “Been there, done that” feel to it for me, which really
hindered my enjoyment of the book. The fact that the overall tone of the book
reminded me a lot of the book series A
Series of Unfortunate Events, and the kids’ life at school and the classes
that they took, as well as their quest to get Maleficent’s Dragon’s Eye all reminded
me a lot of the Harry Potter books
really caused me to feel like The Isle of
the Lost was rather lacking in originality.
As I mentioned earlier, for
most of the book I felt like I was just watching the characters go about their
daily lives without having the story feel like it was actually building towards
something big. That’s definitely one of the biggest problems that I have with
this book. The book could have definitely benefitted from having a little bit
more excitement and tension in the story leading up to chapter nineteen instead
of waiting until the end of chapter nineteen for the action in the story to
really pick up.
That being said, my final
score for The Isle of the Lost is 5
out of 10.
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