History Literature / KeeperOfTheLostCities

* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors: Exillium is a school for the "hopeless cases", that is elvin children who're Talentless, exiled, or both. The food is horrible, the medical care is subpar, and the teachers hate their job. The students aren’t allowed to speak to each other or even give out their names, and they have to hide their faces behind masks. Their "ticket" to the next day's class is a bead that gives you an electrical shock when you touch it, and beads have to be earned through your efforts. [[spoiler:This all changes after a few choice words from Sophie to Councillor Terik.]]

* ColdBloodedTorture: Sophie and Dex were kidnapped, tortured, and burned by the Neverseen for information about the Black Swan. The fact that both of them are twelve years old (by human count, anyway) doesn't make their torturers go anymore easy on them.

** After [[spoiler:being elected as a Councillor]], Dame Alina tells Sophie she's "not afraid to make hard choices". She doesn’t go back on her word.

* IAmNotMyFather: Keefe is an Empath like his father, Lord Cassius, and also has several marked similarities to his mother, Lady Gisela. He doesn’t want to be like either, especially his mother after he finds out [[spoiler:she's the Neverseen's true leader]].

** Bronte is prejudiced against Sophie for her human upbringing (in the first two and a half books at least), and really doesn’t like that he can’t Inflict pain onto her.

** [[spoiler:Kenric]] was killed by Everblaze in ''Everblaze'', leading to a MeaningfulFuneral and PersonalEffectsReveal. As with Jolie, we haven’t seen an actual body yet, leading to some theories of how he might have survived like [[spoiler:Fintan]], but most agree that it’s fairly certain that he is dead.

* YouHaveFailedMe: In ''Exile'', Wylie wants Sophie to wake up Prentice, but Sophie- who is the reason why his father chose to let his mind be broken and thus abandon his family- doesn’t know how.

** The Sencens are explicitly stated (and shown) to be verbally and emotionally abusive. Additionally, [[spoiler: Gisela uses knowledge about her son's hatred of her, as well as who he cares about, in order to manipulate him into doing her bidding]].

** [[spoiler: Alvar]]'s been secretly working for the Neverseen for years.

%%* DownerEnding: With the exception of the first book, most- if not all- of the novels end For example, ''Neverseen'' ended with [[spoiler: Keefe defecting to the Neverseen]], and ''Lodestar'' ended with [[spoiler: Sophie discovering her human parents have been kidnapped by the Neverseen.]]

%%* EpiphanyTherapy: Needed for Keefe after [[spoiler: he discovered his mom was probably dead]].

* IAmNotMyFather: Keefe is an Empath like his father, Lord Cassius, and also has several marked similarities to his mother, Lady Gisela. He doesn’t want to be like either, especially his mother after he finds out [[spoiler: she's the Neverseen's true leader]].

%%* InevitableWaterfall: Used to the group’s advantage to escape [[spoiler: Ravagog]] in ''Neverseen''.

** Elves are stated to have no concept of sexism. However, they abide by gender stereotypes, to the point Keefe was mocked by other elves for braiding and generally taking care of his hair because he is a boy. Similarly, they are ''said'' to have no concept of racism and do not take race into consideration when choosing a partner. However, every black (except [[spoiler:Livvy/Doc]]) or Asian character in the books is related to each other and the Song family has been Asian-coded (Sophie describes them both as anime characters and K-pop stars) for generations. Most of the couples- at least those who have children- are monoracial as well. The fact that elves even have races identifiable to humans is indicative of the dissonance between what is stated by the author and what is represented in the books, as the main reason humans have is because they tended to keep to their own race when mating in the past, which wouldn't have been the case for elves, and Elvin families should have become a blend of all races with time.

* ItsAllMyFault: [[spoiler: Alden's]] mind breaks because of the guilt from helping to break Prentice's mind and leaving Wylie parentless.

** [[spoiler: After becoming a Councillor,]] [[FaceHeelTurn Dame Alina]] goes from supporting Sophie to being against Sophie in less than twenty-four hours.

** [[spoiler: Kenric]] was killed by Everblaze in ''Everblaze'', leading to a MeaningfulFuneral and PersonalEffectsReveal. As with Jolie, we haven’t seen an actual body yet, leading to some theories of how he might have survived like [[spoiler: Fintan]], but most agree that it’s fairly certain that he is dead.

* PlayingWithFire: Pyrokinetics like Fintan, [[spoiler: Brant, and Marella]] can summon and manipulate fire. Pyrokinesis has been outlawed in the Lost Cities after an incident with Everblaze that killed several elves, so any that manifest are labelled "Talentless" and are forbidden from using their ability.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Sophie constantly breaks the law to do what she feels is right, espicially after she [[spoiler: joins the Black Swan]].
* SecondSuperIdentity: Mr. Forkle is actually both [[spoiler: Sir Astin]] and [[spoiler:Magnate Leto]]. He has other secret identies, but those are two he was willing to confirm.
* SecretIdentity: The Collective is the Black Swan's version of the Council. Unlike the Council, they all wear disguises and have code names: Mr Forkle, Squall, Blur, Wraith, and Granite. Mr. Forkle is [[spoiler:really Magnate Leto, who has another secret idenity in Sir Astin]], Granite is actually [[spoiler:Sir Tiergan]], and Squall is [[spoiler:Juline, Dex's mother]].

** "Granite" is an anagram for "Tiergan". [[spoiler:Sir Tiergan poses as Granite whever he's called on for a Collective meeting or to represent the Black Swan.]]

** Stina Heks is often snide, needlessly argumentive, and generally unpleasent. She's also a member of Team Valiant, and does come up with some good points.

Sophie Foster has always been different. Despite only being twelve, she's already a high school senior, thanks in no small part to her photographic memory. Even amongst family, she sticks out, being the only skinny blonde among chubby brunettes. All of this, however, pales in comparison to the secret she's kept for years: she can hear the thoughts of others and has been able to ever since a traumatic brain injury when she was five.

While this might sound useful, it's caused Sophie no small amount of grief: she can't turn this ability off and her attempts to mitigate the constant background noise make her stick out. She's too afraid to tell anyone, including her family, for fear of being turned into an experiment. So, when she comes across a strange boy whose mind she can't read and who somehow knows this, she tries to run. When the boy finds her again, he introduces himself as Fitz, explaining that he's an elvin Telepath just like her. Though skeptical at first, Sophie quickly believes him when he shows her the Lost Cities, lands inhabited by elves and other creatures from myth and fairy tales.

In the blink of an eye, Sophie's entire world is turned upside down; she leaves her human family to live with a pair of elves who become her new guardians and she's enrolled into Foxfire, an elvish school where she has to unlearn all of her human-gained knowledge while simultaneously learning how to hone her telepathic abilities. Luckily, she finds a few friends who help make the transition from her old life to her new one a little smoother: there's the handsome Fitz, his younger sister Biana, the laid-back Dex, and the mischievous Keefe.

Unfortunately, Sophie still can't quite manage to totally fit in: despite just recently learning about the very existence of elves, she somehow knows confidential information that only the ruling elves should be privy too. As life with her kind develops, Sophie will discover that not everything is peaceful in paradise and her existence may be one small piece in an ever-changing puzzle.

The series includes the following titles:

%%* AnimeChineseGirl: Linh Song and her brother Tam are actually described as “like they stepped out of an anime”.

* IAmNotMyFather: Keefe is an Empath like his father, Lord Cassius, and also has several marked similarities to his mother, Lady Gisela. He doesn’t want to be like either, espeically his mother after he finds out she's the Neverseen's true leader.

* WizardingSchool: Foxfire is a prestigoues elvish school that protizes one-on-one training over a classroom eniviroment.

** Edaline Ruewen and her sister, Juline Dizznee, using their Conjuring and Frosting abilities respectively to effortlessly manhandle Ro, an ogre princess famous for her fighting abilities. Much like Della, Edaline's abilities surely come from the fact that she used to work for the Council alongside her husband as a noble. (Edaline has the added bonus of surprising strength thanks to her years of wrangling unruly animals for rehabition.) Juline's abilities are likely a result of [[spoiler:being a member of the Black Swan]].

%%* BrainBleach: When Sophie sees Silveny and Greyfell having sex. Ewwwwwww...

%%* BrotherSisterTeam: Tam and Linh.

%%* TheChosenOne: Sophie, the one and only “Project Moonlark”. Subverted because she was ''literally'' genetically engineered for this purpose while the usual recipients of this trope usually are because of a prophecy or supernatural ancestry.