A review by lucylexislawton
Return to the Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz

3.0

in my opinion, this book was slightly less gripping than its predecessor, probably just because that one introduced the characters and therefore had its own distinct purpose, while this one is comparably pretty slow. i suppose technically the last one didn't have any more plot than this one does, but because it was so busy setting the scene, that kind of made up for the fact that the action didn't start until the end of the book. this one doesn't have that perk - i found all the "anti-heroes" stuff very dull, and the bit in the catacombs was the only bit that really appealed to me, but that quite literally took place in the last sixth of the story. it's a shame that the action took so long to begin, but i suppose its position in the storyline made sense. i did, however, find the whole concept of energy transference when applied to magic interesting - how magic is a physical force, and when it gets pushed out of one place, it must be moved into another - how the dome constantly holding out magic must be creating a serious rift in the atmosphere, and all that energy is getting redirected underground, going completely batshit. also, the description of what ‘evil’ is, as a living thing that actually uses people and objects to keep itself alive. the whole part about how magic can run awry and literally sprawl like a living thing and go balls to the wall insane and create an entire world within a world was seriously sick. i loved all the stuff that the transferred magic created by itself - the lake, the poison tree, the sand dunes, the city - and also how the doors kept appearing and taking the characters deeper and deeper into this fake world, even if it was a little cliched. i thought it was smart how they all needed to complete their challenges themselves, except for mal, which makes sense considering her downfall is her stubborn insistence on doing everything herself, and refusing help due to personal pride. i thought that was important character development for her. there are a few bones i have to pick with this book however (as per). i didn’t like how the prologue was called chapter 1 as it clearly was not chapter 1 - there was a chapter 1 right after it. smells like lazy editing to me. and i also didn’t like how it was called "disney’s descendants" - you can’t directly reference the company that invented these characters in a book in which the characters are meant to be REAL, you plums. it totally ruins the immersion. then there are the usual inconsistencies that are rife throughout this series, such as the part where genie is described as “floating”, despite the last book explaining that he had been reverted into human form, legs and all; how jordan apparently prefers to be bottled up rather than having a regular dorm room, even though genies supposedly despise being cooped up in their lamps, and desire to be freed; everyone being so peachy-sweet in auradon to the point of never stealing so much as a penny from each other, yet chad is such a prick to jay for no discernible reason; evie making her usual general shallow remarks, such as “red doesn’t look good on my complexion” as that's meant to be the sort of thing she’d say (not everyone who likes cosmetics is shallow and dull, writer), despite it making no sense in the context - i mean, she wears red lipstick all the time! why were harry and jace not cockney in the first book? it makes sense that they would be, considering their parents are, but in this book they’re actually written to say some medieval pip-pip cheerio shit like “crikey” and “guvnor”, while in the first book they just spoke ordinarily. also, jace is definitely not an english name. and while we're on the subject, these books are set in america, and are written by an american author, so why do they say so much british stuff? “mum”, not mom; “metres”, not yards; “year nine”, not eighth grade; and even using a "hot cup of tea" as an example of something tasty. why did ben think madame mim was mal’s mum? it wasn’t even like an “ooh, purple dragon with greenish eyes, maybe it’s maleficient!”, it was literally, “ben had nearly been killed by this bitch before, of course he was certain it was her, he would know that face anywhere”. and yet they look nothing alike! why are there so many 2-page chapters in this book? no book needs 45 fucking chapters, especially if it's only got under 300 pages. it feels lowkey racist that yzla, basically the only black girl in the entirety of the series so far, is constantly putting shit like “girl” and “yo” at the start of her sentences. ditto the fact that lonnie, the resident asian, asks for a lotus-print, red and gold dress, and that jordan, the other resident asian, has “oriental” rugs (what does that even mean?) and columns in her lamp. i do like how the VKs aren’t all scared of their parents, and don’t see them as villains (other than carlos, which makes sense because he’s timid and his mum is a bitch) - it’s more realistic after all that they just see them as their parents. i like the inclusion of the quotes from different classic characters after each new section of the book as it gives it a fairytale feel. i do think it’s a bit cliche how there’s only 4 talismans, one for each of the 4 main characters' parents - it would’ve been more realistic if there had been others down there, and that would’ve been a good way to introduce new characters. i will say the writing is slightly better in this book than in the last one, and the story is passable, but it’s my least favourite in the series.