So, the other day I went to the library and I found a book that looked interesting, so I took it out. Bad move. While the writing itself was interesting and engaging, the main character just made me cringe. So if anyone is planning on ever reading the book (series), you might not want to read this.

The book is 'Keeper of the Lost Cities' by Shannon Messenger.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that the formalities are out of the way, I wanted to get out my frustrations. Keep in mind, I actually did enjoy the book and this is in no way meant to bash her writing, I just found the main character, Sophie Foster, to be a classic textbook case of a sue.

To begin, her backstory:
She is an exceptionally smart twelve year old who is a high school senior who has been accepted to Yale. Of course, being a genius isn't all. She had a really bad accident when she was five and became a telepath.

That isn't so bad though, so I got through the whole genius thing. Whatever. But it's the fact that she is an elf as well that kind of irritated me. I can forgive that one more easily since 90% of the characters are elves.

But just in point form, here are some of the other irritating things about her:

- She is a genetic experiment
- Only elf with brown eyes
- Extremely powerful
- Popular with all the guys (even ones who are years older than her. She's twelve in the first book for goodness sake!)
- Photographic Memory
- Has forbidden secret information planted in her head
- Has way too many cute animal friends to count
- Can communicate with aforementioned animals telepathically
- Does so many things that are illegal to the elven laws but is never seriously punished for them
- Gets kidnapped for her abilities, but is completely fine afterwards (well, sort of. But it relates to my next point)
- She is self-sacrificing and tries to be a martyr
- Can read the minds of anyone she wants to, and they can't read hers at all. Even the oldest and wisest elves can't.
- Does some things that are deemed impossible
- Runs away from home because of some tragic event but is rescued by the hot guy she likes
- Can speak any language with no effort at all

and more. It just frustrated me so much, but at least the other more normal characters helped me get past the horror of her growing repertoire of skills. Once again, the writing wasn't bad, but I am still debating going back and reading the second book.

(Yes, this entire list was composed of things I remembered a day later and all from the first book.)