Book Review: Isle of the Lost

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If you keep up with what’s playing on the Disney channel, you probably know that a highly anticipated movie, Descendants, was just released.  It’s the story about the villains’ children.  I haven’t gotten around to watching it yet, but when I do I will definitely share my thoughts on the blog.  In the meantime though they also released a book that is a prequel to the movie, which I just finished reading this past week.

I want to be honest going into this saying that I was a little bit skeptical of the concept.  It sounded cool, but the villains children realizing that being good might be better than being evil could go horribly wrong.  It could turn out super cheesy, over the top, or childish.  Thankfully, I didn’t find the book to be any of those things.  I actually really, really enjoyed it.

Our four main characters are Mal, the daughter of Maleficent constantly trying to live up to her mother’s legacy, Jay, the son of Jafar who steals anything he can, Carlos, the son of Cruella deVil who is a bit of a nerd and treated as a servant by his mother, and Evie, the daughter of the Evil Queen who is obsessed with having her appearance live up to her mother’s standards.  They could be one dimensional, but they come off as delightfully interesting and somewhat complex, as they explore the way they’ve been raised vs. their own human instincts.

In the beginning of the story we get to know our characters a bit and see what daily life is like on the Isle of the Lost, where the villains have been banished.  In particular, Mal is focused on getting revenge on Evie for not being invited to her 6th birthday party.  The second half of the book then involves the four main characters going on a quest to try and retrieve a magical object.

We also got a peek into the life of those in Audaron, where all of the good characters and their descendants live.  Mainly we meet Ben, the son of Beast and Belle, who is expected to take over as King soon.  These chapters were interesting but didn’t really add too much to the story as a whole – I’m guessing this ties in more in the movie The Descendants.

One of the things that I appreciated the most about this book was that it was hilarious, and in a way that genuinely made me laugh.  Maybe the humor isn’t for everyone, but I thought it was great.  Things like Gaston naming all of his sons Gaston, and the titles of the classes that they take at villain school.  There were some funny references to the Disney movies and I for one appreciated it.

I will say that I liked the first half of the book more, where we were just seeing the villains and their descendants and getting to know them.  It was really interesting and clever the way that this world was created on the Isle of the Lost.  The quest that the characters went on later on ended up feeling much more like a typical adventure/fantasy story that didn’t have as much creativity to it.

Overall I found it to be a fun, quick, clever read, and if you’re a Disney fan and especially a fan of the villains you should check it out!

Do you have any interest in reading this book?  Have you seen the movie yet?

Check out what other bloggers are reading this month here!