Review – The Island of Shipwrecks (The Unwanteds, Book 5) by Lisa McMann (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Middle Grade
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 464 pages
Publisher: Aladdin
Release Date: February 3, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-1442493315
Stand Alone or Series: 5th book in the Unwanteds series
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the fifth book in the Unwanteds series by McMann. This was a good continuation of this series. This is another series I am reading because my son likes it and is reading it and likes to discuss the books with me. There are seven books planned in this series with the sixth book, The Island of Graves, scheduled to come out September 2015.

This book follows a number of different characters. Alex and crew are trying to survive their fall down a waterfall and end up on the Island of Shipwrecks. They are desperately trying to find way home. Aaron is preparing Quill to war on Artemis again. The Artemians are eager for news of Alex’s journey and when rumors of a pending attack by Quill reaches them they prepare for battle.

While this isn’t my favorite middle grade fantasy series it is a decent one and has an interesting story. I like the magic in it and there is some excellent world-building here.

The story jumps between a lot of characters, so I have some trouble engaging with the characters and staying engaged in the story. I like reading about Alex and Sky the best. Aaron’s portions of the story are always a bit of a drag to get through. There are just so many characters it is hard to keep track of everyone. This is something my eight year old son also mentioned he said “Mom there are just so many characters I wish I got to read about each one a bit more.” This is one of those books where I think all the POVs are fracturing the story quite a bit.

One of the big revelations in this story is Gondoleery’s plan. She’s been lurking in the background of this series for quite a while and this is the book where her plans and ambitions finally come to light.

This book wraps up pretty well and doesn’t end on a huge awful cliffhanger like The Island of Legends did…so I am grateful for that.

Overall a decent continuation of this series. I think if you are a huge fan of this series you will really enjoy this book. I personally have thought all of these books are just okay but continue to read it because my son enjoys them. The main issues with the book are the huge numbers of characters and the multitude of perspectives the story is told from; it just makes it very hard to engage with the characters. There is some excellent world -building in here though and I continue to enjoy the magic use in these books (although some of the novelty of that has worn off as well). If my son continues to read these I will probably read them as well.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge