Exile Keeper Of The Lost Cities 2 Shannon Messenger

So You Want to Read Exile by Shannon Messenger

I've been recommending the Lost Cities series to basically everyone who walks up to my desk asking for middle grade fantasy. It's straightforward to recommend. The harder part is getting people to the right copy in good condition, especially when they're hunting for book two, which is where most people run into problems. The series follows Fox, a telepath who gets exiled from her family after it turns out she wasn't actually born into the Forgetful Society she grew up in. The book came out in 2015. Scholastic published it. It runs about 400 pages and targets roughly grades 4 through 8, though a lot of older readers pick it up too. Fox ends up in the Forgetful Society, which is where non-magical humans live, and she has to navigate a whole new set of problems while still being hunted by people who want her dead. The pacing is tight. Most readers finish it in a weekend. Here's the thing nobody tells you when they're trying to get kids into this series: starting at book one is almost always better, even if your kid is already caught up on everything. Book two assumes you know who the Blackthorn siblings are and what's going on with the Sombras. You can read book two standalone and follow most of it, but you'll miss context that matters a lot later.

Where to Get It

There are several formats. The hardcover is the standard edition most libraries stock. The paperback reprint came out later and is cheaper if you're buying used. The audiobook is narrated by Brittany Pressley and runs about nine hours. I prefer the physical copy for this one because there are maps and character guides at the front of the book that kids flip back to constantly, and those don't translate as well to digital formats. Used copies float around Amazon, AbeBooks, and ThriftBooks at all price points. The trick is checking which edition it is. The original hardcover has a specific cover with Fox in a dark coat against a snowy background. Some reprints changed the cover art entirely, and while the text is identical, people sometimes mix them up when they're reading in order and wonder why the aesthetic shifts. It doesn't affect the story.

What Makes This One Different

Book one establishes the world. Book two is where the world fights back. The Forgetful Society sequences are genuinely tense because Fox has no powers there. Everything she knows about operating as a telepath suddenly doesn't apply. That's the core tension of the novel, and it's what separates it from the rest of the series. The other books keep her powerful. This one strips that away. A counter-intuitive thing about reading this book is that kids who loved the first one sometimes struggle here. The first book has action and wonder on nearly every page. The second book is more claustrophobic and political. Fox is trapped in a city where revealing anything about her real identity gets people killed. The stakes are quieter but heavier, and that shift catches some readers off guard. Don't tell them it gets better later. Just let them push through.

Common Problem: The Spoiler Situation

I dealt with this firsthand last year when a parent brought in a box of books for my teen reading group. Someone had read book three and couldn't stop dropping hints about plot twists from book two because they thought it would help. It didn't. The entire experience of Exile hinges on Fox's isolation and the uncertainty of whether anyone will come for her. Reading ahead completely neutered that tension. The workaround is simple. You enforce a rule at the start of any group reading: only the current book is fair game for discussion. Anything beyond that is off limits. Write it on the board if you have to. I started doing that for every Lost Cities reading circle and the engagement went up because people were actually experiencing the reveals in real time instead of sitting through them with full knowledge.

Teaching or Discussion Angles

If you're using this in a classroom or book club, the identity theme is the easiest entry point. Fox spends the whole book figuring out who she is when none of the labels that were supposed to define her actually apply. That resonates with kids regardless of age. The Forgetful Society itself is also worth examining as a worldbuilding choice. It's a deliberate inversion of the usual fantasy trope where magic users are the elite and ordinary people are powerless. Here it's flipped, and then Messenger complicates it by showing that neither system is genuinely safe. The romance subplot is there but minimal compared to later books. Some educators worry about that and skip the series entirely because of it, but the romance is appropriately subdued for the target age group and doesn't dominate the plot. It's a background element, not the focus.

Limitations

The series isn't for everyone. The worldbuilding is extensive but occasionally inconsistent across books. Messenger has admitted in interviews that some of the early lore got revised as the series progressed. If a reader cares deeply about airtight consistency, this might frustrate them. Also, the sequel hooks at the end of each book are sometimes heavier than they need to be. Book two ends with a cliffhanger that basically demands you pick up book three immediately, and that's fine if that's your thing, but it can feel manipulative if you prefer more resolved endings. If someone wants tighter plotting and less melodrama, the Harry Potter series or the Kingkiller Chronicle might be better fits, though those target different age ranges anyway. For pure escapism with emotional beats that land, this series does what it sets out to do.

Quick Reference

Title: Exile
Author: Shannon Messenger
Series: Keeper of the Lost Cities, Book 2
Publisher: Scholastic
Original publication: 2015
Pages: approximately 400
Audiobook: available, narrated by Brittany Pressley
Age range: 9 to 13 roughly, though the upper bound is flexible Grab a copy, read it straight through, and don't let anyone near it who's already finished book four. That's the short version.