Keeper

by Kim Chance

[Quirky Cat]

I received a copy of Keeper from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Keeper is the debut novel by Kim Chance. It’s about a girl whose entire world gets turned upside down after a series of revelations about her heritage. It’s a fast read and is perfect for fans of young adult dystopian novels.



Warnings first: The villain (and his minions) of this series like the idea of using the threat of rape to get the women in the series to do what they want. Thankfully it never goes beyond threats, but they are still upsetting scenes, especially for some.
I think Keeper had a lot of potential as a series, unfortunately on the whole I just found myself not loving it. It was a decent and quick read though, and if I’m being honest the main reason I didn’t enjoy is more is because I spotted a plot hole early on that I had trouble getting over (more on that later). Otherwise it wasn’t that bad – it’s a perfect example of its genre, which I’m a fan of.
We start out with Lainey, our main character, freaking out studying for the SATs, which for the moment is the biggest concern in her life. Clearly whatever event happens in the novel hasn’t occurred yet, and poor Lainey has no idea what she’s in for. The plot starts rolling pretty quickly, with Lainey having disturbing visions of a dead woman; from there things sort of cascade for our heroine, until she’s in a battle for her life (and more).
Lainey is an interesting character – she’s a bit all over the place at times, but it’s still very clear that she’s truly a good person. Even better, she’s got a supportive best friend to help her through all her turmoil’s (which go way above and beyond standard teenager problems). I actually really enjoyed watching Lainey’s transition; she went from being a girl completely absorbed with SATs and her academic future, to a girl on the run for her life, trying to figure out how to best stop the big bad in her life.
I mentioned earlier that I noticed a plot hole (or two, depending on how to look at it) pretty early on in the book; (spoiler warning) if I’m correct about my assumptions of how the Grimoire works, then there were a few obvious ways to stop the villain from getting what he wants. First, the Grimoire needs to be activated by somebody of DuCarmont blood to unlock it, yes? So instead of worrying about protecting the Grimoire, why not just insure that the line doesn’t continue? I understand that Josephine didn’t plan to continue her line, but presumably this would have occurred to any one of the other women between her and Lainey, surely? I’m going to assume the Grimoire was indestructible as well, because I imagine one of them would have tried that at some point, so I’ll leave out any analyzing about that potential.
On the whole Keeper was a decent read, with a different spin on a coming of age story. I liked Lainey and her best friend, and how together they seemed capable of getting through anything (also, how brave must the best friend be to be a human that stands up against all these monsters?). I’ll be curious to see what Kim Chance comes out with next.


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