Genre: fiction, fantasy, young adult, middle-grade
Rating: 4/5
What happens when your favorite childhood movies turn into your biggest nightmare? That’s what happens to five teens in Ridley Pearson’s Kingdom Keepers series.
Kingdom Keepers is a seven-book fantasy series that follows Finn, Charlene, Willa, Philby, and Maybeck, who are hired as Disney holographic tour guides (or DHIs). Although the job starts as a dream for the young teens, things get complicated when they discover that, upon falling asleep, they cross over into Disney World at night. During these nights, the DHIs realize something sinister is happening at the parks. The Disney villains they grew up watching have come to life and they have an agenda: to turn Disney World into their park.
The first book in the series is titled Disney After Dark, and the first four novels take place at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, focusing on a different park in each book. The fifth and sixth books are on the Disney Dream, one of Disney Cruise Line’s cruise ships, and the final book is in Disneyland. There is also a spinoff series that follows the five Kingdom Keepers when they are in college.
Dreams and nightmares play a vital role in shaping the Kingdom Keepers books into a Disney fanatic’s dream – or a nightmare for people who fear a certain ride in the Magic Kingdom…
Regardless, the novels are a Disney fan’s dream and allow an insider perspective on what happens behind the scenes at Disney Parks with a fun, action-packed story. Readers get to see areas of the park, such as the infamous Utilidors, the underground tunnels underneath Magic Kingdom, and descriptions of the backstage area. They also get to read descriptions of Walt’s apartment found on the second floor of the firehouse at Main Street, U.S.A. in Disneyland. Although backstage access may not be the dreamiest thing ever to a non-Disney fan, it’s fascinating for a fan who loves to hear about Disney’s history and how the parks came to be what they are today.
The nightmare portion of the series comes from the scary situations that the Keepers are thrown into. For instance, the characters coin the term “Sleeping Beauty Syndrome” for when someone gets stuck in their holographic state in the parks and cannot wake up, showing the darker side of the iconic Sleeping Beauty movie. Also, characters from some classic rides, like when EPCOT’s Test Track used to have crash test dummies and the trolls from the former Maelstrom ride in EPCOT, come to life and attack the Keepers. These instances show that no matter the comfort that comes with a Disney story, darkness (or a Disney villain) lurks beneath the surface.
One thing that resonated with me while reading the Kingdom Keepers series (since I was old enough to read them as they were released) is that I grew with the characters. Like many coming-of-age/middle-grade book series, you are on a journey with the characters, where you see them grow up and develop. Additionally, as the series continues, the stakes get higher for the main characters, turning from a middle-grade series to a young adult one, which grows with its target audience of young teens and tweens. With the characters maturing, some fun romantic subplots come into play, with a splash of teenage angst for good measure.
Whenever I am down and want to escape reality, I always turn to these books. When I was younger, I went to Disney World a few times, and reading these books is a step in time back to what the Parks were like in the early 2000s. Throughout the series, there are references to childhood classics such as the High School Musical show that used to be at Hollywood Studios (or MGM Studios, which was the old name for the park) and Maelstrom (now Frozen Ever After) in EPCOT*. The descriptions of the parks are so vivid that it makes me feel like I am there with the characters, fighting the Disney villains and interacting with all the other characters that make appearances throughout the series.
Overall, I give the book series a 4/5, as it is not the perfect book series, but it provides pure nostalgia for long-time Disney fans. Some books are lengthy for a middle-grade series, but the Kingdom Keepers is still a good, entertaining, and action-packed series for all ages.
Are you interested in reading the Kingdom Keepers series? You can read it for free on Kindle Unlimited or borrow it from a local library!
*After further research, I discovered that the books have been updated to reflect the current Disney Parks, but if you see a copy with the older covers it will most likely contain old depictions of the Disney Parks.