I recently started reading The Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz. This is the first novel in the Descendants series and ties in as sort of a prequel to the “Descendants” movies from the Disney channel. As with the movies, this novel focuses on the children of famous Disney villains.

I haven’t gotten very far yet, but at about fifteen percent of the way into the book all I have is basically brief sketches of each of the four main characters (Mal, Jay, Evie, and Carlos), which is a little uninteresting, since I already know who they are from the movies. Still, there’s more background here about what the Isle of the Lost is actually like and what the kids were up to before they were relocated to Auradon than any of the movies bother with. The setting isn’t as fully realized as I might wish, but it’s better than the movies created and not any worse than many other magical places from book series.

While it’s interesting to see the four main characters from the series in their lives before the movies took place, so far I’m a little disappointed in how uncomplex they all are. Especially since I know this is a prequel and so the potential for character development is somewhat limited. Still, I am interested in hopefully seeing more of the Isle of the Lost and finding out more about why the four of them are who they are at the beginning of the movie series.

The writing is good, although I do wish there was a little more plot happening a little faster. Still, it’s getting set up and the characters are well distinguished, so it has promise. I find the Descendants world interesting (if odd) and so I am looking forward to reading more of this book and hopefully this series in general!