1. Not all of the content in this book is the author's. At the beginning, Pearson mentions that he had a fan fiction contest, and he used passages that he liked the most that his fans came up with. These passages are marked with a code inside the book and a footnote tells you who that passage belongs to. Now, from the viewpoint of those fans, getting published in a book by a favorite author would be pretty neat. But as a fan of the series, it was frustrating to be pulled from the story every time I saw the symbol indicating that the content was not the author's original work. Maybe that's too picky of me, but it really bugged me.
2. A lot of questions and inconsistencies were not resolved by the end of this book. If nothing else, even more were brought up! Certain things were mentioned in previous books that went on to be completely disregarded later (such as the entire premise that the kids had to be in hologram form to be able to see any Disney characters). I know that authors rarely re-read their books, but for all the statements and suggestions that Pearson made, he certainly should have gone back through his series to make sure he tied up all loose ends.
It happened in this book as well. They face off Ursula, who indicates that she isn't necessarily with Chernabog and the other OTs, but she also isn't with Finn and the good guys. So what was her agenda? Why did she steal the folder from Fantasia for them? And why did the OTs need it so much in the first place? It was very annoying to have little plots brought up, but then have nothing done with them.
3. This is a carry-over from the last complaint, but the seventh (and last) book didn't even really end! They defeated the bad guy (without Mickey's help, which irked me. Mickey healed the kingdom, but that was it). But then at the end they realize, "Oh, no! It's not all over! Wayne must have left us a message!" But do we get to hear what the message is? No. Of course not. All we know is that at least one villain is still alive and is trying to summon back the others from the dead. I did some research and learned that the author is planning on doing a short spin-off series, but whereas this series is officially over, I was frustrated by the ending. Very frustrated!
4. I really didn't like how much this series "matured" (for lack of a better word). Some adult content is lightly sprinkled into the last few books, but the darkness and gruesomeness was a little much, especially for a series targeted towards middle readers (ages 8-12). Granted, as the series advances, its characters get older, but you still have the younger audience reading it. The violence in the book was gruesome, and if depicted on screen the same way it was in the book, it would probably come close to an R-rating.
There are parts of this series that I absolutely love, but I feel like so much more could have been done with it. I wanted to see more interaction with Disney characters. Granted, this book had more than any other, but it still wasn't nearly enough. The characters were there, and when they did show up they usually had to remind the Keepers that they were ready to help, but they were hardly used. Even Mickey wasn't really used, and the dramatic final battle scene was a big disappointment to me.
It's so sad to look forward so much to a book, only to be disillusioned by it. Oh, well. This all started out as a great idea with a lot of promise. I guess, to sum it all up, if I had been the author to come up with this idea, I would have handled it very differently.
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