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Literature / The Keepers

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The Keepers is a Middle-Grade book series by author Ted Sanders. Taking place in Chicago, IL, it follows the adventures of young boy Horace as he discovers a strange warehouse one day on his way home from school seemingly named after him. That warehouse turns out to be the House of Answers, and inside is a staggering collection of strange and wonderful items. One of these items belongs to Horace - a small box with a glass bottom. But what this box can really do is what propels Horace and his new friend Chloe into a secret society hidden underneath the city, and on an adventure that will mean life or death.

The books released for this series are as follows:

  • The Box and the Dragonfly
  • The Harp and the Ravenvine

Not to be confused with the 2017 Netflix documentary or the Russian television adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.


This book series provides examples of:

  • Adults Are Useless: While Mrs. Hapsteade and Mr. Meister lead the Keepers, it's up to the young recruits and their powerful Tanu to save the day.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: The Riven
  • Ambiguously Human: Dr. Jericho appears this way to Horace at first, but it's a result of the Riven's cloaking Tanu
  • Animal Eye Spy: April has this power when her Tan'ji is repaired.
  • Cool Old Guy: Mr. Meister isn't always so cool, but he does have access to a lot of cool things, and leads the Wardens.
  • Demihuman: The Altari and the Riven. They are somewhat supernatural beings who look similar to humans, except they are much, much taller. The Morden are known to have especially wicked teeth, and Dr. Jericho is mentioned to have four sets of knuckles on his hands.
  • Good Parents: Horace's Mom and Dad. Horace and his Mom love playing chess together on Friday nights. And she knows a lot about what Horace is going through.
  • Eccentric Mentor: Mr. Meister. He knows a lot more than he lets on, and often withholds information from the Keepers even when he shouldn't.
  • The Empath: April is called this specific type of Keeper. Her Tan'ji allows her to hear the thoughts of animals.
    • Horace's Mom would've also been this kind of Tan'ji had she not be made a Tuner.
  • Friend to All Living Things: April to a T. The only animals she doesn't care for are bugs, mostly because their thoughts so often turn to murderous.
  • Intangibility: Chloe's main power. The Dragonfly (the Alvalaithen) allows her to "go thin" and move in and out of solid surfaces. She can even walk through the earth itself.
  • Missing Mom: Chloe's mom. Until she shows up again in Book 2.
  • Never the Selves Shall Meet: Horace can see himself through the box's lens, but never the box itself, even though he can tell he's holding it in his hands by his body's position.
  • Open-Minded Parent: Horace's Mom knows all about the Fel'Daera and the Wardens because she was once part of the society. She is so supportive of Horace and his friends that even Chloe comes to view her as a maternal figure.
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Occurs in Book One when Horace looks through the box to see if Chloe comes back safely from retrieving the traveling malkund at her house. He believes that Chloe will go to her house no matter what. Because of that, the future he sees is one in which he fakes a note from Chloe so that himself in the present will feel better about letting Chloe do what she wants to do. When Horace finds out he's the one who wrote the message, he is horrified.
  • Stable Time Loop: Horace realizes he can see the future when he sees himself on his bed holding up a sign that says "Yes Horace, this is tomorrow." The next day, he has to sit on his bed with a sign that says just that to stabilize the time loop.
  • Tele-Frag: If Chloe releases the dragonfly's power too fast, she might have pieces of the surfaces she phased through stuck in her body. She can get them out, but they leave bad scars.She also figures out that she can stick "thin" objects into other objects or even people and release them, making the object corporeal again and stuck inside the other object/person. She calls this melding.
  • Temporal Sickness: If Horace changes the future he sees in the box, he'll feel nauseated and dizzy. Depending on how big of a future he changes, the effect can intensify.
  • Time Machine: The ability of Horace's box, the Fel'Daera. It can send objects into the future by 24 hours, and allow the user to see through the glass bottom a day ahead. In Book 2, Horace learns how to shrink the length of time so that he can see a more immediate future and send objects sooner into the future. The box is too small to send humans through it, but Horace can send living things like fireflies through the box.
  • Weirdness Censor: To the ordinary observer, the Riven appear to be normal humans. But Keepers can see their true forms more clearly, and the Fel'Daera is able to see past the illusion entirely, making the Riven look like shadowy, spiky spider-like monsters.
  • You Can't Fight Fate: Subverted. Horace can change the future he sees in the Fel'Daera, but not without suffering physically. Mr. Meister suggests that Horace avoid actively changing what he sees in the box, and Horace tries to avoid it.

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