Neverseen pisses me off for a ton of reasons, but perhaps the most jarring issue is how Keefe-centric it all is... and how this page time Keefe got sucked in on all the potential character arcs of the fantastic five. Because Everblaze's plot was one of the very few which could've had lasting consequences.
Instead of Keefe's mommy issues, we could've had:
-> Sophie's guilt arc. Like, a PROPER one. And the stakes would've been high unlike any other person's guilt arc, because Sophie cannot be brought back if her mind shatters. Let her blame herself for being the trigger-cause of the plague. Let the plague be awful and have casualties and let her live with that.
-> Dex's anti-Technopathy arc. I am still appalled to this day that he immediately went back to chilling with his ability when he just created a hyper-traumatic weapon that the Council FORCED him to put on Sophie's head. Why does Tinker get the anti-weapon arc?? Dex should never have spoken "proudly" of the Sucker Punch or any other weapon. Neverseen could've been the book where he refuses to use his ability, focusing on alchemy or any other hard skills he got. Could've also paralleled Linh's arc and given ground for a deeper friendship between the two of them.
-> Fitz's jealousy arc. Yes Dex is jealous of Fitz, but Fitz has been jealous of Sophie since Exile, it's shown through various scenes that she makes him insecure, not just as the Moonlark but as a Telepath too. Granite saying he sucks should've eaten him alive. And he could've emerged from this whole book more humble, more confident, and more skilled in something unique (i.e., recovering washed memories or learning how to wash memories).
-> Biana's prejudice arc. Biana was the sheltered girl with a ton of false ideas about the world, and Neverseen was the book where she finally stepped outside of her comfort zone. Why is her only "arc" in this book to get over her crush on Keefe and learn how to vanish from the gnomes' eyes? I would've much preferred if Biana was incredibly prejudiced against the gnomes, seeing them as servants beneath her, and the Alluveterre gnomes put her in her place and she learned to put herself in their shoes and see the world from their perspective (leading nicely to her being able to see other Vanishers, just like the gnomes do).
-> Della's anti-Exilium arc. Like mother, like daughter, because Della is also incredibly prejudiced, but against another group: waywards. Have her little speech about Exilium actively represent her entire belief system, and have those beliefs challenged a first time as her own children are banished, a second time as she meets Tam and Linh, then entirely shattered when Sophie confronts her about all seven of them being the rule, not exceptions.
-> Tam and Linh's characters as a whole. I've already talked enough about faceless Tam's introduction and how his character seemed far more interesting before he revealed he was Asian and Shannon got weird about it. But same goes for Linh to an even larger extent. Linh had enormous potential as a character, yet for a girl whose ability gets tremendously stronger with emotion, she's surprisingly... emotionless? She should've been a mirror for Fitz and Dex, arguably for Keefe as well.
And of course, if we weren't so focused on Sokeefe all the damn time, we could've had more interactions between the rest of the crew. Develop the weaker links in the group:
Aaaand we could've developed more gnomes than just Calla. Given the species a little more variety.
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