This is pretty standard fare for an Emily Windsnap book. Predictable, but an easy read with a happy ending for pre-teens. I would have rated it higher if not for one thing: the racist stereotyping. Hear me out before you tell me I'm being ridiculous.

Emily meets a strange, cult-like group of people living on a remote island that only she can access. Her first thought is that these people are going to cannibalize her. She finds out that these people have superior intellect and senses, ranging across science and mysticism. They are inherently better than normal people due to their connection to the nature around them.

These, and countless more stereotypes of native people constantly pervade the narrative. I imagine this implicit bias wasn't noticed by Kessler or her editor at the time— but it still remains present. It didn't age well. This made the book so hard to get through because I was constantly rolling my eyes when yet another Native Stereotype occured among these characters.

I would definitely encourage anyone reading this book to note and analyze the racial biases in it. It's a fun and simple Windsnap book, but it reinforces a lot of stereotyping. There are other types of egregious stereotyping in Kessler's other books, but this one takes the cake.

Kid's are smart. They notice this stuff. More adults reviewing this should have, too.