Shannon Messenger

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-10-27

Shannon Messenger is an American author of fantasy for young readers, born on November 10, 1981, in Southern California. She moved to San Diego as a child and attended elementary school there, later graduating from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts before turning to writing. She is best known for Keeper of the Lost Cities, an upper-middle-grade series published by Simon & Schuster's Aladdin imprint since 2012 that has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list; the first book was a 2013 tween recommended read of the Association for Library Service to Children and won the 2017 California Young Reader Medal in the middle school category. The seventh book, Flashback, had a first printing of 150,000 copies, and its promotional tour drew crowds of hundreds per event. The series has run to nine numbered novels plus two half-step books, Unlocked and Unraveled, and the author has announced that a tenth book, Elysian, will conclude it. Messenger also wrote the young adult Sky Fall trilogy (2013 to 2016), about a teenager who discovers he is a sylph, a wind spirit. Film rights to Keeper of the Lost Cities, first optioned by Disney with Ben Affleck attached to direct, passed to Warner Bros. in 2024, with Messenger as an executive producer.