The Isle of the Lost

The novel is set in a world where all iconic fairy-tale villains have been banished by King Beast to the Isle of the Lost, a floating prison surrounded by a magical dome that blocks all enchantment. Stripped of their powers, the villains live diminished lives, subsisting on castoffs from Auradon, the prosperous kingdom beyond the Isle.

A prologue set ten years before the main events introduces six-year-old Evie, daughter of Evil Queen, celebrating her birthday with a lavish party. Every child on the island receives an invitation except Mal, daughter of Maleficent, the most feared villain on the Isle. Mal watches the festivities from the balcony of Bargain Castle, the crumbling building she shares with her mother, burning with jealousy. Maleficent appears and, outraged by the snub, shuts down the celebration and banishes Evil Queen and Evie from public life. Young Mal vows to prove herself as truly evil as her mother.

Ten years later, sixteen-year-old Mal wakes from a disturbing dream of an enchanted lake in Auradon and a handsome prince who calls himself her friend. Her daily life revolves around petty villainy at Dragon Hall, the island's school for villain children, where she spray-paints graffiti and causes trouble. On the way to school, she crosses paths with Jay, son of Jafar, a charming thief who supplies his father's junk shop with stolen goods. Jay mentions a new girl starting at school, and Mal realizes it must be Evie. Furious, Mal plans to throw a party as a vehicle to humiliate her.

Evie arrives at Dragon Hall after ten years of isolation and takes a seat next to Carlos De Vil, the clever son of Cruella De Vil. Carlos lives in Hell Hall, Cruella's home, as his mother's servant, terrorized by her volatile temper. He confides to Evie that he is secretly building a machine designed to punch through the dome and pick up radio signals from Auradon.

In Auradon, fifteen-year-old Prince Ben, son of King Beast and Queen Belle, prepares to assume the throne at sixteen. He has had his own strange dream of a purple-haired girl helping him in a miserable village. King Beast coaches Ben to lead with strength, while Queen Belle encourages him to be himself. Ben faces Sidekicks United, a movement in which dwarfs, mice, mermaids, and other sidekicks petition for better compensation and a voice in governance.

Mal commands Carlos to host her party at Hell Hall while Cruella is away, initially excluding Evie before reversing course when she realizes she needs Evie present for her Evil Schemes class project. When Evie arrives, Mal feigns friendliness and tricks her into a game called "Seven Minutes in Hell," locking her inside Cruella's fur closet, which is booby-trapped with steel traps. Evie navigates the traps alone, and Carlos pulls her to safety through a back entrance. The two bond over their difficult mothers. In Carlos's tree-house laboratory, Evie suggests a wiring fix to his machine, and a powerful electric burst strikes the dome, briefly punching a hole in the barrier. Unbeknown to them, the blast awakens Maleficent's Dragon's Eye scepter, a powerful artifact of darkness hidden in a place called the Forbidden Fortress, and frees Diablo, Maleficent's raven familiar, from stone imprisonment.

After the party, Mal finds Maleficent petting the revived Diablo. Maleficent reveals the Dragon's Eye has sparked back to life and orders Mal to find it, warning that whoever touches it will fall asleep for a thousand years. She taunts Mal about being a disappointment and challenges her to prove her worth. Mal shares the news with Jay, who privately calculates whether stealing the scepter could be the "Big Score" his father has always dreamed of.

When Mal's Evil Schemes teacher, Lady Tremaine, rejects her plan to torment Evie as insufficiently wicked, Mal conceives a grander scheme: She will find the Dragon's Eye and trick Evie into touching it, simultaneously accomplishing her quest for Maleficent, winning the school competition, and destroying Evie. She recruits Jay, who learns from Jafar that the Forbidden Fortress lies hidden in the island's forbidden zone called "Nowhere." Evie and Carlos join the quest after Carlos's machine begins beeping intermittently, seemingly acting as a homing beacon for the Dragon's Eye. The group of four is formed.

Ben's first Council meeting with the sidekick representatives dissolves into chaos, leaving him feeling unfit to rule. He follows his mother's advice and holds a successful one-on-one meeting with Grumpy, the dwarfs' representative. Having studied the entire sidekick petition, Ben proposes tailored solutions for each group, and Grumpy tells him he will make a good king.

The four bribe Dr. Facilier, Dragon Hall's headmaster, with tarot cards for access to the Athenaeum of Evil, a forbidden library at the school. They obtain a map written in invisible ink, and Carlos recreates the chemical antidote to reveal it. The map shows the Forbidden Fortress on a separate landmass called the Isle of the Doomed.

The four cross to the Isle of the Doomed by goblin boat and hack through a thorn forest guarded by poisonous spiders. The Forbidden Fortress is guarded by a gargoyle bridge spanning a chasm. The gargoyles, animated by residual magic from the dome breach, demand Carlos answer three riddles about Cruella. The most painful asks what Cruella's one true love is; Carlos must admit it is her furs, not him.

Inside the fortress, the group faces successive trials. Jay saves them from the Cave of Wonders, Jafar's legendary treasure trove, when it fills with sand and threatens to bury them. A Magic Mirror transforms them into old hags through the Peddler's Disguise spell, and Evie reverses the enchantment by reciting each ingredient from her mother's grimoire, a book of spells. They reach Maleficent's throne room, where the Dragon's Eye, a long black staff with a green globe, hangs suspended on the wall. Evie reaches for it, and Mal faces her critical choice: let Evie touch the scepter and be cursed, or save her. Mal cries "No!" and grabs it herself. Maleficent's voice booms: "WHOEVER AWAKENS THE DRAGON WILL BE CURSED TO SLEEP FOR A THOUSAND YEARS!" (281). Mal collapses, asleep.

While unconscious, Mal sees a vision of Maleficent cursing the infant Princess Aurora after being excluded from the christening. For the first time, Mal sees her mother not as fearsome but as wounded, acting out of spite and hurt. She feels compassion and wants to tell her mother it will be all right. Mal then wakes: Her true name is Maleficent and she carries the mark of the double dragon, proving she is part dragon and therefore immune to the curse. The scepter, however, has vanished.

Mal and Evie have an honest reckoning. Evie reveals she had begged her mother to invite Mal to the birthday party, but Evil Queen refused because of her rivalry with Maleficent. Mal admits her scheme was to trick Evie into touching the scepter and cannot fully explain why she chose to save her instead. The four bond over shared experiences of parental disappointment and begin the journey home.

Back at Bargain Castle, Mal discovers Maleficent already possesses the Dragon's Eye, having sent Diablo to retrieve it while Mal was unconscious. Maleficent is disgusted that Mal touched the scepter herself instead of tricking someone else. The scepter's eye is dead; Mal argues the dome blocks its magic, but Maleficent suggests Mal broke it by touching it. Maleficent declares Mal "such a disappointment," a verdict each of the other three receives from their own parents.

Despite their failure, the four come together in the streets of the Isle, causing mischief and bonding. Mal reflects that even though they are not quite friends yet, they are the closest thing any of them has to friendship, and it feels like happiness.

In an epilogue, Ben contemplates the Isle of the Lost while being fitted for his coronation suit. He realizes the villains' children are prisoners who had no choice in their fates. Thinking of the purple-haired girl from his dream, Ben has a flash of inspiration that will change the fates of both Auradon and the Isle of the Lost forever.