Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

409 reviews

shania_siobhan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Mental illness, Racism, Medical content, Grief, and Car accident

chalkletters's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I knew from Kate's description that Legendborn was dark academia meets Arthuriana with a fantastic twist. None of those things necessarily appeals to me particularly, but I did appreciate the moment I put the book down about a third in to ask myself whether that was 'the twist' or if there was another one coming. (I won't spoil anyone’s own appreciation by answering that question here.) 

Tracey Deonn, first and foremost, does that thing great young adult books do (and some other books, as well): all Bree's emotions are incredibly real and raw. The grief over losing her mother, the giddy attraction to Nick, the anger and disgust in response to racism all jump out from the pages. In turn, this makes the relationships very compelling — whether it's the romance or Bree’s friendship with Alice or the steadfast support of her father. Legendborn really fired on all emotional cylinders.

As discussed, the plot is also impactful with at least one jaw-dropping twist. Bree's storyline is tight and easy to keep track of. Her antagonism with Sel, and the way that changes over the course of the novel, really adds depth to the action. However, the number of scions and squires and descendants of the knights of the round table get a little hard to track. Reliably remembering whether a specific page is on Bree's side or against proved challenging, let alone accurately tracking who makes up each of the bonded pairs. It always becomes obvious who’s who fairly quickly, but apart from Greer few of the characters on this level stand out as particularly distinct, which did make the death scenes less emotionally-affecting than they could have been.

While it’s not a perfect book, I really enjoyed Legendborn and will definitely be adding the sequel to my TBR.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity, Misogyny, Slavery, and Car accident

onefineelephant's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

9/10. I really enjoyed this book. It gave me chills, made me very emotional, and made me really care about the characters. I was taken on such a journey throughout this story. There were so many parts of the story that surprised me and added to the complexity of the plot. Each turn deepened the connections between the characters and the past. The Arthurian legend and the magic feel unique and compelling to me. I'm not really into love triangles, but this one feels very organic. I found this book from booktok and I knew it had racial tensions/racism as part of the plot, but since I like to go into books mostly blind, I was not expecting the story to address generational trauma and touch on the traumas of enslaved women. This is not a negative to me, but just not what I was expecting going into it. I figured the racial tensions would be more microaggressions and modern racist topics (which were also explored). I think this book will be even more interesting after already reading it for the first time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident and Colonisation

Minor: Rape, Slavery, Transphobia, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

This book deals with modern racism such as microaggressions and also generational trauma.

loumurrey's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Car accident

dododenise's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I liked it but there were a few things that made me stumble. 

The plot development seemed a bit chaotic and messy. The way the mystery unfolded felt unsatisfying, which is why I was never fully hooked. Additionally, there were quite a few long and dry info dumps that where exhausting to get through. That could have been done a lot more elegantly. 

There are a few very interesting characters, like Sel and William, but also a lot of characters that were severely abandoned. The cast of characters is big and it didn’t give them enough time. Most of them were just there, I didn’t care and forgot who they were. 

The relationship dynamics were very interesting though. Very quickly I wanted to go read fanfiction and that’s always a good sign. The love triangle situation better be resolved with polyamory! It would be perfect.

This series certainly has a lot of potential. It has great ideas and world building. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Misogyny, Rape, Slavery, Transphobia, Kidnapping, Car accident, Murder, and Colonisation

Minor: Pregnancy

ali_k0's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, Violence, Death of parent, and Colonisation

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Racial slurs and Car accident

lqne's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Death, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

Minor: Bullying

lillygabriella's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Oh boy, I am glad I waited so long to read this. Since I got to the end to find a cliffhanger waiting for a sequel which I hope is out now.

This was a very interesting spin on Arthurian legends, and a scathing critique of the power wielded by secret society members.  It is also and at it's core, a story of grief and coming to terms with that grief. 

I don't like to drop spoilers in my reviews, so I will just close by saying that this is a really great book and I highly recommend it. The quarter star off from 5 is for dropping all that Welsh through the book and then not having a pronunciation guide at the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Kidnapping

dionnesims's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The ending almost moved me to tears. I loved it. Can a book be a hug and also a thrill ride at the same time?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Murder

katieandkiri's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I will be honest that I struggled through the world building portion of this book, BUT wow does the third act suck you in. I couldn’t put it down after that. I will be recommending this to everyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Slavery, Grief, and Car accident

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Murder