Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

135 reviews

catherinedsharp's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring fast-paced

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

4.5

Absolutely fantastic read! A generational fantasy that as a white person, forced me to think as well as feel and enjoy the escapism. 

A really interesting mix of legend and reality, with beautiful writing.

It can get heavy at times but it’s worth the read.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Slavery, Blood, Car accident, Colonisation, Death of parent, and Racism

qgg's review against another edition

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

4.25

I really liked this book. Bree is a fantastic lead character. The 16-year-old-in-college-with-wisdom-beyond-her-years-because-her-mother-died took me a bit of time, but then I got into the book and let that go. The beginning of the story is eerily similar to Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones. However, Bree still has her supportive dad, she has a therapist trying to connect her to her mom’s people and she has a whole depth to her grief that grounds her as a character. She’s not a complete Mary Sue character for much of the book. She does have an odd set of skills that make it dangerous to be her. The mystery keeps the plot moving. The romance triangle is not my thing so I can’t give this book 5 stars. I’m also not clear on how old Nick and Sel are? It might be gross. I only guessed 1/3 of the twists in the end of the book. Do not click on spoilers if you haven’t read the book!!!

I guessed that Bree would be officially legendborn through rape. I did not guess that she would be of Arthur’s line. I also did not guess that it was Nick’s dad who was opening the demon gates.

I love a book when I can’t see all of the twists coming from a mile away!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Murder, Racism, Violence, Death, Gore, Grief, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, and Rape

Moderate: Colonisation and Infidelity

navibo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Omg I literally binged this book! It was kinda slow and hard to understand ( for me) the first 130 pages, but the rest was so gripping. I still probably don’t understand everything about the world building, but that’s cause I had no clue what happened in the Arthurian legend 🥲 Anyway, it doesn’t really matter if you don’t either, cause the plot and the relationships are amazing, the grieving process is realistic and well-written. The diversity of legendborn is pretty good as well, with both race, disabilities and lgbtq+🫶🏻
 P. S. The banter between some characters got me giggling for real👀

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Grief, and Racism

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Colonisation, Misogyny, and Kidnapping

Minor: Sexism, Police brutality, Blood, Car accident, and Torture

dailbrae's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Racism, Sexism, Blood, Car accident, Colonisation, Misogyny, Rape, and Slavery

Minor: Alcohol

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.75

I think this would've been a 4 star read for me if I had read with my eyes instead of my ears. I started listening to the audiobook in early summer and got about half way through before my Libby loan returned. I enjoyed it, but wasn't totally convinced on the hype this book often gets. Once I was finally able to borrow it again in Libby, I finished the second half in like 2 days and really loved how it wrapped up. These are wonderfully written characters and I'm excited to see how their story continues. Deonn has created an extremely poignant story of southern dark academia that has a lot of important things to say about race and gender in a way that's palatable without doing hard topics any disservice. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, and Racism

Moderate: Death, Child death, Classism, Car accident, Sexism, Transphobia, and Slavery

Minor: Colonisation, Abandonment, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

ghostlyprince's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Rape, Vomit, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Car accident, Kidnapping, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Alcohol, Stalking, Body shaming, Classism, and Confinement

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. 

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Colonisation and Car accident

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

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

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. 

---

Content Warnings

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

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

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Racial slurs and Car accident

inthearchive's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

As a young African American woman in America it is refreshing an amusing to read from the point of view of someone who faces the same challenges, internal dialogue, and worries as I do with out her race becoming the only thing about her. Intersectionality plays a significant role but it’s not all you are.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Death, Slavery, Violence, Death of parent, Blood, Car accident, Murder, and Racism