Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

27 reviews

lri_reads's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, War, Racism, Death, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Slavery and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Kidnapping

knockoffrainbow's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Classism, Cursing, Bullying, Blood, Mental illness, Sexism, Slavery, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Violence, War, Racial slurs, Child death, Misogyny, Racism, and Body horror

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Physical abuse, Rape, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, Slavery, Torture, Alcohol, and Transphobia

Minor: Infidelity

chrisb913's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

The story and plot start out slow, we start off meeting the MC Briana a few months after the death of her mother. She has moved to a college campus to take part in an early college program with her best friend Alice. Immediately you are thrown into a plot of magic, demons, and secret societies. I found the initial descriptions of the hierarchy of the Order of the Round Table to be a bit confusing, but as you progress in the story it becomes significantly easier to follow along. One thing I really wish the author had done, was put a pronunciation guide in the back of the book, as there are several names and phrases that are repeated. She initially puts a phonetic description of how to say it in the story, but it would have been nice to have a reference page. 

At the end of the day, while the beginning was slightly clunky for me, the ending more than made up for any grievance I had with the book. This story is such an interesting and unique take on the Arthruian lore and the characters are so incredibly realistic. I cannot wait to continue reading in this world and this will be one of my go to recommendations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Murder, Slavery, Bullying, and Child death

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Homophobia, and Transphobia

madelinegl's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Violence, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Sexism, and Slavery

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Rape

Minor: Alcohol

awaywardannika's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Slavery, Racism, Child death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Car accident, Colonisation, Classism, and Blood

savage_97's review

adventurous challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Racial slurs, Violence, Racism, Child death, and Death

decembermagpie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Classism, Gore, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Racism, Sexism, War, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement and Vomit

Minor: Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Slavery, Child death, Rape, and Vomit

ehmannky's review

adventurous emotional 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

A really good, fast-paced, and innovative spin on the Arthurian legends and a really beautiful look at the way that grief--both generational and personal molds can really do a number on people, especially young people of color. The strongest bits for me were the character building, when magic was actually being done, and the deep-dive into grief. I felt the Trials(TM) parts were the weakest links in this book, but hopefully they won't appear in book 2. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Child death, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Violence and Blood

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, and Vomit

gabriella_'s review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Read this entire book on a flight to England and holy shit. The way this book captures grief, trauma, and how it can intersect with misogynoir was gripping.

Tracy Deonn is excellent at character writing and establishing interpersonal dynamics (and conflicts). She also creates a unique atmosphere with obvious (and not so obvious) foes. She empowers her protagonist and makes her multifaceted. She breathes life into Bree and, as a reader, makes her feel so real. And this doesn’t get into how she writes an ensemble cast either - good GOD I would be remiss if I didn’t get into that. 

Every character contributes something to the plot and it’s amazing that this author finds a way to do that without rendering them to be one-note or just a plot device. She has a plan for every character - and pieces of dialogue have a way of retaining relevance chapters later in a refreshing way.

I wish I had a book like this when I was a kid. 2,000/10 recommend reading this book if you are interested in fantasy and coming of age books. It’s the gift that keeps on giving! Tracy Deonn, thank you for writing this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Blood, Body horror, Death, Car accident, Child death, Violence, Kidnapping, Racism, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Classism, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, and War

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. 

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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