Reviews - Legendborn | The StoryGraph

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30.4k reviews for:

Legendborn

Tracy Deonn

4.42 AVERAGE

goldie_reads's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

janaila's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

The world building is next level! It took me a bit longer to read because I would stop and try and connect the Arthurian lore, as someone who isn’t familiar. The characters were lovable, relatable, and made me want more of the world. Having blackness mixed with fantasy is just meant to be. I love reading work that honors black history, culture, and struggles while also offering newness that is deserved. Teen me would’ve love to read this and envision myself in the story.

stovec's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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: Yes

I wanted so badly to like this. It has all the things I usually like in a fantasy, but I couldn't wait to be done with this. Overall, I liked the plot, the portrayal of grief, and how Bree grows as the story progresses, but this felt like a chore to read. Maybe because urban/contemporary stories aren't my favorite, maybe because of the info-dumping, maybe because I had such high expectations from the hype.

From about pg 50-150 is a constant info-dump. The exposition is primarily Q&A style with long paragraphs explaining the world and magic system in disconnected chunks, along with TONS of characters, titles, and relationships to remember. I thought perhaps you would learn along with the MC, like a typical fantasy, or that the MC would be just as confused as me, making it intentional. Instead, Bree seemed to understand immediately, while as a reader, it was extremely confusing and didn't make sense until about 150 pages with continuous note-taking and rereading on my end. I'm sure Tracy Deonn understands her world thoroughly, but it wasn't explained well to the reader.

I also kept finding a lot of minor inconsistencies throughout that took me out of the story, e.g., someone would be described as standing, then they stand up again two sentences later, then they're "still sitting" two more sentences later. Things that would be caught with a good editor.