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katherinek's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Death, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape and Alcohol
thewildmageslibrary's review against another edition
4.5
4.5 stars rounded up! This book sure took me on a ride.
==============================
idk how to rate this yet!!
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Racism, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and War
Moderate: Drug use, Self harm, Slavery, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Murder, and Gaslighting
Minor: Rape, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
immovabletype's review against another edition
- 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
Note: How this book is classified as medium paced is beyond me. It is the definition of fast paced if I've ever seen one. These poor kids barely get to rest.
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Racism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Gaslighting
Minor: Rape, Abandonment, and War
midnacine's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
I started my book club in February this year, and Legendborn had been the first book we read together. It feels poetic that I'm closing out the year with its sequel.
I'd been waiting with baited breath for this book to be published, and lemme tell you: it did not disappoint. It was everything I wanted it to be, and then some more. I loved seeing Bree fight for who she is and who she wants to be, loved seeing the true colors of some characters because of it. I especially loved the hardcore flirting - absolutely no smut in this book whatsoever, but I was still blushing.
Overall, I am incredibly in love with this story and these characters. I can already tell this will be a series passed on for generations. And though I know masterpieces need time, I really need Tracy Deonn to come out with the third book like... now.
Graphic: Confinement, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, and War
Moderate: Death, Infidelity, Slavery, Blood, Medical content, Stalking, Car accident, and Murder
Minor: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent
lucy_shanners's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, and War
Moderate: Blood and Murder
micaelamariem's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
maregred's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Death, Racism, Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Slavery, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, and Grief
Minor: Bullying, Cursing, Car accident, Toxic friendship, and Classism
sunrae_booknook's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Gore, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Blood, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
tabbyclancy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Spoiler
Deonn owns my soul with the Legendborn Cycle Series. These are the books I needed and wanted when I was a teenager, and I am thoroughly enjoying them now as an adult. This is a series that doesn't shy away from things, preferring to stare straight down the barrel at them.The first book pulled us into Bree's world of grief and determination, and this second book shows us Bree's transition from child to woman. It's a journey that's really subtle while you're reading it, once you sit back and go over the parts you loved most, it becomes increasingly mores apparent. Now, this isn't some romanticized notion of adulthood. This is making mistakes, having your agency taken from you, the validity of your statements questioned - all things we start to experience as teens and sometimes continue to have to battle well into adulthood.
This narrative challenges the status quo from the outset of the second book. Bree is King Arthur's heir, Scion, and wheeeeew-eee, no one is that accepting of it outside of the people most loyal to Bree. Words like mistake are thrown around, it's blatantly implied that Bree is an inconvenience to the Regent Council because she's black. She's set to turn their world on it's head. If only they figured out she'd do it even if they didn't allow her too.
It's a story that has threads within it that resonate with me to a degree I wasn't ready for but embrace eagerly. Trapped between two worlds, do you appease to 'dominant' culture/status quo or do you kick the culture and quo to the curb. Finding yourself within and beyond the expectations of those around you is a coming of age that we all face. But the nuanced way of telling readers that the rules aren't always here to help, leaves me breathless. Death and grief are never shadowed, or glossed over here, in fact Deonn makes it a point to address grief in world and in her author notes which are just fantastic.
Everyone knows Arthur as a righteous and good king, except, well, look at history. War and the Warrior kings are bloody, and this tale shows us the man so defined by grief that he wasn't anything but a soldier in the end. One bent on 'fixing' things so it wouldn't happen again. The most pure of intentions that leads people straight down into the bowels of hell.
Bree is dear to my heart, not just because she faces struggles that echo mine within a far more dire context, but she gives voice to things people just don't like to think about. Over, and over again. Not once is she truly taken by any one doctrine. She works within the knowledge given and then continues to shift perspective the more information she has. Which is such a real-world thing that people do and represented so beautifully in this book. Her frustration, her fear, her need to be in control when everything is rapidly spinning out of it. Her loyalty is breathtaking when you look at it after a first read. She's told that dragons defend what's theirs and burn the rest and runs with it and I am cheering for her in the background.
I eagerly look forward to the next installment.
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Racism and Violence
Minor: Car accident
quirkykayleetam's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
As the heir of two magical bloodlines, the descendants of King Arthur and the daughters of Vera, black women who have sacrificed themselves since slavery so their daughters could stand when they had to run, Bree Mathews may be the most powerful human on the planet. Now she has to deal with the expectations that power comes with. How does she supposed to rule as King over a racist institution with manipulative adults working their own schemes that she never fit into? How does she rescue her boyfriend from demons and white supremacists who think he is the heir to the throne? How does she control her power as her different strains of magic interact with each other in unprecedented ways? How does she chose her own destiny?
Bloodmarked has many of the same flaws as Legendborn: Just when you get a handle on the magic system, the novel throws you for a loop, changing the rules at play for Bree again. Playing to YA tropes, the book focuses too much on the tension within the "Love Triangle," when the characters interact beautifully when all three all together. Additionally, Bloodmarked sidelines many beloved characters from the first book. While the sequel introduces incredibly new characters in their place, a part of me wanted more of the minor Legendborn Scions we fell in love with in book one.
However, Bloodmarked also has all the strengths of the first book. I am whiter than a country club golf ball and I connect to the way Deonn illustrates the lived experience of black women living in the South today. One scene shows how white women will stand up to the patriarchy about rape, but will bury the issue of race when a white man rapes a black woman. The entire concept of Volition beautifully, beautifully shows why African Americans need safe spaces.
This book is imperfect, but important. I cannot stop thinking about it and I do not think I ever will.
Graphic: Racism, Forced institutionalization, and Grief
Moderate: Rape, Slavery, Violence, Car accident, and Death of parent