Reviews

This book really reminded me of Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones (character names match a state, coincidence I think not lol). I think it was written really well, and the action was fun to read and kept me on the edge of my seat.
I did enjoy this book a lot, especially as a bi-woman. I was glad to see positive representation of Queer people throughout the book, and I loved

how supportive Ten's family was

. I think the idea of a queer adventure series is really cool (will definitely be reading the sequel). I wasn't a huge fan of the cliques at the beginning of the story, but I think that was the point? Either way, there were a few troupes I didn't vibe with, but it wasn't a huge deal. There were some themes and plots I struggled to connect with a bit, but it was fun read overall.

Content Warnings

rainbowbrarian's review

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adventurous fast-paced

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

3.75

jacemchale's review

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adventurous challenging emotional 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? It's complicated

3.5

The book took a while to fully grab my attention, the pacing at the beginning felt a bit slow although the exposition was rather complex, so it made sense.
This book grapples with some major questions about family, being a queer person in this world, and how to treat historical artifacts.
My own personal qualm about this book is that the solution to the "how to treat historical artifacts" question plays out feels too hopeful for how rife a discussion topic it still is in the current world. Given that the novel is YA, some level of hopefulness makes sense, but considering the author does a good job at considering family dynamics that are complex and riddled with flaws, I would have liked the artifact solution to not be as hopeful. The resolution of this subject just gave me some trouble, especially since Tennessee asks himself this question multiple times throughout the book, knowing there isn't a perfect solution.
The themes of family and queer solidarity in this book are beautiful and complex, but I wish the subject of "not every queer person is your friend just because of their queerness" had been pushed a little farther. It is brought up a few times in the book, but not to much extent.
That said, I think this book is a good introduction to a lot of those topics if the reader is in the YA demographic. As an older queer person, the subjects could have been made more complex in a way I think could have still fit a YA audience (depending on their knowledge of queerness).

I loved the message that queer history has always existed, but it's often erased. It's a valuable message that queer people, especially young queer people aren't alone.

jacehan's review

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adventurous emotional informative mysterious 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

4.0

hu_ho's review

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4.0

This book was an absolute delight for my inner little gay Tomb Raider enthusiast. I loved the blended elements of adventure, puzzles, and rich queer history. Overall, a must-read for any Queer seeking a thrilling adventure with a thoughtful nod to LGBTQ+ history.

smdavis1495's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted 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

4.0

vixette's review

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

The Lion’s Legacy is promised to be Powerfully Queer, a Thrilling Treasure Hunt and a Love Letter to Queer History. I got this book because there are quite a few LGBTQ+ Tik-Tok creators and authors raving about how good this book is. Look at my reading history and you know I like a lot of BL books. Though in truth, I also like unconventional relationships, asexual, human/alien or human/monster, polygamy and etcetera, my only criteria is that it is not toxic romances and is a good adventure and action book, although I also like books that artistically explore and describe politics like The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang or Imager by L.E. Moddesitt Jr. Anyway, I chose this book because of its popularity and its LGBTQ+ content.

And the first chapter was really promising. It did remind me of a gay version of Tomb Raider or Indianna Jones. Chased by animated skeletons and having to use magical artefacts to escape the skeleton hoard and tomb is a real banger of an opening in such a book. The reveal that our main character’s, Tennessee Russo or Ten for short, dad has not been giving the artefacts to museums and places of better repute and instead been giving the artefacts to the highest bidders. Ten is justifiably angry and decides to leave his father and live a normal life with his mother.

I really liked this start and it set what is meant to be the tone for the whole book. Warning here though that this is not the case. The next seven, maybe eight chapters are basically the author using every opportunity to use the word Queer, Gay, even manages to squeeze in Fag and Faggot. Every other sentence seemed to have one of these words in it. Half the book felt like a never-ending cycle of these words. Now, I support the LGBTQ+ community, I have spoken up against anyone who says anything anti-trans or anti-gay many a time, plus I am asexual. However, this book felt like it was rubbing the gay in my face. You know when someone gets their teeth into something and won’t let the subject drop? This is what the first seven chapters felt like. It felt like the author Rosen wasn’t going to let his readers forget for even a second that Ten is gay, that Ten is obsessed with queer history, that Ten wants to celebrate being gay, that Ten feels like gay culture is ignored and forgotten, that Ten…

Honestly, I agree that the LGBTQ+ community is still at risk especially in less accepting countries. I also agree that the LGBTQ+ community needs more exposure, that the world needs to be told that anything other than the tradition heterosexuality is abnormal. But holy sh*t, does every sentence harp on about how gay Ten is. And he is involved in Gay celebrations in his local library where he works. That his Good boyfriend cheated on him so he went to the Bad gays to make the good boyfriend feel jealous. He goes to Greece and he is immediately looking for a gay museum. Rosen, I know Ten is gay, that is why I brought the book, you don’t need to use gay words as key words every sentence. Honestly, the next seven chapters after the first feel like you have a quota of how many times you can write gay words and so you’ve filled every other sentence with those gay words. Dude, relax, people want to see a good gay romantic relationship with a great adventure to go along with it. They don’t want to read an essay where you’ve challenged yourself to write gay words a few thousand times.

But disregarding the essay of gay key words, the story is a basic teen drama. Ten has his life planned. He has a perfect home life, though he misses the drama and adventure of tomb exploring with his father, a ‘great’ boyfriend and ‘great’ friends. Only it turns out those ‘friends’ knew ‘good’ boyfriend was cheating on Ten and those ‘friends’ wanted Ten to get over it. Ten is obviously and righteously distraught at the betrayal and lack of regard by his friends. He goes home to find Dad home, having picked the lock and let himself in, and Dad wants Ten to rejoin the adventure. *Spoiler* here, Dad wants Ten back because viewers of his show liked the father-son dynamic and Ten and in Ten’s absence, his viewer ratings have gone down. Ten and Mum agree to go on the adventure (obviously, otherwise the book would be rather short!).

However, I have some criticism’s about Mum. Now, I am no expert, nor can I say what I would do or what others would do in this scenario. But it makes me furious that this woman seems so…uncaring. The man is more concerned about tombs and viewer ratings than her and her son, the man had affairs and at one point left their son alone in a hotel when he and the son had a falling out over dear old Daddy’s greed. Yet, she forgives Ten’s Dad and harps on to Ten about how selfish dad is but how there is a loving heart beneath all that greed. I don’t know about you, but that sort of man would not be in my life for long, and depending on Ten’s age when he was abandoned, I’d have him done for child abandonment and force him to cut contact or having supervised visits with Ten. And yet she just forgives him, only we, the readers, find out that he is not back to make amends to his son, but rather he wants Ten back because his viewer ratings have dropped. Where is this heart of gold, lady?

Anyway, we reach Greece where Mum and Ten look for a gay museum. Surprise, there isn’t one because Greece at this time (I can’t say what it is like now) is non-progressive. Here they meet love interest Leo who surprise, is also gay, and has been called the Greek version of a Fag and etcetera because of his sexual identity. Dad has lost his translator, so when he sees Leo and Ten leave Ten’s hotel room (after a night of sex that Rosen does not put in the book) he teases Ten then hires Leo as their translator. And now Ten’s love interest is now tied to the plot of the book and has a reason to be present or constantly show up.

We eventually get introduced to the bad guys, a group known as the Bulwark, like in Tomb Raider and Indianna Jones the Bulwark are an evil organisation with guns who want to take all the magical artefacts for themselves, though we do not yet know for what purpose. And Ten’s dad has had a few close encounters with this organisation. And by close, I mean he barely avoided being shot by an inch or two. Because heroes and lead characters are immune to deadly bullet wounds (Hahaha!).

I’m not entirely sure it is healthy for Ten to tell Leo that the man means a lot to him when they’ve really only just met and are having casual sex. Seems too much too soon, but that is just my opinion.

Anyway, despite Ten’s Dad often selling to the highest bidder, most of the magical artefacts, if not all, are under guard and lock and key so as to prevent the exposure of magic and etcetera to the public. And most are on display to the public under lock and key. Whereas Bulwark would most definitely destroy magical artefacts to take their power and make their organisation stronger or monetise it and sell it to the highest bidder. Put simply, despite being greedy Ten’s Dad is the good-guy, Bulwark are the bad guys. Oh, and apparently the highest bidders would give the artefacts the respect they deserve so dear old Dad selling the artefacts to the highest bidders is actually a good thing.

We finally get to see Ten,Leo and Dad explore a tomb, their first since chapter one. And of course, Leo plays an integral role here as he and Ten are gay and the only way to progress through this temple is through working together as the two gay characters to get past some of the puzzles. Dad, of course, helps along the way with some more complicated puzzles but the thing to note here (and is often mentioned in the book) is that only the gay can find the magical artefact that this whole story is about. And yet, the tomb raiding lasts maybe one chapter, which is abysmally short compared to the previous seven chapters where we had to learn that Ten was gay, was involved in gay things and was interested in all things gay.

The magical artefact that this book goes on about is also a little disappointing to me. Basically, the wearer of this artefact is allowed to feel connected to all the queers, and to also have knowledge about military planning and etcetera until they take the artefact off. (I am trying very hard not to tell you what the artefact is, it is wearable but that is all you are getting from me! Hahaha!)

Leo betrays Ten and Dad but repents at the end and Ten forgives Leo because the artefact can allow him to see and feel how sorry Leo is. Jean too, a bi archeologistic we met in earlier chapters and who is reluctantly working for Bulwark, betrays Bulwark and works together with Leo and Ten to save Ten’s Dad who was injured in the tomb and subsequently captured when Bulwark caught up to them.

Ten is somehow able to defeat fully armed soldiers wearing the artefact but hands the artefact over to the bad guys when his father’s life is on the line. Only the artefact doesn’t like anti-queer people wearing it and can sense when people want to hurt the queer community, so the artefact slaughters the wearer. Though it is not really detailed how. Leo says ‘They killed him,’ implying that the bands original owners, a band of gay Greek warriors who were the enemy of Sparta, are somehow present within the artefact and can act through it.

Ten donates the artefacts to Leo’s queer museum but because Leo can’t afford to insure the item, they rent it to an established museum so that both its queer history and historical significance to Athens/Greece is celebrated. There is a big and great speech about the significance of queer history, how those who aren’t heterosexual struggle a lot to recognise who they are. I also liked the sentence, ‘…we as queer people aren’t born into one queer family but instead have to find it and assemble it ourselves…’ (Page 276).

But in all honesty, this felt a little too overhyped. A great gay story? No. It felt too forced and that the word gay, queer and other more derogatory names like fag and faggot were too overused. I wanted to have a hero who was gay and went on fantastic adventures but in all honesty it just seemed to be a rant/commentary on the negative aspect of LGBTQ+. Do I agree that LGBTQ+ is often overlooked to fit the traditional narrative of a heterosexual norm? Absolutely. I know the Western world is getting more accepting (despite groups who protest this tolerance and do abysmal and terrible acts against coloured and LGBTQ+ communities), but I know we also have a long way to go. Still, this book seemed like a ‘woe-me’ narrative, like Ten was so focused on being gay and having his gay identity broadcasted to the world that it felt too forced, too like a rant than an adventure into gay history and adventures.

I did enjoy the first and last six or seven chapters, but chapter two to seven spoiled it for me. It dragged and that is not how I want to feel for this book. I wanted to enjoy it, to rave about how fantastic the characters are, but I just didn’t feel a connection. By the end of chapter seven I was just tired of reading queer, gay, fag, faggot and etcetera every couple of sentences (at least it felt like that). By the time the action happened I was frustrated and a little bored because this book hadn’t met the hype. Still, the last six or seven chapters were good. But the artefacts just felt unexplained. How do the artefacts work? How do they connect queer minds together? Are the warriors (the one’s who made and were the first owner of the artefacts) somehow tied to the artefacts? If so are they trapped within the artefact or is it just some sort of essence of themselves left behind to defend the artefacts from anti-gay groups? Why were the artefacts so significant? What role do they play outside of being gay artefacts? What makes them so special besides being gay artefacts and magical?

As you can see, it was not my most favourite of reads as it lacked a lot of what I wanted. It didn’t have a toxic relationship per se, but they weren’t healthy relationships either. Dad for example, didn’t want kids and it turns out he didn’t speak to his son for two years because he was having a tantrum and felt that Ten didn’t want him because Ten yelled at him. And Leo, who Ten has only just met is somehow a major love interest? Although their relationship is casual and ends casually at the end of the book (although it is implied they reunite) the depth of feeling implied just seems to quick and too passionate for such an early casual encounter. So, to me the romance and relationships weren’t great. The history also seemed lacking, although a great deal of research has been done by the author and then told to the reader by Ten, it just felt lacking. And as you saw in my previous paragraph, I don’t think the story of the artefacts was resolved satisfyingly enough. Perhaps the author provided snippets of those answers throughout the book, but the end lacked a satisfying conclusion in my opinion. In the end, instead of an adventure book with a gay hero, we got a book explaining how gay the main character was and how he wanted the world to recognise gay people and their culture. I am not disputing the theme, but I wanted more adventure, more history and more action. This just didn’t tick the right boxes for me.

I am sure there will be those who enjoy this book, but this book was lacking. I’ll give it three stars as I liked the last seven chapters, but the first half and the lack of a satisfying conclusion spoiled this book for me. I won’t recommend it to others because I genuinely don’t feel it is the best book with an LGBTQ+ protagonist out there

pageheart's review

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adventurous mysterious

5.0

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