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A review by adeliav
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
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
YES! YES!! YES!!! YES!!!! YES!!!!!
I love this book. I love it. It's great ...so great.
So this author is new to me and I had literally no expectations of this book. I went in knowing only that the protagonist was a black female teenager and that the mythos of King Arthur was involved, that's it. When I started reading and found that the author didn't shy away from the heritage of their black characters or the other non-black characters histories I was like "oh okay what a refreshing way of writing adventure, but this is obviously a young adult fiction so I'm pretty sure I know where it's going." Wrong, I was so wrong and I couldn't be happier about it.
I love that I was able to be surprised by some of the twists and turns. I LOVE the level of diversity and inclusion that was written into the story. To the point where if you weren't looking for it you may miss it. So you know written realistically, not just shoved in there to make a point.
This story is clearly the first in a series and due to that has a lot of set up (hopefully) for things yet to come. If the author continues down this path for future books it'll be a new smash hit and I can't wait for the movie adaptation. If she doesn't well... at least this book was great and there are still plenty of things left to wrap up so at least part of the next book will be good. There are two major plot gaps that I am hoping future stories will fill in and hopefully not in expected (*cough* hunger games) ways. I like this authors writing style, not overly descriptive but able to paint a clear picture, very new age JK. She's easy to read and easy to enjoy.
I appreciate the development of the main character... however other characters could have had some more growth. That being said this is fast paced when looking at it from the worlds timeline... not a lot of people could (or would) change as quickly as this book has moved. This means there is a BIG opportunity for growth of other characters in future stories. I'll just say this here, the argument in the beginning is far too soon, but at least we got that teenage troupe out of the way from the start.
In short read this book... like right now read it.
I love this book. I love it. It's great ...so great.
So this author is new to me and I had literally no expectations of this book. I went in knowing only that the protagonist was a black female teenager and that the mythos of King Arthur was involved, that's it. When I started reading and found that the author didn't shy away from the heritage of their black characters or the other non-black characters histories I was like "oh okay what a refreshing way of writing adventure, but this is obviously a young adult fiction so I'm pretty sure I know where it's going." Wrong, I was so wrong and I couldn't be happier about it.
I love that I was able to be surprised by some of the twists and turns. I LOVE the level of diversity and inclusion that was written into the story. To the point where if you weren't looking for it you may miss it. So you know written realistically, not just shoved in there to make a point.
This story is clearly the first in a series and due to that has a lot of set up (hopefully) for things yet to come. If the author continues down this path for future books it'll be a new smash hit and I can't wait for the movie adaptation. If she doesn't well... at least this book was great and there are still plenty of things left to wrap up so at least part of the next book will be good. There are two major plot gaps that I am hoping future stories will fill in and hopefully not in expected (*cough* hunger games) ways. I like this authors writing style, not overly descriptive but able to paint a clear picture, very new age JK. She's easy to read and easy to enjoy.
I appreciate the development of the main character... however other characters could have had some more growth. That being said this is fast paced when looking at it from the worlds timeline... not a lot of people could (or would) change as quickly as this book has moved. This means there is a BIG opportunity for growth of other characters in future stories. I'll just say this here, the argument in the beginning is far too soon, but at least we got that teenage troupe out of the way from the start.
In short read this book... like right now read it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery and Racism
Moderate: Bullying, Car accident, Death of parent, Grief, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Racial slurs
Minor: Sexual assault