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A review by wokeupbricked
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
2.0
⭐ 2.5 STARS ⭐
All I see is missed opportunities.
One can tell how thoughtful and properly layered the fantasy is. I really thought I was going to love this book, but unfortunately it was a disappointment. Looking at the solid 4.4stars goodreads rating, I was expecting a 5 star read, but to no avail.
Alerts have been tagged before the spoiler, so feel free to read the review.
THE PLOT
Although the premise intrigued me, I still felt it wasn't a strong enough storyline for a 630 page book with a font small enough to give me a headache.
Almost the entire book was sluggish. I get why some chapters and scenes are necessary to the plot and character's development but some parts seem irrelevant, looking merely like a filler. If the author could make it precise and concise, that would have been so cute.
There were some plot twists in this book which were already foreshadowed, and unfortunately they didn't have much of an impact on me as I wasn't invested enough in anything that was happening. The main reason was because some of these plot twists were already a possibility in my mind since the middle of the book. I mean cmon, -SPOILER-Lord Davis and his Kingsmage Issac being a traitor, and Sel's mother being an innocent victim-SPOILER- wasn't at all surprising.
FANTASY/WORLD BUILDING
The entire world building of this book comprised of info-dumping. There were so many magic worlds: Bloodcrafters, Rootcrafters, Mediumcrafters, Wildcrafters, etc. I was bamboozled, confused and tired from all the infos being thrown at us from everywhere with so little foundation to explain the world. There were several occasions where I had to put the book down to process the information. It led me to open legendborn fandom wikipedia and go through all the terminologies at once. And thankgod I did that, it made the book much easier for me. While I always despise info-dumping, I can tolerate it in small doses. This book has pages upon pages of information that is dumped on us. At one point in the book, 10 pages of the world and how it functions is explained.
Usually in fantasy books where the main character is new to the world, we understand the world along with the main character. But in this case, Bree seemed to understand everything about the world instantly, while I was completely confused.
The magic system and world-building are well thought out and complex, but the way they are conveyed to the reader left me lost and underwhelmed. Bree seems to learn a lot about the order that we don't, and essential information is dropped at convenient times with little explanation.
There were several instances where the characters over-reacted at some supposedly crazy reveal but all the time I was like 'isn't this supposed to be obvious?'
And there were several times where the characters over-reacted in a way I didn't get? Like why are you reacting like this? What's the reason your eyes are widening at this info? Why are you running away and hiding? Why are you crying at this?
There were several instances where Bree automatically assumed things on her own with no explaination. And we were left wandering what made her come down to this conclusion.
CHARACTERS/CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
Bree was a mediocre mc for me. There's nothing wrong with her, but also there's nothing that appealed to me much. There also needs to be more development on the character front. Bree was so one track minded and we didn't get many scenes with her genuinely connecting with the people around her. Sometimes Bree was super stubborn angsty teenager and made some *questionable* decisions which lead to some funny one liners at times, but ultimately I just found her quite empty which made it hard to read from her perspective.
Although I appreciate the author's attempt to deeply analyse bree's grief but for me it mainly consisted of broad terms like therepy, persistent complex bereavement disorder (pcbd), acute traumatic grief, ptsd, etc. This reminded me of how "American" this book is. I mean, rather than deeply feeling through her grief, I often found myself engaging in such terminologies which made no sense to me.
I appreciate the diversity and the whole everyday racism against the black folks being brought into the light by the author. And I seriously stand for my black people, but again, as I'm neither American nor black, nor am I very thorough with their past and the feelings that flows through them, I couldn't totally find myself connected to this part of the book.
Again, the above two points are a ME problem, not the author's. But her efforts are nevertheless appreciated.
The friendship with Alice was completely left by the wayside.
As a character-driven reader, I wished there had been fewer named characters and that we'd had more of a chance to get to know and care for them. From the few who were well-developed, I can tell the author has a knack for building loveable and intriguing characters. I just wish we'd had more of them and fewer extras.
This could have been such an easy found family trope but unfortunately the author didn't take it there. Missed opportunity.
-SPOILER BELOW-
Fitz died at the end and Evan turned out to be a disguised demon all this time. Do I care? No. Cuz the author didn't bother me enough to give two flying fucks about any of the side characters.
-SPOILER ENDS-
Nick and Sel were very generic, cliché male characters. In the start I liked Nick more, and towards the end I liked Sel more. This is bcz when Deonn was developing Nick she left our Sel completely, and when she was developing Sel she sidetracked Nick completely.
ROMANCE
Both instalove and a love triangle, the two laziest ways to insert a romance. Very poorly developed, with little to no chemistry.
"Even before I felt the prickle of his gaze on my back, I knew Sel would be the only one to come to me. Aside from Alice, he's the only one who looks at me like I'm still just Bree."
Girl wasn't he planning your death trap just a few chapters ago?? And now he's your soulmate?
ACTION SCENES
How can the fantasy be so strong yet the characters in it be so weak. Honestly though, we just went up to 3rd level threat monsters like hellfoxes and uchels and the book's strongest warriors, the King and his Kingsmage were failing terribly. Everything was in shambles. I wonder how they'll survive the callaman when they haven't even faced the worst shadowborns and yet they were pathetically getting ravished.
We saw very little fight scenes. Most of which didn't usually involve our main character fighting (understandable). The only epic legendary battle was within the last 10 pages where we had the great reveal, which brings me to my next point.
POSSIBLE PLOT HOLES??
The question mark persists as I'm not sure whether these are actually the plot holes or I'm just projecting my lack of understanding of this book??
-SPOILER BELOW-
Let's talk about the biggest plot twist:-
Bree being the Scion of Arthur and the actual King. I didn't see this coming, but with all the chosen-one tropeyy going around in the plot I wasn't surprised either. Also Nick being the Scion of Lancelot made sense but no sense at the same time. Like, I get it that the generation of Lancelots were brought up disguised as Davis, the gen of Arthur. And this remained a secret as no-one after the 8th ranked Scion was awakened in past many generations. But then who were the Scions who actually called themselves Lancelots?? In the book, the "supposedly false" Scion of Lancelot was away in the north. What happened to him?? And who is he and all of his ancestors if Nick and his ancestors is the actual Scion of Lancelots?
-SPOILER ENDS-
There are still quite a few loose threads in my mind which are yet to be connected properly. But I blame it all to the author's poor world buliding and the severe lack of explaination of the complex hierarchy.
The writing was commendable. The fantasy was way too complex, heavy and exhausting as it's all cramed up in one book. I think it isn't surprising that it took me 3 separate instances of picking this book up to get through it.
All I see is missed opportunities.
One can tell how thoughtful and properly layered the fantasy is. I really thought I was going to love this book, but unfortunately it was a disappointment. Looking at the solid 4.4stars goodreads rating, I was expecting a 5 star read, but to no avail.
Alerts have been tagged before the spoiler, so feel free to read the review.
THE PLOT
Although the premise intrigued me, I still felt it wasn't a strong enough storyline for a 630 page book with a font small enough to give me a headache.
Almost the entire book was sluggish. I get why some chapters and scenes are necessary to the plot and character's development but some parts seem irrelevant, looking merely like a filler. If the author could make it precise and concise, that would have been so cute.
There were some plot twists in this book which were already foreshadowed, and unfortunately they didn't have much of an impact on me as I wasn't invested enough in anything that was happening. The main reason was because some of these plot twists were already a possibility in my mind since the middle of the book. I mean cmon, -SPOILER-Lord Davis and his Kingsmage Issac being a traitor, and Sel's mother being an innocent victim-SPOILER- wasn't at all surprising.
FANTASY/WORLD BUILDING
The entire world building of this book comprised of info-dumping. There were so many magic worlds: Bloodcrafters, Rootcrafters, Mediumcrafters, Wildcrafters, etc. I was bamboozled, confused and tired from all the infos being thrown at us from everywhere with so little foundation to explain the world. There were several occasions where I had to put the book down to process the information. It led me to open legendborn fandom wikipedia and go through all the terminologies at once. And thankgod I did that, it made the book much easier for me. While I always despise info-dumping, I can tolerate it in small doses. This book has pages upon pages of information that is dumped on us. At one point in the book, 10 pages of the world and how it functions is explained.
Usually in fantasy books where the main character is new to the world, we understand the world along with the main character. But in this case, Bree seemed to understand everything about the world instantly, while I was completely confused.
The magic system and world-building are well thought out and complex, but the way they are conveyed to the reader left me lost and underwhelmed. Bree seems to learn a lot about the order that we don't, and essential information is dropped at convenient times with little explanation.
There were several instances where the characters over-reacted at some supposedly crazy reveal but all the time I was like 'isn't this supposed to be obvious?'
And there were several times where the characters over-reacted in a way I didn't get? Like why are you reacting like this? What's the reason your eyes are widening at this info? Why are you running away and hiding? Why are you crying at this?
There were several instances where Bree automatically assumed things on her own with no explaination. And we were left wandering what made her come down to this conclusion.
CHARACTERS/CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
Bree was a mediocre mc for me. There's nothing wrong with her, but also there's nothing that appealed to me much. There also needs to be more development on the character front. Bree was so one track minded and we didn't get many scenes with her genuinely connecting with the people around her. Sometimes Bree was super stubborn angsty teenager and made some *questionable* decisions which lead to some funny one liners at times, but ultimately I just found her quite empty which made it hard to read from her perspective.
Although I appreciate the author's attempt to deeply analyse bree's grief but for me it mainly consisted of broad terms like therepy, persistent complex bereavement disorder (pcbd), acute traumatic grief, ptsd, etc. This reminded me of how "American" this book is. I mean, rather than deeply feeling through her grief, I often found myself engaging in such terminologies which made no sense to me.
I appreciate the diversity and the whole everyday racism against the black folks being brought into the light by the author. And I seriously stand for my black people, but again, as I'm neither American nor black, nor am I very thorough with their past and the feelings that flows through them, I couldn't totally find myself connected to this part of the book.
Again, the above two points are a ME problem, not the author's. But her efforts are nevertheless appreciated.
The friendship with Alice was completely left by the wayside.
As a character-driven reader, I wished there had been fewer named characters and that we'd had more of a chance to get to know and care for them. From the few who were well-developed, I can tell the author has a knack for building loveable and intriguing characters. I just wish we'd had more of them and fewer extras.
This could have been such an easy found family trope but unfortunately the author didn't take it there. Missed opportunity.
-SPOILER BELOW-
Fitz died at the end and Evan turned out to be a disguised demon all this time. Do I care? No. Cuz the author didn't bother me enough to give two flying fucks about any of the side characters.
-SPOILER ENDS-
Nick and Sel were very generic, cliché male characters. In the start I liked Nick more, and towards the end I liked Sel more. This is bcz when Deonn was developing Nick she left our Sel completely, and when she was developing Sel she sidetracked Nick completely.
ROMANCE
Both instalove and a love triangle, the two laziest ways to insert a romance. Very poorly developed, with little to no chemistry.
"Even before I felt the prickle of his gaze on my back, I knew Sel would be the only one to come to me. Aside from Alice, he's the only one who looks at me like I'm still just Bree."
Girl wasn't he planning your death trap just a few chapters ago?? And now he's your soulmate?
ACTION SCENES
How can the fantasy be so strong yet the characters in it be so weak. Honestly though, we just went up to 3rd level threat monsters like hellfoxes and uchels and the book's strongest warriors, the King and his Kingsmage were failing terribly. Everything was in shambles. I wonder how they'll survive the callaman when they haven't even faced the worst shadowborns and yet they were pathetically getting ravished.
We saw very little fight scenes. Most of which didn't usually involve our main character fighting (understandable). The only epic legendary battle was within the last 10 pages where we had the great reveal, which brings me to my next point.
POSSIBLE PLOT HOLES??
The question mark persists as I'm not sure whether these are actually the plot holes or I'm just projecting my lack of understanding of this book??
-SPOILER BELOW-
Let's talk about the biggest plot twist:-
Bree being the Scion of Arthur and the actual King. I didn't see this coming, but with all the chosen-one tropeyy going around in the plot I wasn't surprised either. Also Nick being the Scion of Lancelot made sense but no sense at the same time. Like, I get it that the generation of Lancelots were brought up disguised as Davis, the gen of Arthur. And this remained a secret as no-one after the 8th ranked Scion was awakened in past many generations. But then who were the Scions who actually called themselves Lancelots?? In the book, the "supposedly false" Scion of Lancelot was away in the north. What happened to him?? And who is he and all of his ancestors if Nick and his ancestors is the actual Scion of Lancelots?
-SPOILER ENDS-
There are still quite a few loose threads in my mind which are yet to be connected properly. But I blame it all to the author's poor world buliding and the severe lack of explaination of the complex hierarchy.
The writing was commendable. The fantasy was way too complex, heavy and exhausting as it's all cramed up in one book. I think it isn't surprising that it took me 3 separate instances of picking this book up to get through it.