A review by kry_yang
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

4.25

so many thoughts on this book. super creative worldbuilding--i love how the author draws from black and indigenous thought in crafting the magic system, and the premise of "king arthur's knights" as like, the main magical org is pretty cool. i do have to say that this book had major pacing issues--there were a LOT of info dump moments, and then times where the book would just SKIP through a major plot point. 

for example:

bree goes through like 75% of the book hiding her magical life from her best friend alice and then when bree finally explains everything to alice and her friend is just like... ok with it??? just seems super unrealistic IMO. plus this explanation happens "off screen" so uhhhh

so i guess the writing wasn't as tight as i thought it would be. that being said, the premise is wonderful and i did enjoy the integration of critical race/gender convos (albeit a bit heavy-handed at times, but i guess this is YA after all).

the ending had me hooked and i blew through the last 50ish pages of the book and immediately started the next book in the series. so yea, overall, i guess as a pure fantasy book it's not perfect, but overall would recommend for a solid YA fantasy with a diverse cast of characters + experiences! i really hope the second + third books continue to be interestingggg