A review by yourwordsmyink
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

4.0

Characters - 7/10

I had to think about this review for a while. Although I did enjoy Legendborn (a lot) I felt that there were a few hiccups here and there. The first being the characters. I had no gripes with our main three, Bree, Nick, and Sel.

Bree's grief was so real and tangible that I felt everything alongside her. Her search for answers, her ancestors and her place at UNC-Chapel Hill really drive the story and I loved joining her on her journey.

Nick and Sel were two sides of the same coin, with a shared childhood and waaaay too much baggage between them. Sel is my favourite though, and I definitely ship him with Bree.

My only complaint is about the secondary characters. There were way too much of them to keep track of, and their voices were not distinct enough. William was by far my favourite, but the rest was pretty forgettable. The LGBTQ+ rep was on point though and I cannot wait to read more.

Atmosphere - 8/10

This book made me sad, but in a good way. I've just finished six years at my university, and Legendborn is set at a university campus. It made me nostalgic for all the walks across campus, seeing friends, dorm life, parties, all those fun things.

I do however wish we could have leaned more into the university setting. The campus is used in a great way at the end of the book, and we explore a lot of the history of the campus (the known and the unknown). Now I have no idea how American universities work or look, so a bit more worldbuilding in that sense would have been great. The rest was entirely on par.

Writing - 8/10

I don't know if it was simply because I had an ARC, but the writing was a bit clunky. The ARC also didn't have the proper formatting (which is no fault of the author and I did not deduct points for it) which can get really annoying, but I read around it. The writing really seemed to flow better toward the end of the book, and by the last 30% I could not put it down.

CAWPILE = 8.1/10
Stars = 4

*Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster UK Children's for the review copy. All opinions are my own.