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A review by jaina8851
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
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
5.0
100/5 stars, A+, no notes.
Where do I even begin with a review for this book. I don't remember the last time I got this sucked into a story. There were times I was so engrossed that I completely lost track of any sensory perception of my environment, and at least one night where I stayed up far too late reading. This is the best YA book, certainly far and away the best YA fantasy book, that I have read since I was in the target demographic. Over the past few years, I have found myself reading YA with a bit of a bittersweet feeling of "I enjoy this, but this just isn't quite for me anymore because I am no longer a young adult." This book blew all of those feelings out of the water and reminded me just exactly what I used to love about stories with teenage protagonists.
And WHAT a teenage protagonist Bree is! She is an expertly crafted, fully fleshed-out teenager who behaves like an actual teenager. One of my biggest pet peeves about YA as a genre are main characters who are described as being sixteen in the book but act much more like adults in their early thirties. There was no point in this book where I lost sight of the fact that Bree was torn between the way that grief (let alone all of the escalating extraordinary circumstances she finds herself in) can prematurely age a person while also still leaving you in some moments feeling like a helpless child who just wants her mom.
I feel like I could just go on and on about so many different facets of this book. The way that grief was handled in this story was simply incredible. I feel like it is a rare experience for the description of grief and loss to just reach directly into my chest and be so visceral and real. I loved the pacing of the plot and all of the twists and turns of the reveals; I didn't see ANY of them coming, to my extreme delight. I loved ALL of the relationships explored in here, romance, friends, enmity, parental, ancestral, it was all so rich and well done.
I got a text from a friend to drop everything I was reading and start this, and I am very very glad I did, and I'm trying to weigh whether I want to just dive immediately into the sequel, or get back to my very long in progress list. Given the fact that I flew through this book in less than three days, I suspect you know what the answer will be...
Where do I even begin with a review for this book. I don't remember the last time I got this sucked into a story. There were times I was so engrossed that I completely lost track of any sensory perception of my environment, and at least one night where I stayed up far too late reading. This is the best YA book, certainly far and away the best YA fantasy book, that I have read since I was in the target demographic. Over the past few years, I have found myself reading YA with a bit of a bittersweet feeling of "I enjoy this, but this just isn't quite for me anymore because I am no longer a young adult." This book blew all of those feelings out of the water and reminded me just exactly what I used to love about stories with teenage protagonists.
And WHAT a teenage protagonist Bree is! She is an expertly crafted, fully fleshed-out teenager who behaves like an actual teenager. One of my biggest pet peeves about YA as a genre are main characters who are described as being sixteen in the book but act much more like adults in their early thirties. There was no point in this book where I lost sight of the fact that Bree was torn between the way that grief (let alone all of the escalating extraordinary circumstances she finds herself in) can prematurely age a person while also still leaving you in some moments feeling like a helpless child who just wants her mom.
I feel like I could just go on and on about so many different facets of this book. The way that grief was handled in this story was simply incredible. I feel like it is a rare experience for the description of grief and loss to just reach directly into my chest and be so visceral and real. I loved the pacing of the plot and all of the twists and turns of the reveals; I didn't see ANY of them coming, to my extreme delight. I loved ALL of the relationships explored in here, romance, friends, enmity, parental, ancestral, it was all so rich and well done.
I got a text from a friend to drop everything I was reading and start this, and I am very very glad I did, and I'm trying to weigh whether I want to just dive immediately into the sequel, or get back to my very long in progress list. Given the fact that I flew through this book in less than three days, I suspect you know what the answer will be...