Legendborn
Ratings293
Average rating4.3
i did like parts in this books but with some parts i'd just get confused or just didnt like the direction it was going in. after about 250 pages i liked up until page 450 a lot more than the first bit but then after that it fell off again. i feel like that ending was rushed and i had no time to process what was happening and i also felt very in the dark on some of the King Arthur refrences at times. I am willing to give fantasy another try because I did enjoy certain parts and things about this book
I love a retelling of Arthurian legends and updating to modern days or making the middle aged times more interesting. This book did not miss on making things interesting. A whole new kind of magic system (or at least knew to me as someone who unfortunately does not know much about African or afroamerican folklore) and the always current discussion about race, sex and class connected to your place in the world.
Without spoiling the end, but I absolutely did not see the ending coming, I thought it quite a brilliant plot twist - and cliffhanger for the sequel.
Setelah ibunya tewas dalam kecelakaan mobil, Bree yang berusia enam belas tahun ingin meninggalkan kampung halamannya. Sebuah program untuk para lulusan SMA di University of North Carolina, terlihat sebagai jalur pelarian yang sempurna, hingga terjadi serangan (yang melibatkan sihir) terjadi pada malam pertamanya di kampus.
Demon bersayap yang memangsa energi manusia. Perhimpunan mahasiswa rahasia yang bernama Legendborn bertugas untuk memburu dan menumpas mahluk-mahluk tersebut.
Seorang mage remaja misterius yang menyebut dirinya Merlin yang mencoba beberapa kali menghapus ingatan Bree, namun gagal. Kegagalan tersebut memicu sihir unik dalam diri Bree dan menghubungkan ingatannya pada malam ibunya tewas, ada seorang mage juga di rumah sakit. Kini Bree tahu ada sesuatu yang terjadi pada malam ibunya tewas, bukan hanya yang tertera di dalam laporan polisi.
Bree pun menyusup ke dalam Legendborn sebagai salah satu rekrutan baru, untuk mencari kebenaran. Dia membujuk Nick untuk membantunya, anggota Legendborn karena garis darahnya, juga punya dendam pribadi, dan membawa mereka terseret semakin jauh ke dalam rahasia Legendborn. Namun ketika terungkap bahwa Legendborn merupakan keturunan dari ksatria Raja Arthur dan perang akan terjadi, Bree harus memutuskan apakah akan menjatuhkan perhimpunan, atau bergabung untuk melawan musuh yang sama.
Awalnya aku kurang berdedikasi pada buku ini, world building maupun magic system kurang klik denganku. Plot dimana rencana Bree untuk menyusup ke dalam Legendborn melalui koneksi Nick, agak terlalu mudah, padahal diceritakan Legendborn sudah ada selama lima ratus tahun. Insta Love antara Bree dan Nick, juga bukan kesukaanku.
Barulah ketika sampai pada 50%, aku mulai menyukai jalan ceritanya, alasannya cuma satu : SELWYN KANE. New book boyfriend detected
Ik heb echt het gevoel dat ik 10 verschillende boeken heb gelezen en dat dat in elkaar is gestopt tot 1 boek. Zoveel verschillende dingen, ik hield het gewoon niet meer bij. Zeker ook plottwists, want ik was echt van alles de draad kwijt.
Wel cool concept, maar de schrijfstijl is niks voor mij
10/10 will definitely read again.
Best book of 2023 so far, anything other than thr sequel is going to have a very tough time besting it.
“Don't make your life about the loss. Make it about the love.”
WOW.
I have been starting a lot of reviews like this lately but I think this is worthy of it being in all caps because..... WOW
I can't express how annoyed I am that I haven't picked this book up earlier than I have (Which I know my friend, Si is going to proceed to tell me that they had told me to read it).
It's not often that a book that is hyped as much as this one lives up to it. To be honest, I think Legendborn deserves more praise than it gets. This has to be one of my favourite magic systems that I have read so far, it's creative, unique and so unlike anything else I have read.
There are times when you read a book that you know is going to be a comfort read and Legendborn was one of them. Everything about this intrigued me and made me want more.
Bree is the most fantastic protagonist and she is a force to be reckoned with. I loved that underneath the fantasy, this book also touched on serious topics such as grief and racism.
I truly can't get over how beautiful and well-written this book is. I am completely obsessed and I can't wait to read the next book.
This was recommended to me by a friend. I wanted to read a physical copy but managed to find it on Scribd in audio form. For the most part the narrator was fine. There were some portions that irritated me a tad, BUT that is completely a me issue.
The story itself I really enjoyed. This was definitely fun and I'm glad I decided to give it a go. Definitely a good one for fans of retellings who enjoy Arthur, Merlin and the like.
3.5 stars
I've had this book on my Goodreads TBR for a while when it ended up being a book club pick for the Books Out of the Blue book club. I knew I was interested in reading it but I was never in a rush to read it which is why it sat on my TBR for the longest time but when it was picked I knew it was finally time for me to read it.
I didn't know this going into it but this is apparently the authors debut novel. It's also a King Arthur retelling. I personally am not very familiar with that legend aside from him pulling the sword out of the rock. That's literally the only thing I knew about this legend going into it and because of that I struggled so much with those aspects because there is a lot to learn with a lot of characters and it was hard to keep up with it all. Despite that though all of the action and romance kept me reading.
As I said this book is action packed. They barely get time to recover before something else happens. There are many twists and reveals that I never saw coming. My favorite character is Sel which considering where we start with his character you wouldn't think that would be the case. I listened to the audiobook for this book and that was something else I struggled with because the narrator made Bree come off very very very whiny and that got old so fast.
After the reveals at the end of this book I am very interested in reading the next book in the series I just hope that we don't get as much info dumping as we did in this book.
slight spoilers?
beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! you might need a cheat sheet to keep characters, welsh words, or legendborn vocabulary together. otherwise, this is an awesome ya fantasy centered around grief, the black experience, and some fucked up family stuff. hard to explain. just read it.
what i liked:
the writing itself was very craftful. the language, specifically when we're dealing with grief, ancestry, and slavery, is sensitive and careful. then, when we get to fighting scenes or moments of argument/frustration, the dialogue is powerful. the movements are easy to follow and imagine, in my opinion.
i loved the details that were realistic, down to earth, teenage things. the father checking up on her. the onceborn friend who worries and cares. the washing of hair. taking classes. liking boys. being embarrassed and scared. all the while, being a badass mf. i think it's also a wonderful intro, where she has just gotten here and talks about ppl jumping/being scared to jump. we get this idea that she truly is just a kid. and then this shift is even more contrasting.
before and after bree. this detail that keeps coming back is incredibly impactful to me. the grief has transformed her own personhood. it's insane. and genuinely heart wrenching.
what i wish was different:
too many characters. even 2-3 less characters would help. greer feels like they are simply filling a role as a non-binary character and there is very little else importance to them otherwise. even in the second book, (i have not finished) they seem to be a very flat character that does not influence bree at all, yet is mentioned often for some reason? vaughn is a character i wished we could get into more (after a ~certain~ scene, his resentment and jealousy for bree seems extremely important to me!).
i came into this with 0 knowledge on King Arthur. it was something i had to get used to and pretty much refused to google until i started book 2. read this for school and a visitor did a presentation on the myth of arthur which is what informs my understanding almost wholly. i wished we got a little bit of info on him. i understand many people already know about this stuff, but we are literally NEVER told ANYTHING about arthur on a level that matters. it was actually kind of jarring. and with that, we are told so so so much about the ‘lines' and all this ancestry the present pages (ex. what each color means for each line)... for what? if you aren't explaining the ultimate ancestor why does this in-depth description of descendants matter? ALL OF THAT BEING SAID, i don't think writing exists in a vacuum and a readers lack of knowedlge is somewhat their responsibility to deal with. This is why I still think this book is 5 stars. This detail (or lackthereof) does not, at all, take away from the excellent representation of micro aggressions and racism, as well as the grief bree endures throughout this series. if i am somehow missing an entire background revolving around king arthur's myth/legacy, please let me know where in the book that occurs.
small moments i love:
“The unsettled spirits, the eager ones, look for ways in and you're much more open to your ancestors now. And listen, this is the South; there are a lot of unsettled Black folk in the ground.”
“Then I will give you the power to do so, wound tight with truth.”
“She smears her blood onto the fruit and the flowers, presses the mixture and her hand as deep into the ground as they'll go, and calls the ancestors to aid in a rhythmic chant of her own making.”
This four star rating is as close to a five as it possibly could be because Legendborn was brilliant! I loved the characters, especially the protagonist, Bree, who is so tough while being very vulnerable, making her a very realistic character I loved to root for. She is easily the best part of this book for me.
The magic system was also really interesting. I loved the intertwining between magic and culture, aether and root, and how well expanded upon it was in this universe. Colonialism and African American culture was beautifully and realistically depicted through Bree's grief for her ancestors and the memory walks she goes on with them.
The Order's magic system was quite hard to understand however, which wasn't helped by Bree's seemingly immediate understanding of it, and I even when characters like Fitz died I was focused on wondering...what did he do again? By the end of the book I think I understood, but if I'm being honest, I'm still clueless. Deonn clearly has a huge, complex world which is depicted in this book which I don't think is communicated very well through the protagonist's exposure to it.
Other than that, this book is absolutely fantastic and I'm really looking forward to reading the next one (though it better not have a love triangle between Bree, Nick, and Sel - I hate love triangles with a burning passion haha!)
possibly one of the slowest starts in any book i've read BUT it's all worth it in the end
I'm quite disappointed with Legendborn and almost feel I haven't read the same book as everyone else.
As this is a book difficult to describe as I feel I could easily spoil the story, and I do think it is better to read it with the minimum knowledge as possible.
What I liked about the book:
- extensive inclusion of serious and important issues like racism, gender and grief.
- diverse set of characters
- buffy the vampire slayer vibes
What I think it could have been done better:
- there was a LOT of info dump. Fantasy is a tricky genre to write as you need to find the write balance between action and worldbuilding, and find interesting ways to do it. This author opted for the easy way and we have several characters teaching us the messy system, which Bree understands perfectly and immediately.
- Bree is the ultimate Mary Sue, she is absolutely remarkable and I can't remember the last time I've read about someone as special as her.
- as a classic YA we have a love triangle (I'm definitely too old for this). As it is easy to guess, we have the blond and nice guy Vs the dark brooding one.. I wonder who will she choose
Absolutely loved this. The amount of plot twists I didn't see coming and the ones I did were still very well written. I'm annoyed it ended on such a big cliff hanger - I'm gonna have to buy the next one now
okay i did really like this book a lot. i loved the magic system so much and how it combined traditional african american root magic in with the aruthrian magic system. i enjoyed the setting because it is a school i've visited before and i did enjoy bree as a character as well as how grief played into the story. this also had a trial element which i love. this was a bit info dumpy tho and i wish there was more diversity in the book besides bree and her therapist. this book also would have made sense to be aged up to new adult and just been set in college rather than ya with an early college program. it's important to have these types of stories for teens but i would have preferred bree just be in college. overall, this story was super interesting and a i've never read a king author retelling which i loved how it was done, but there were a couple issues i had with it
Such a good read. A few moments of YA-why-are-they-suddenly-in-love-ness, but overall really captivating. Loved the Arthurian tie-ins, the magic, and especially the main character. Excited to read the next.
I really enjoyed this! I was a bit of an Arthur nerd as a kid so I love the whole world and I think Deonn did such a great job crafting a way for the legend to fit into modern day. I can't wait for the sequel!!!
I wanted to give this a 3.5 as it was really good, just not quite a 4 for me. The story is a great modern day twist of the Arthurian legend. It really took me on a ride, but I couldn't get hooked into the story until about half way through (hence the 3.5⭐️). The author uses present tense which in and of itself isn't all that bad, but I think that's part of why it took me a minute to get into the story. That and I just couldn't fully get behind the main character's initial motivation. Maybe I just couldn't relate?? Either way, I think this is a good read for those wanting something fun and fast paced.
