Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Legendary

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Legendary by Stephanie Garber

7 reviews

barbarianmissy's review against another edition

I’m a lil frussy with this one. Prepare for a big ole Hailey rant.

When you finally get the POV of the secretive, self obsessed, unlikable sister, Tella, from the last book, and you get to finally hear her reasoning for literally offing herself in front of her sister, Scarlett, who had also just watched her bf die in front of her, knowing that Scarlett would use her ONE WISH to bring her back to life, and all Tella can give us for an explanation in this sequel is “I did it for my sisters own good”….. WHAT?!?!

GIRLIE there is absolutely no proof or logic of that being the case!!!! like there was literally no reason for her to do that other than to add some drama to the plot and to get her sister to waste her wish bringing her back to life? Scarlett won the game by finding her, why toss yourself off a balcony? the game was pretty much donezo, what the fuck?!?! WHY?!?! THERE WAS NO REASON! WHY DID YOU PUT HER THROUGH THAT?!?! ASHAKDJKDLAAJHSJAK!!!! I HATE YOU TELLA!

As you may be able to tell, I got a little upset with the bad storytelling of this author. They can’t even tell me why their supposed “good” character is off traumatizing their family. Apparently they just threw in a literal suicide for fun and that’s seriously messed up and is quite triggering for a lot of people. To take such a horrific human issue and turn it into a spectacle was quite upsetting. Frankly, I hated it.

Kay, rant about THAT part is done (that rant was mostly because I expected a big explanation for this awful characters actions at the beginning of this book. We just got a one liner, fluff answer and then the author proceeded to make Tella the star of the next book, where I still don’t find her at all likable.)

This entire series was an interesting premise to start with, but when you throw in a bunch of half baked characters who lie constantly and whose identities change every 5 seconds, you begin to not believe anything or anyone and after about the 27th reveal, it gets old. Like idk wtf is even happening anymore. Nothings real or genuine or makes any sense whatsoever.

Idk if I missed a line or something that explains the plot better but I think I’m done with this series. I bought this one and the final book when I was halfway through the first book (when I thought it was good) but frankly, the story just got worse and worse and messier and messier. This is not a series I’d recommend. Shit made me GRUMPY.

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chaptersofamylea's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

“Legend likes to be the villain.”
“How could I forget? That was always my favorite part.”

5 ⭐️

I forgot how much I adored this book. I think I really loved my reread of Caraval for the magic and the nostalgia, but I loved Legendary for its plot. And I’d forgotten so much! What a treat it was to reread, and meeting Jacks again for the first time was a delight.

TWs: parental abandonment, ref to child abuse, blood and injury

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jessicaludden's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

“Every good story needs a villain. But the best villains are the ones you secretly like.”

I am so surprised that I didn’t like this. It was going fine for most of the book, but the ending pushed it over the edge for me. I liked Tella enough to keep reading but I didn’t really care that much about her. I didn’t really like reading in her POV cause it was just an endless internal dialogue of her reiterating the stakes and the choices she had to make over and over as if I don’t already know what the stakes are. Her romance with Dante was slightly boring to me probably because I feel like he just kept popping up randomly to say a few things to her and leave. Dante being Legend just felt really forced and not surprising at all considering how many times Tella mentioned the possibility. The drama between Scarlett and Julian was annoying especially at the end. I literally just want them to be happy and together. The main thing I liked about this was Jacks of course but even the way things ended with his character in this book didn’t feel right to me (yes I know I’ll probably get more answers in Finale or OUABH). Tella being his one true love makes absolutely no sense to me, like I’m not sure if we’re trying for a love triangle here but I don’t want it. Overall, I was enjoying getting to explore a new part of this world and meet new characters (more like A new character) but the ending just left me disappointed.

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aas's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I didn’t like the sequel to Caraval as much as I enjoyed the first novel. The plot seemed somewhat disjointed, kind of like there were too many things going on and there wasn’t enough explanation of any of them. I love the characters still and the bad boy is even easy to love, which isn’t always easy to do. I am looking forward to getting some closure with the last novel of this series.

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caitlin033's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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justreaditem's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I definately preferred this book over it's predecessore. I loved that you got to see a second game but with completely different stakes...he NEVER does two games so close together...so why now?

Tella's voice is vastly different to Scarlett's. Tella's is one girl who knows who she is and what she wants. She kisses boys with no remorse, wears the changing dresses and just does what she wants. She also loves her sister unapologetically, they love each other and it's so beautiful to read.

Through out the book you could feel Tella being torn between playing the game and caring. Obviously, she built a wall around her heart after her mother abandoned them and their father being...their father...but you can see she cares ferociously. She cares about her sister (above all else), her mother (despite her leaving), Dante and Julian and Jacks.

The journey of finding her long lost mother reveals so many things about her life, gives her more questions about herself and her sister, about her entire life. The abuse that both of them have endured throughout their lives brought them so close to each other, it was really heartwarming to read

I think Scarlett is full on shadey for being in love with Julian but finds her old fianceé? Why would you do that?

The whole book was full of mindgames, puzzles and I spent so much of it going WHO IS LEGEND?!

The answer was not what I expected.

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