Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

84 reviews

gabriella_'s review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.75

Read this entire book on a flight to England and holy shit. The way this book captures grief, trauma, and how it can intersect with misogynoir was gripping.

Tracy Deonn is excellent at character writing and establishing interpersonal dynamics (and conflicts). She also creates a unique atmosphere with obvious (and not so obvious) foes. She empowers her protagonist and makes her multifaceted. She breathes life into Bree and, as a reader, makes her feel so real. And this doesn’t get into how she writes an ensemble cast either - good GOD I would be remiss if I didn’t get into that. 

Every character contributes something to the plot and it’s amazing that this author finds a way to do that without rendering them to be one-note or just a plot device. She has a plan for every character - and pieces of dialogue have a way of retaining relevance chapters later in a refreshing way.

I wish I had a book like this when I was a kid. 2,000/10 recommend reading this book if you are interested in fantasy and coming of age books. It’s the gift that keeps on giving! Tracy Deonn, thank you for writing this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Blood, Body horror, Death, Car accident, Child death, Violence, Kidnapping, Racism, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Classism, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, and War

ghostlyprince's review

emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Rape, Vomit, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Car accident, Kidnapping, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Alcohol, Stalking, Body shaming, Classism, and Confinement

shania_siobhan's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Violence, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Mental illness, Grief, Racism, Car accident, and Medical content

onefineelephant's review

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

9/10. I really enjoyed this book. It gave me chills, made me very emotional, and made me really care about the characters. I was taken on such a journey throughout this story. There were so many parts of the story that surprised me and added to the complexity of the plot. Each turn deepened the connections between the characters and the past. The Arthurian legend and the magic feel unique and compelling to me. I'm not really into love triangles, but this one feels very organic. I found this book from booktok and I knew it had racial tensions/racism as part of the plot, but since I like to go into books mostly blind, I was not expecting the story to address generational trauma and touch on the traumas of enslaved women. This is not a negative to me, but just not what I was expecting going into it. I figured the racial tensions would be more microaggressions and modern racist topics (which were also explored). I think this book will be even more interesting after already reading it for the first time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Racism, War, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Misogyny, Mental illness, Sexism, Blood, Body horror, Death, Medical content, Stalking, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Colonisation and Car accident

Minor: Rape, Alcohol, Kidnapping, Transphobia, and Slavery

This book deals with modern racism such as microaggressions and also generational trauma.

lqne's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, War, Slavery, Racism, Grief, Forced institutionalization, and Car accident

Moderate: Kidnapping, Hate crime, Death, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, Sexism, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, and Medical content

Minor: Bullying

oddlyghoul's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Bullying, Colonisation, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Hate crime, Murder, Genocide, Racial slurs, Sexism, Blood, Gore, Alcohol, Car accident, Police brutality, and Antisemitism

tiredtori's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexism, Grief, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Violence, Alcohol, Death, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Blood

Minor: Car accident, War, Vomit, Slavery, Cursing, Gore, and Mental illness

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

I have a lot of mixed feelings on this. I don't like that the mc is 16 while the love interests are 19. Wish our mc was aged up for it to be more appropriate. I feel the love interests are a little generic too.
I did like the incorporation of King Arthur and the magical aspects of it. I also enjoyed Bree finding out more about her own magic. 
I of course love the narrator of the audiobook, and I've listened to her read quite a few now. 
I'm iffy if I want to continue with the second book or not. Like I like the concept enough to want to continue it, but I don't know if I like it enough to check out the second one from my library right away.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Racism, Xenophobia, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Bullying, Child death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Medical content, Slavery, and Colonisation

saltylane's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad 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

4.75

This is a great story that subverts a lot of tropes and defies expectations. It twists and turns with unpredictable but believable mysteries and resolutions.  Just when you think you know something, you’re surprised with where the plot and characters go. It has a lot of painful realism stuffed in with the magical fantasy, and I commend the author for not pulling punches. 
Highly recommend & I’m going to read the next book asap. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Violence, Racism, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Bullying, Slavery, Car accident, Classism, and Gore

Minor: Rape, Vomit, and Transphobia

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Bree's  mom has just died in a car accident, but she has just been accepted into an early College plan, and she needs to get away from the house where her Dad is pining. She finds herself embroiled In a magic school with a twist, when she is drawn into a secret society that may or may not have something to do with the death of her mother. The story is somewhat romantic, but with a little bit of a triangular.. thing.. going on. Either way there is very little mooshy stuff and no hanky let alone panky.

Being one of the few Black girls on campus, Bree finds being in an elite society of blood and oath bonded mages pretty irksome. She is continually reminded that she doesn't belong, whether being mistaken as wait-staff, assumed to have been allowed entry as "affirmative action", or just wandering in the school gardens and finding a monument to the nameless slaves who built the campus.

Her boyfriend's paranoid bodyguard is sure that she's actually secretly a demon who is trying to manipulate or kill him... and just when she feels like she might be getting a grip on what is going on, she meets with a woman who used to know her mother, who tells her that this order of Blood Mages she has met with, are colonial scum who have stolen their magic, who never consider balance, and who are causing most of the imbalance that is drawing evil manifestations into the world.

And how do you learn all this stuff and still keep it secret from your childhood best friend.. with whom you are supposed to be living the college dream? To get anywhere Bree is going to have to start being honest with herself, get in touch with her own power, and be vulnerable enough to ask for help from unlikely places.

We've got a bit of diversity despite things being very White-centric. One of the main characters has relationships with guys and girls, another is non-binary gender (they/them), and Bree's best friend Alice is Taiwanese American. I've listened to a few books that have been read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt and she does a solid job, but in this particular book where most of the characters are White, it makes my brain work doubly hard. I have to keep reminding myself that the young men she is hanging out with are not Black. It's very easy for my brain to be lulled into the idea that Selwyn is a Black lad, because that's how his voice sounds in the narration. Maybe I just need to concentrate harder.

Quite a lengthy book, but it really does close off with a "first book feel" that leaves you  wondering about enough to bring you back for another round... maybe later though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Slavery, Bullying, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexism, War, Child abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Abandonment, Classism, Colonisation, Gore, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Misogyny

Moderate: Rape, Vomit, and Cancer